Frank Lloyd Wright by Jason Wishert
Frank Lloyd Wright is the stuff of legends and is regarded by many as the greatest architect of the twentieth century. Today his legacy is remembered by his lasting works that include the Guggenheim Museum, Johnson Wax Headquarters, Fallingwater, Taliesin, and the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo to name just a few.
Legendary American Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born in the summer of '67 (19th century) in the quaint village of Richland Center Wisconsin. Franks father, William Cary Wright was a bible-thumping minister who raised his family with strict religious observance and trained the young future architect in the "ways of the cloth", grooming Frank to follow his footsteps in a life among the clergy. Franks mother Anna (who shared the same middle name as Frank) was a renowned schoolteacher and introduced the idea of designing spectacular structures as an architect to the wide-eyed impressionable young Frankie.
Frank Lloyd Wright was an unconventional character from the get-go. Frank rejected conventional ideas and approaches to the design of buildings, be-it civic, commercial or residential, his ideas were both "outside-the-box" and ahead of their time. From his first sketches and in-class doodling, Frank demonstrated that he answered to a higher standard of thinking characterized by independence of anything else witnessed or seen before.
Franks bold bravado was so profound and radiating in nature, it came to the attention of none other than the Emperor of Japan. In The Fall of 1915, the Emperor sent his top emissaries to find Wright and convince him to submit plans for the design of the new Imperial Hotel in Tokyo with an unprecedented budget of $4.5 million dollars. This was despite the fact that World War One was raging in Europe and most leaders of nations at that time were maintaining conservative budgets on lavish extravagances.
The Imperial Hotel was finished in 1922, a year later cataclysmic earthquakes left the area in carnage and destruction. One hundred thousand souls perished under failed structures or burned to death in the firestorm that swept the rubble and wreckage following the quake.
When the smoke and dust cleared days later, the Emperor of Japan stood in utter disbelief at his vision of an unscathed Imperial Hotel emerging from the smoke. Used as a triage center and temporary housing, the Imperial Hotel kept Tokyo functioning throughout the post-disaster. At that brief moment in time, . . . . . American ingenuity and know-how put a lump in the mighty island-leaders throat. . . . . . . Eye-witnessing it withstand the ultimate test of its foundation. . . put a chill to his spine.
With a tear in his eye and a trembling hand, the Emperor of Japan himself took to pen and rice paper and wrote Wright a heart-felt letter of gratitude congratulating him on his beautiful marriage of aesthetic elegance and structural integrity on the Imperial Hotel.
We hold Mr. Wrights work ethic, standards of excellence and revolutionary designs using the finest materials in high regard. His example in being a maverick in unconventional approaches to construction and design earns Frank Lloyd Wright our utmost respect, admiration and his rightful place in American history.