Photos courtesy Taliesin West
PRESERVING TALIESIN WEST BY ANNIKA TOMLIN
F
rank Lloyd Wright began building Taliesin West as his winter camp way back in 1938. Today it still stands as one of the most well-known houses in the world, being recently inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site along with Taliesin in Wisconsin. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is in constant planning and preservation mode to keep up with the legacy of Taliesin West as an ever-evolving set of buildings. “We are always trying to keep it preserved for future generations,” says Foundation Vice President of Preservation Fred Prozzillo. There are four different preservation efforts that are a priority for 2020. “If we have to effect change, we do it sympathetically and to safeguard the property,” he says.
ACCESSIBILITY As a new UNESCO World Heritage site, there has been an influx of visitors to Taliesin West, and the Foundation wants to ensure that people from all walks of life are able to experience Wright’s work. Three new ramps made out of stabilized decomposed granite will give people who use wheelchairs, walkers or have other mobility restrictions an easier way to travel around the location. Prozzillo and his team wanted to
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find a material that still felt like gravel or a soil-like surface and came across stabilized decomposed granite. “It helps ground the spaces with the desert,” says Prozzillo. “It makes the building feel like it’s more integrated into the landscape.” One of the ramps leads to an area where all of Taliesin West can be seen, and then you can turn around and see the Valley. The path then leads to an accessible indoor area for people to view Taliesin West as a computer-generated model. Within this space, there is also a new ADA-compliant bathroom. In fact, each level of Taliesin West will have an ADA-compliant bathroom.
WATER AND ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE In short, the old pipes need to go. The galvanized pipe used for the water and electrical infrastructure that is currently under the buildings is the original infrastructure that was laid down in 1938. Typically, that kind of plumbing has a 40-year lifespan. Right now, the age of plumbing is more than double that. The challenge for replacing the plumbing is to not destroy the historic concrete floors, gardens and walkways around the building. Prozzillo, his team and assisting engineers came up with the concept of horizontal directional boring. “We want to use (this technique) here not only to protect our gardens but to also show that we can use this kind of greenlivingaz.com
