Frank Llyod Wright
...ver the falls” (Lind 171). Attracting more and more visitors every year Falling Water consistently continues to amaze more and more people as the structure as time goes by (“Frank Lloyd Wrong?” 37). “It attracts around 130,000 visitors a year” (“Frank Lloyd Wrong?” 37). I think the biggest influence that has reminded me of my enthusiasms for the attraction is when I found a black and white print of Falling Water in my grandfather’s closet. Since then articles of Frank Lloyd Wright and Falling Water have caught my attention from time to time. Even flipping through channels on television I find documentaries or shows that can be attributed to his work. I am beginning to see America’s definition of modern architecture can be defined through Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. Frank Lloyd Wright’s success can be attributed to many mentors who have guided him. These mentors have helped to mold his creative imagination. Beginning at the age of 11, Frank Lloyd Wright would start spending his summers with his uncle, James Lloyd Jones, in Springs Green, Wisconsin. In Frank Lloyd Wright’s autobiography he would write how he began to understand ground plans, line features, and elevations from these early experiences (Lind 17). Over the years he learned more skills from brief interactions with draftsmen and engineers until settling around Wisconsin. In his early twenties Frank Lloyd Wright began working under Allen Conover, a Dean of the University of Wisconsin department of engineering. “In 1888 he took a drafting job with the firm of Alder and Sullivan where he worked directly under Louis Sullivan for six years”(Stipe 3). I believe this is a great example of how Frank Lloyd Wright began exploring different types of architecture in different regions. Although he acknowledged Louis Sullivan the most, the two parted after an argument over their contract agreement. Shortly there after he married Catherine Tobine and built a home in a Chicago suburb. There he would begin practicing his own architectural firm and begin putting his ideas to work. Through learning from different mentors in different areas, he was able to combine his widespread knowledge to display America’s defining architecture. But why would anyone every question Frank Lloyd Wright’s talent? (Stipe 1). The controversy arose when John Paul Huguley, an engineering student from the University of Virginia, made his point clear. “According to his calculations, Falling Water was unsound.” (“Frank Lloyd Wrong?” 38). “I couldn’t believe it,” replied Falling Water’s director Linda Waggoner (“Frank Lloyd Wrong?” 39). But further investigation from a New York City-based engineer, Robert Silman, backed the student’s findings in report. The building structural supports were bending, from when the home was constructed in the late thirties (“Frank Lloyd Wrong?” 39). “Engineers had even inserted more reinforced steel ...