Originally published 2019-07-28.
On 7 July 2019, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, added eight buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright to the World Heritage List as a single site called "The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright". The group runs from Unity Temple, finished in 1908, to the Guggenheim Museum, completed in 1959, and includes Fallingwater, the house built over a waterfall that is probably the most famous private home in America.
It was the first time modern American architecture had been inscribed on the list. UNESCO's reasoning was that these buildings, with their open plans, blurred boundaries between inside and outside, and bold new uses of steel and concrete, shaped the development of modern architecture not only in the United States but also in Europe. Here are the eight buildings, what makes each one important, and how the listing came about.
Why UNESCO chose these eight buildings
Wright (1867–1959) worked for about 70 years and designed more than 1,000 structures, of which over 400 were built. He called his approach organic architecture: buildings should grow out of their site, use materials honestly and serve the people who live in them rather than following historical styles.
The eight buildings were picked to show that idea across his whole career and across different building types: a church, suburban and city houses, his own home-studios, a modest house for a family on a budget, a holiday house, and a museum. Together they meet UNESCO's criterion (ii), which recognises an important exchange of human values and influence on architecture.
The eight buildings, one by one
Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois (1905–1908)
Built for a Unitarian congregation after their old church burned down, Unity Temple was one of the first major public buildings in the United States made of exposed reinforced concrete. Wright used poured concrete partly to keep costs down, and placed the entrance at the side so that worshippers enter through a low, quiet passage before reaching the bright, cube-shaped sanctuary lit from above.
Photo: David Harmantas/Shutterstock.
Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago, Illinois (1910)
The Robie House is the classic example of the Prairie style, which Wright developed to reflect the flat landscape of the American Midwest. Long, low roofs cantilever far beyond the walls, bands of leaded-glass windows wrap around the main floor, and the interior flows from room to room with almost no walls. It stands on the University of Chicago campus.
Photo: EQRoy/Shutterstock.
Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin (begun 1911)
Wright built Taliesin, a Welsh name meaning "shining brow", into the side of a hill in the valley where his mother's family had settled. It was his home, studio and later the base of his school for architects for most of his life. It was rebuilt twice after fires, the first in 1914, when a worker set it alight and killed seven people, including Wright's partner Mamah Borthwick and her two children.
Photo: Jim Packett/Shutterstock.
Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, California (1919–1921)
Wright designed this house for the oil heiress and theatre patron Aline Barnsdall, and decorated it with stylised hollyhocks, her favourite flower. Its solid, temple-like forms draw on ancient Mesoamerican architecture, and courtyards and roof terraces extend the living space outdoors to suit the California climate. It now belongs to the City of Los Angeles.
Photo: Kit Leong/Shutterstock.
Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania (1936–1939)
Built as a weekend house for the Pittsburgh department-store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann and his family, Fallingwater sits directly over a waterfall on Bear Run instead of facing it. Reinforced-concrete terraces cantilever over the stream, and the stone walls and floors echo the rock ledges below. The main house was finished in 1937 and the guest wing in 1939. It has been open to the public as a museum since 1964.
Photo: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.
Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House, Madison, Wisconsin (1937)
This small house for a young journalist and his family is usually considered the first Usonian house, Wright's design for affordable, practical homes for middle-income Americans. It has no attic or basement, an L-shaped plan around a garden, under-floor heating and walls made of prefabricated panels. The idea influenced the open-plan, single-storey houses that spread across post-war America.
Photo: James Steakley, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona (begun 1937)
Wright's winter home and studio sits in the Sonoran Desert at the foot of the McDowell Mountains. He and his apprentices built it themselves, using local stone set in concrete, redwood beams and canvas roofs that let in a soft, diffused light. It remains the headquarters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Photo: Eugene Fedorenko/Shutterstock.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1943–1959)
Wright worked on the Guggenheim for 16 years. Its white spiral, wider at the top than at the bottom, contains a continuous ramp that lets visitors see art while walking down from the top. Wright died in April 1959; the museum opened six months later on Fifth Avenue, opposite Central Park.
Photo: Tinnaporn Sathapornnanont/Shutterstock.
How the listing came about
The road to inscription took several years. In 2015 the United States nominated ten Wright buildings. In July 2016 UNESCO referred the nomination back for revision, asking for a clearer explanation of why the group as a whole had universal importance. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy worked with the sites and with scholars to rewrite it, dropping two buildings, the Price Tower in Oklahoma and the Marin County Civic Center in California.
The revised nomination of eight buildings was submitted at the end of 2018. In June 2019 ICOMOS, UNESCO's advisory body on monuments and sites, recommended approval, and the committee confirmed it the following month.
What World Heritage status does and does not mean
A common belief is that World Heritage status brings money or legal protection from UNESCO. In fact, the listing is mainly a recognition. Protection still depends on the owners and on national and local law, though the label does raise a site's profile, attracts visitors and makes demolition or damaging changes far harder to justify.
That matters for Wright's legacy. Of the more than 400 buildings he saw built, about 300 were still standing in 2023, so roughly a quarter have been lost to demolition, fire, neglect and natural disasters. Supporters hope that the international recognition of these eight will encourage people to care for the rest.
If you plan to visit, most of the eight are open to the public through tours, though the Jacobs House is a private home. Opening times and booking rules change, so check each site's official website before you go.
Sources: UNESCO World Heritage Centre: The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright; Wikipedia: The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright; Wikipedia: Frank Lloyd Wright; earlier coverage and image selections from Dwell and Curbed.
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