Past Conferences

The Progressive City was the Conservancy’s third Chicago conference, the first there in fifteen years. It was the Conservancy’s second hybrid conference, with nearly 160 in-person participants and over 50 online registrants. Education sessions focused on the efforts of Wright, his peers and collaborators to improve the city through innovations in architecture, urban planning, parks, public health, education, social services, and housing. We revisited must-see favorites from past tours including Unity Temple and the Frederick C. Robie House (both a part of The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright World Heritage inscription and restored since our last visit), as well as the Bradley House, The Rookery, Wright’s Oak Park Home & Studio, the Coonley Estate, Emil Bach House, and more. We also had the opportunity to visit homes never before toured during in-person Conservancy events: the Jessie and William Adams House, Foster House, Baker House, Kathryn and Lloyd Lewis House, and others. Evening events provided fellowship, raised support for the Conservancy’s mission, and celebrated the recipients of the 2022 Wright Spirit Awards. The Conservancy’s Annual Meeting will took place on the morning of Saturday, October 22, and new board members were elected. Thanks to co-chairs Kelly Jones, Carmen Korleski, and Heidi Ruehle, and to our Presenting Partner, TAWANI Hospitality. Photos from the conference will be available on the Conservancy’s Flickr and Facebook pages.

Interpreting Wright was the Conservancy’s third Buffalo conference, and our first there in over a decade. It was also the Conservancy’s first-ever hybrid conference, with 90 in-person attendees and 130 online participants. Education sessions explored how Wright is interpreted for public audiences, with a special emphasis on visitor centers and public education programs as integral aspects of historic preservation. Toshiko Mori, architect of the acclaimed Greatbatch Pavilion at the Martin House estate, delivered a keynote address. In-person and video tours took in Wright’s most notable Prairie-period works in Western New York, including the Martin House, Graycliff (the Isabelle Martin House), the Boynton House and the Davidson House, as well as other landmarks of the region. Evening events allowed us to reconnect with old friends, make new ones and celebrate the recipients of the 2021 Wright Spirit Awards. Thanks to co-chairs Mary Roberts and Pat Mahoney, and Presenting Partner, TAWANI Property Management! Photos from the conference can be viewed on our Flickr page.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s virtual conference, Saving Wright Now, offered an unprecedented chance to convene the global community of Wright specialists and aficionados online from November 11-14, 2020. Preservationists, homeowners and public site leaders participated in lively panel discussions and opened their doors to attendees through video and photographic tours, providing a broad look at the current state of the movement to save Wright. Nearly twenty sites were featured, many not regularly open to visitors—an itinerary that spanned Wright’s career and reaches from his Midwestern origins to Japan. A special Gala honored the 2020 Wright Spirit Award recipients and highlighted unique items and experiences offered in the Conservancy’s first-ever online silent auction.

Several conference sessions were available free to the public, and videos can be viewed online: Wright Sites PechaKucha vol. 2, Wright Virtual Visits: Taliesin West & Unity Temple, and the Gala featuring the Wright Spirit Awards.

Conservancy members from all over the United States as well as Japan, Australia and Israel attended the Conservancy’s 30th annual conference in Los Angeles, Oct. 1-6. Wright’s Influence in Postwar Southern California included educational presentations, tours of spectacular and innovative buildings by Lautner, Neutra, Schindler and other architects Wright influenced, and an advocacy-focused visit to the Freeman House. Exclusive tours of non-public areas of Hollyhock House and the under-restoration Residence A at Barnsdall Park concluded with a sunset dinner on the lawn, sponsored by Oliver Peoples and the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation.

Wright Spirit Awards were presented to the Frank Lloyd Wright World Heritage Council and L.A. Councilman Mitch O’Farrell at Hollyhock House, and to Janet and Van Korell, Ken and Carrie Cox, Mark Hertzberg, Henry Whiting, and Tom and Heather Papinchak at a gala dinner Oct. 5. More than 100 Wright homeowners and public site representatives participated in a two-day gathering that included dinner and useful presentations. Thank you to all who attended! Photos from the conference and past Conservancy events may be viewed on our Flickr page.

Considering Frank Lloyd Wright’s close, lifelong ties to Wisconsin, the Conservancy’s 2018 annual conference in Madison is an opportune occasion for exploring the multi-dimensional nature of that relationship and efforts to safeguard its tangible manifestations. Conference education sessions and events will take place at Monona Terrace, and the headquarters hotel will be the Hilton Madison Monona Terrace, which is attached to Monona Terrace by a covered skybridge. Conference registration is now open.

The Conservancy’s 2017 conference will take place Sept. 13-17 in New York City. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth, the Conservancy is organizing an extended symposium held at the Museum of Modern Art to coincide with MoMA’s major new exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive. More than a dozen speakers from the United States and abroad will address topics including Wright’s critical reception, his attitude toward preservation and his influence on his contemporaries.

The conference was held Nov. 2-6 and featured three days of educational presentations focused on Wright’s late years and panel discussions covering preservation topics, tours of all of Wright’s Bay Area work including the never-before-toured Arthur Mathews House, and special events including a dinner for homeowners and staff and docents at public sites. For the third year in a row the conference sold out, with more than 220 people attending the general conference and more than 260 people attending the gala. Thank you to everyone who joined us and contributed to making this such a successful event to aid in the Conservancy’s efforts to preserve Wright’s work.

For the second year in a row, the Conservancy’s annual conference drew capacity crowds from all over the United States, Canada and Japan for five days of tours (more than 15 Wright buildings were on view, including a surprise stop at the newly discovered 1917 American System-Built Elizabeth Murphy House), educational presentations, a special dinner for owners of Wright homes and workers at Wright public sites, and the presentation of our annual Wright Spirit Awards.

More than 240 people turned out to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the conference, including several founding members, who were honored with certificates recognizing the seminal role they played in helping to preserve Wright’s work. More than 30 guest speakers, including New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman, award-winning architect Will Bruder, Modern Phoenix founder Alison King, renowned Wright scholar Neil Levine, Fallingwater Director Lynda Waggoner, Wright homeowners including original Wright client Roland Reisley, and many more addressed capacity audiences on a wide range of preservation issues over the five-day event.

Attendees toured six private Wright homes rarely accessible to the public, as well as the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium, First Christian Church and a stunning contemporary home by architect Marwan Al-Sayed, and had exclusive access behind the scenes at Taliesin West. Special events were held at architect David Dodge’s house on the outskirts of Taliesin West and architect Eddie Jones’ contemporary house, The Outpost, near the site of Wright’s original Pauson House.

Grand Rapids, one of the nation’s great centers for the design and production of furniture during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was the perfect setting for exploring new understandings of Wright’s work in the decorative arts. Conference attendees participated in a dynamic program of speakers and tours of more than 15 sites.

Early in his career, Wright began to design buildings that would have an international influence and that have long been considered internationally significant as well as quintessentially American. But he can also be examined as first and foremost an architect of the Midwest. This conference included tours of more than 20 works by Wright and his Midwest contemporaries, including Walter Burley Griffin and Francis Barry Byrne, as well as presentations by a group of distinguished speakers who examined Wright’s legacy, including his influence on colleagues who had worked with him or who were inspired by his example.

Wright may have disparaged his East Coast contemporaries as hopelessly locked in the past or bedazzled by the latest fashions from Europe, but he was no stranger to the East and maintained a network of clients, benefactors, and members of the popular and professional press who contributed to the success of his long career. The 2011 conference examined Frank Lloyd Wright and the East Coast by focusing on his professional activity in the metropolitan areas of Philadelphia and New York City. More than 15 sites designed by Wright, Louis Kahn, Alden B. Dow, Antonin Raymond, Richard Neutra and others were toured.