Reno honors Frank Lloyd Wright's legacy

It is divided into three sections — examples of the modern interior designs Wright used to reflect the American spirit, his use of furnishings and architectural elements to define the space and, lastly, his sometimes controversial efforts to bring his ideas to the homes of average Americans.

Besides Wright's fixation with the way light reflected and moved around a structure, he liked to use large modular furniture so we could "make our own space ... configure and shape your box," Boyd said.

A pencil and color blueprint on display shows the abstract design of the carpet already included in the drawing for the David Wright House he built in 1950 in Phoenix, Ariz.

"For most designers and architects, the carpet is the last thing they design. But to him, there was no difference between a structural idea and visual. He would draw in the furniture and chairs," Boyd said.

"His language is a language of abstraction and geometry. Whether you are talking about carpet or windows, they are all patterned, quite elaborate, not minimalism. It is geometric veneer — abstract, linear, geometric, aesthetic."

The exhibit closes with a look at Wright's later years when he'd become internationally known and turned his attention to making his ideas affordable to working Americans.

Boyd finds it telling that his advertisement on display for prefabricated homes in the Chicago Tribune in 1917 trumpeted, "You can own an American home," not "You can own a Frank Lloyd Wright house."

Later, he increased the use of contemporary fabrics to frame walls and started working directly with furniture, textile and fabric manufacturers. His relationship with manufacturers drew swift criticism from the architectural community, she said, especially after the Ladies Home Journal featured a spread on his "Prairie House."

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"They said, 'Oh my God, here's our best architect designing furniture that is selling at Macy's,'" Boyd recalled. "But he had a very close relationship with media and he wanted to get his ideas out."

Bruder, who estimates he has seen 95 percent of Wright's portfolio in person, became aware of the architect at an early age. Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, Wis., he decided by about the fifth grade he probably wanted to be an architect.

"I was always making things. My father was a fireman but also a cabinetmaker so I was always around the idea of making things," he said.

Bruder remembers when he was 12, in 1959, Wright's circular-designed Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church was being constructed less than two miles from his home. It was one of Wright's last commissions and he died before its groundbreaking.

Bruder used to ride his bicycle across two-way streets he wasn't supposed to cross to watch it take shape.

"It made a lasting impression," he said.

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