Frank Lloyd Wright, Architecture, & Environment

Frank Lloyd Wright's towering designs—and ideas—are imprinted all over the United States, including the Robie House in Chicago and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. His ambition, however, was far larger than the creation of beautiful and functional buildings. Like other modernist masters, he saw architecture as a way to transform individuals and society through the built environment. In this program, architect Jeanne Gang and Barry Bergdoll, chief curator of architecture and design at New York's Museum of Modern Art, embark on a discussion of Wright's legacy. Their conversation, moderated by University of Illinois architectural historian Dianne Harris, is informed by (and showcases) the newly available Wright archive, recently acquired by MoMA and Columbia University's Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library. The archive is enormous and rich: 23,000 architectural drawings, 44,000 historical photographs, large-scale presentation models, manuscripts, and extensive correspondence offer unparalleled access to Wright's broadly humanist vision and its relevance for contemporary architectural practice, themes Bergdoll and Gang plumb for us.

This program is generously underwritten by Herman Miller and is presented in partnership with the Society of Architectural Historians and the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University.