Mia Maloney | A Conservation Assessment of the Architectural Wood of the Original Dining Room at Taliesin West

Mia Maloney (MSHP '19) won the Anthony Nicholas Brady Garvan Award for an Outstanding Thesis. 

Abstract: Taliesin West, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, was Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and studio from 1938 until his death in 1959. Through the Taliesin Fellowship, Wright trained hundreds of apprentices who helped him build and continually alter the site. Taliesin West has continued to evolve since 1959 and currently operates as both a school and museum. This thesis focuses on the conservation of the architectural wood in the Original Dining Room, presently referred to as the Board Room. The Original Dining Room was one of the first structures built at the site and functioned as the Taliesin Fellowship’s dining space until its conversion into Wright’s private dining room c. 1951. Initial investigation began with archival research and building archaeology with the goal of better understanding how the structure was built and to establish a chronology of Wright’s many modifications to the space. This was accompanied by an assessment of the wooden elements, wood species identification, finishes analysis, monitoring, and the gathering of environmental data to determine the condition of the structure and the mechanisms of deterioration. This data informed recommendations for an anticipated restoration project and future preventive conservation of the Original Dining Room, with potential application to Taliesin West as a whole.

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