Midway Barn

Midway Barn
Midway Barn, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright on the Taliesin estate in the town of Wyoming, Wisconsin (near the town of Spring Green).
General information
Type Barn
Location south of Spring Green, in Iowa County, Wisconsin
Coordinates 43°08′30″N 90°04′15″W / 43.14153°N 90.07091°W / 43.14153; -90.07091Coordinates: 43°08′30″N 90°04′15″W / 43.14153°N 90.07091°W / 43.14153; -90.07091
Construction started 1920
Completed 1947
Design and construction
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright

Midway Barn was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright for farming on his Taliesin estate in the town of Wyoming, Wisconsin (Wyoming is south of the town of Spring Green).

It was used most actively by Wright and his architectural apprentices in the "Taliesin Fellowship" (now the School of Architecture at Taliesin[1]) from the time that the Fellowship began in 1932 until the end of the architect's life in 1959.[2]

The barn at one time had "[T]he Wrights' personal horses, cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, rabbits, [and] an Afghan hound or two",[3] but also had several living spaces, including one for a "sheepherder".[4]

Farming was important to Wright because of his own childhood experiences with it: when he was 11 years old, he began working on the farm, located nearby, owned by his uncle James.[5] The architect later wrote that the trees in the surrounding hills "stood in it all like various, beautiful buildings, of more different kinds than all the architectures of the world. And the boy was some day to learn that the secret of all the human styles in architecture was the same that gave character to the trees."[6]

So, when he began the Taliesin Fellowship, exposing people to farm work, as former apprentice Curtis Besinger later wrote, was "fundamental to a person's development, particularly his understanding and appreciation of an 'organic architecture.'"[7] The farming work was most active during the 1950s.[8]

The animals are no longer on the Taliesin estate, but the farm land is being used for vegetables, as noted in the article quoted from below:

When Wright designed Taliesin, which means "shining brow," he intended it to be surrounded by a vibrant foodscape, according to his writings and architectural drawings.

Wright believed his sustainably designed buildings should be in harmony with their surroundings. His practical ideas about self-sufficiency, rooted in lean times on the farm, are gaining more attention now that sustainable agriculture is in vogue, said Victor Sidy, dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture on the Taliesin estate.

Today, architecture students volunteer to tend the original apple orchard and grapevines placed there by Wright. Students also continue Wright's traditions by growing vegetables in a garden near the school for use in their daily meals. The 33 students are required to help in the school kitchen as part of a collegial tradition.[9]

Midway Barn is one of five Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings on the Taliesin estate. It is on the east side of a low hill, with the four other buildings on the Taliesin estate to its north, south, and west:

And near each other to the west are:

The buildings and estate are owned by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation (centered in Scottsdale, Arizona) with restoration of the buildings and grounds carried out by Taliesin Preservation, Inc., an independent non-profit Wisconsin organization.[10]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.taliesin.edu
  2. ↑ Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright: Completed Buildings, volume 3, 1943-1959 (Taschen, 2009), p. 57. ISBN 978-3-8228-5770-0.
  3. ↑ Earl Nisbet, Taliesin Reflections: My Years Before, During, and After Living with Frank Lloyd Wright (Meridian Press, 2006), p. 45. ISBN 0977895106
  4. ↑ Lois Davidson Gottlieb, A Way of Life: An Apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright (Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd, 2001), p. 104. ISBN 1-86470-096-3.
  5. ↑ http://www.aldebaranfarm.us/history
  6. ↑ Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings: 1930-32, volume 2. Edited by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, introduction by Kenneth Frampton (1992; Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York City, 1992), p. 123. ISBN 0-847-81549-8
  7. ↑ Curtis Besinger, Working With Mr. Wright: What It Was Like (Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 79. ISBN 0-521-48122-8
  8. ↑ Kathryn Smith, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin and Taliesin West (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 1997), p. 84. ISBN 0-8109-2686-5
  9. ↑ Karen Herzog, "Frank Lloyd Wright school is going back to nature, by design: Wright's passion for self-sufficiency is making a comeback in the gardens at the architecture school he founded in Spring Green". http://archive.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/63205277.html. Published October 2, 2009. Retrieved March 13, 2017
  10. ↑ http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/
  • Curtis Besinger, Working With Mr. Wright: What It Was Like (Cambridge University Press, 1995).
  • Lois Davidson Gottlieb, A Way of Life: An Apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright (Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd, 2001).
  • Earl Nisbet, Taliesin Reflections: My Years Before, During, and After Living with Frank Lloyd Wright (Meridian Press, 2006).
  • Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright: Completed Buildings, volume 3, 1943-1959 (Taschen, 2009).
  • Kathryn Smith, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin and Taliesin West (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 1997).
  • Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings: 1930-32, volume 2. Edited by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, introduction by Kenneth Frampton (1992; Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York City, 1992).
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