On July 7, the World Heritage Committee met in Baku, Azerbaijan to update the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites around the world. Among the more than 1,000 sites on the list, eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings are included.
The World Heritage sites span more than 167 countries around the world. The specific buildings honored were New York City’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Chicago’s Unity Temple and Frederick C. Robie House; Los Angeles’ Hollyhock House; Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin; Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania; the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin; and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona.
There’s no denying that Wright’s impact on the world of architecture is beyond notable, but there were a few specific notes that the deciding committee called out, according to the Associated Press. “The group noted Wright’s use of ‘organic architecture,’ including an open plan, with blurred boundaries between exterior and interior, and the ‘unprecedented use’ of steel and concrete.”
While Wright has become a household name and the focus of many travelers’ architectural bucket lists, this is one of the first times the architect has been placed on an international pedestal. Other places of interest on the World Heritage list includes the Statue of Liberty, Machu Picchu, and the Pyramids of Giza.
In an interview with NPR, President and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Stuart Graff shared a few words on the honor: "He wanted to break the box of historic architecture and open us up to a better, different, freer way to live. And we still feel that today. We feel that in our homes and our cities. We feel that in our connection to the landscape. And that's the measure of his achievement."
New additions to the list are announced every year at UNESCO’s conference. Aside from Wright’s 20th-century work, Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene—the area known for producing world-famous Prosecco.
