School of Architecture at Taliesin to Close

The School of Architecture at Taliesin will cease operation at the end of the spring semester 2020. Its governing board made the decision after it failed to reach an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to keep the school open.

The architecture school was established in 1932 by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The school has been integral to Wright’s visionary architecture. Top architectural students from across the United States and the world have studied at the school. Previously named the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, it was renamed in 2017. Students split their time between Wright’s retreats housed at Taliesin West and Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

The School of Architecture at Taliesin has been a pillar both in the architecture world as well as Arizona and Wisconsin, where Wright and his wife Olgivanna invited architecture students to live and work with them and immerse themselves in “organic architecture.” That immersion evolved into the architecture school whose alumni have worked on important Frank Lloyd Wright designs including Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum.

Approximately 30 students are currently enrolled at SOAT. The school is working out an agreement with The Design School at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts so its students can transfer credit and complete their degree programs.