Frank Lloyd Wright and Arizona

Arizona pulled at Frank Lloyd Wright for years before he settled here. He first came in 1927 to consult on the Arizona Biltmore, and in 1929 he built a temporary desert camp near Chandler that he named Ocatilla, sleeping under canvas while he worked. The rugged light and raw geology stayed with him. In 1937, wanting a permanent refuge from Wisconsin winters, he acquired hundreds of acres near Scottsdale and began Taliesin West. The desert did not just shelter his practice; it reshaped it, teaching him to build from the ground a place already offered.

What the plaque says

Wright visited Arizona in 1927 when he was asked to consult on the designs for the Arizona Biltmore. In the years following, Wright and his draughtsmen spent time at temporary sites in Arizona, including a desert camp near Chandler in 1929 that Wright named Ocatilla. Finally, in 1937, wanting a more permanent winter residence, he acquired several hundred acres of raw, rugged desert at the foothills of the McDowell Mountains near Scottsdale. There he and his apprentices began building Taliesin West as a desert camp where they would live each winter to escape the harsh Wisconsin weather.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Taliesin West — 5.1 mi
  Frank Lloyd Wright's desert masterwork, grown from the ground it stands on
• Heard Museum — 14 mi
  The Native Southwest, told in the first person
• Phoenix — 16 mi
  The fifth-largest US city, built on the canals of a thousand-year-old one

More markers nearby

• The Spire — steps away
• Taliesin West — 5.0 mi
• Merci Train Boxcar — 6.9 mi
• Charles Miller — 9.8 mi