Frank Lloyd Wright's daring and revolutionary
architecture was well-known to be designed to
fit in with its environment: a principle he
often emphasized and took credit for. One might
wonder, then, how the Arabian motifs of the
Wright-designed Marin County (California) Civic
Center arose from its setting near San Francisco
Bay? Did Wright really think that California was
attached to the Arabian Peninsula? When Esther
visited Taleisin, due to her renown, she was
given the rare opportunity of visiting Frank
Lloyd Wright's workshop area. Esther was
interested in a building that Wright had been
commissioned to provide for a client in Saudi
Arabia. Later, when Wright's contract with the
Saudis was cancelled, this same design suddenly
appeared in the California environment. Thus,
while environment maintained a high priority for
Wright, his love of his own designs was
apparently of higher priority than environmental
considerations. Esther's photo slides include
multiple photos taken at Taleisin.