The Foundation’s CEO Stuart Graff explains that the 3D Lab was also developed to consider the needs of people with limited mobility. Taliesin West’s terraced campus makes it especially difficult for visitors in wheelchairs to traverse its various levels. Now they can thrill in the sensation of traveling inside Wright’s spaces through VR goggles. Graff says that they also plan to scan Wright’s Taliesin estate in Wisconsin.

Wright at Taliesin studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
Wright at Taliesin studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
Image: AP Photo/Edward Kitc

Disseminating Wright’s legacy comes at a crucial moment as designers seek to both create building and solve growing ecological challenges, says Graff. “More than an architect of buildings, Wright was an architect of ideas whose time has come now with great urgency as we face great challenges to sustainability,” he explains. Taliesin West, whose walls are made with local desert rocks, offers a model for eco-conscious buildings that are perfectly in sync with the landscape.

Lionized as a father of “green architecture,” Wright’s fundamental aspiration was to design structures that harmonize the needs of modern inhabitants with the natural environment. He experimented with local building materials, designed roofs to maximize sunlight throughout a room and breezeways that cooled spaces without the use of air conditioning. A highlight of every Taliesin West visit is standing on the connecting corridor where one feels oddly cool while gazing at the arid Sonoran desert vista—an indelible experience not conveyed through the online 3D tour.

Breezeways, Wright’s natural airconditioning.
Breezeways, Wright’s natural airconditioning.
Image: AP Photo/Anita Snow

Graff says Wright would have embraced all the digital technology and gadgetry if he was alive today. “Experimentation, innovation is at the heart of Frank Lloyd Wright’s 70-year career,” he explains. “‘What’s possible’ is the credo of his work.”

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