It is probably rare for any artist to resonate so strongly with the popular culture in his own lifetime to end up immortalized in popular song lyrics. But something about this architect from the Midwest was different enough to have struck a chord, literally in the work of Paul Simon ("So long, Frank Lloyd Wright"), and figuratively in the amount of recognizability and influence that his body of work achieved.
EARLY YEARS
The rocky personal story of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) stands almost in complete contrast to his noble architectural heritage. Except for the fact that his mom pegged him as a famous future designer and pasted pictures of famous buildings in his nursery, in his early years it was probably hard to tell exactly how high his career would take him.
Born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, Wright seemed to be clearly a mama's boy, honoring her in many ways for the inspiration and encouragement she gave him. After his parents divorced he changed his middle name from Lincoln to Lloyd - a statement of alliance with his mother's Welsh heritage. Even though his mother always gave him support through optimism and inspiration, she wasn't able to do it through finances.
He wasn't a privileged child, so he took whatever employment he could through his mother's family the Lloyd Joneses, who the family relocated to Spring Green, WI to get financial support from. His father, who Wright didn't especially admire, was somewhat of a Jack of all Trades, doing everything from teaching music lessons to preaching in churches.
His parents were clearly unhappy with each other, divorcing in a time and place when it wasn't particularly common. His mother, Anna, wasn't happy with the standard of living her husband was able to provide, and he clearly had his complaints, also, as the divorce papers list the reason as her 'lack of physical affection.'
YOUNG ADULTHOOD AND EARLY CAREER
Amazingly enough, Wright seems to have not even been the recipient of any formal educational degree. There is no record of his either graduating from high school or earning a degree from the University of Wisconsin, which admitted him under special circumstances.
His first big break seems to be his marriage to a relatively wealthy woman, Catherine Lee "Kitty" Tobin (1871-1959). He was able to purchase some property for their first home, and an adjacent lot for his loyal mother to relocate next to the family. Lloyd Wright was undaunted after being fired from his first job in an architectural firm (for moonlighting) and used his wife's money to bolster his attempt to go solo in private practice.
Some of his first big commissions, ironically, have some of the same stigma as today's residential architecture (Xerox copies with little style). Lloyd Wright himself seems to have considered his subdivision in "Oak Park" for the money only and lacking in real vision or creativity. But by the dawn of the twentieth century he was accumulating quite a portfolio and was deemed eligible for bigger and better projects, including Unity Temple, the Unitarian congregation near his first major residential buildings.
CAREER SUCCESS AND PERSONAL STRUGGLES
His next big break seems to have come through his continuing to make friends in high places. Among his early and loyal followers was Darwin D. Martin, an executive of the Larkin Soap Company, who encouraged him to relocate to Buffalo, NY for higher profile projects. While there he completed some of his first high profile projects, including houses for many of Larkin's other executives. This period saw the beginning of his "Prairie" style of architecture, and his emerging influence of Asian design.
While his career appeared to be finally taking off, his personal life was sputtering. He seemed to be avoiding his father's career failures but not all of his personal ones. His wife by this time had given him six children and she likely had time for little else; needless to say his growing status and income meant he could afford wider-ranging female attentions. One of his biggest personal scandals in this period was his flirtation with the wife of a client, Mamah Borthwick Cheney.
Wright and Cheney tried to make things official and get hitched, but both of their spouses refused to play ball and give them divorces. The pair eventually was too scandalized for life in the provincial American Midwest, so they eloped to Europe, hoping to avoid the growing scrutiny. This didn't work so well, because apparently this was a big deal even in other places besides Victorian America at the time. The boycott his personal life caused nearly ended his career.
Part of the reason that Wright made this move was that increasingly he was frustrated by being pigeon-holed as a residential architect. He saw Europe as the source of the kind of prestige he craved to get larger commercial commissions. His partnership with a German architect, Ernst Wasmuth, did result in the greater status and volume he sought, particularly resulting in the Wasmuth portfolio.
Despite his increased success he still felt himself reliant on the assistance of his mother. He had to go to her for financing when he decided to return to the states to build himself a house, which is named Taliesin, and was built in 1911.
MIDDLE CAREER AND CONTINUING PERSONAL SCANDAL
Things seemed on the road to recovery in the personal realm after his return to the US and being granted bigger projects there. Then scandal worthy of any era erupted. As a result of some type of dispute, his servant, Julian Carlton, burned down Taliesin and murdered his mistress and six other people with an ax.
Things were ablaze in his personal life as well. His first wife finally granted him a divorce and after the year's waiting period he married his newest mistress, Maude Noel, in 1923. But her morphine addiction, among other reasons, ended the marriage in about a year.
He was soon into marriage number three with a ballet dancer named Olga Hizenburg who soon became pregnant with his seventh child. Olga's ex-husband sued for custody of their daughter, claiming the pair had been guilty of public indecency charges, for which Wright was actually arrested. They married in 1928 after the waiting period after finalization of his second marriage.
If it weren't enough to be associated with one devastating deadly arson, an electrical project ended up burning town Taliesin again. But undaunted, he rebuilt it and named it Taliesin III.
LATER YEARS
He seemed to enjoy some amount of peace and prosperity after relocating to the Phoenix, Arizona area where his unique 'Organic' style meshed well with the rough and jagged southwest landscape. He lived to a ripe old age, dying in in his late eighties.
His third wife managed his estate and architectural foundation for thirty years after his death, requesting after his death that his ashes be moved from his resting place and cremated with hers. His last major design was completed as recently as 2007, as his unfinished plans were mined for inspiration.
He remains one of the top three in name recognizability of all time for architects, and perhaps the best known of all architects working in the past century. Many of his properties are highly coveted and others still are famous landmarks visited by millions of his fans every year. And so, rather surprisingly, a career that Wright himself said was largely motivated by the baser financial necessities of life was exemplary enough to redeem his efforts, and perhaps even his rather rocky personal story.