Chez MacIntyre

We spent the next few days enjoying Doug’s gracious hospitality. We slept in his guest house, cooked on his barbecue and relaxed on his patio for four peaceful days.  It was kind of nice to take a respite from the open road and to talk to someone other than ourselves over dinner.  On the second day I happened to spot one of his coffee table books, Taliesin and Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright’s homes/studios) and remembered that one was somewhere nearby. Doug jumped at the chance to revisit the place – just a few miles away in Scottsdale – and drove us all there the next afternoon.

Wright was close to seventy when he decided to return to the Arizona desert to build a new life. His students came along and spent the next few years realizing the master’s vision of a studio and living space that was an integral part of the barren landscape. Using the rock and sand mortar at hand, they constructed the buildings and open spaces in which he lived and worked for the rest of his life. After his death his third wife made sure the educational component of Taliesin West was secured, arranging for university accreditation and marketing the residential graduate program which still continues today.

After saying farewell to Doug and Phoenix (we’ll be back in a couple of weeks to leave the van and catch a flight home for the summer) we set out for Sedona to meet up with Jan and Charlie.