Wright review sparks debate

A recent internal review at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation -- a nonprofit that oversees an architecture school with Wright’s name, the Wright archives and two landmark campuses: Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona -- has caused what the organization’s board chairman calls “a hornet’s nest” of controversy between the old guard and the new guard.

The so-called “90-day study,” authored by board chairman Vernon Swaback, a former Wright apprentice, recommends that authority over the organization change hands from the Taliesin Fellowship, whose members live and work on both campuses, to the board of directors, in part because the fellowship’s core membership is aging. The fellowship has yet to approve the change.

“A study designed to regenerate the Frank Lloyd Wright heritage into the future has stirred up a hornet’s nest of those who are clinging to the past,” Swaback said in an interview Tuesday.

The study also recommends that the institution launch a capital campaign of $50 million to $100 million for renovation and new construction at the two campuses. Swaback said the money is needed for expansion, not to save the institution. “There is no deficit, and the buildings aren’t going to fall down if we don’t have it,” he said.

Foundation officials say the organization also is in the midst of an internal review of its oversight policies over the construction of unbuilt Wright designs.