In the Preserving Wright studio course offered in the spring semester of 2025, ten historic preservation and architecture students completed historic structure reports on three buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Taliesin West. The site, which during Wright’s lifetime had served as his winter home and studio, offers a unique insight into the architect’s theory of organic architecture and the influence of the desert landscape on his work.
Students focused their efforts on three structures of the complex: the Kiva, the water tower, and the bridge that connects the two. Research into these pieces of architecture included archival research at Taliesin West and Columbia University’s Avery Fine Arts and Architectural Archives, and on-site investigation into evidence of building construction techniques left in the desert masonry. As part of the studio, students reckoned with the realities of preserving Wright’s celebrated architecture almost a century after its construction, and used both visual analysis and instrumental techniques to investigate deterioration mechanisms and propose treatment plans to mitigate the progression of these conditions.
