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According to Edgar Tafel's 1993 book About Wright, from 1893 to 1901 Wright "produced at least 70 designs, of which 49 were built, significant among which was the Winslow House (1894). During this time he also wrote many speeches and articles."

Wright moved back to Wisconsin in 1911. His son, David Wright, says in The Master Architect: "Father left the Oak Park home about 1911 dedicated to architecture...And established his home at Taliesin, Wisconsin [near Spring Green]."

Wright traveled a great deal throughout his life, spending 1916-1922, for example, working on the Imperial Hotel in Japan. But his Taliesin studio would remain a treasured base.

Back in Wisconsin in 1932, Wright opened a Taliesin Fellowship with 30 apprentices. By this time, Wright was 65 -- the age most people retire. Wright, on the other hand, was just getting started. "Fallingwater" and the Johnson Wax administration building came out of the Fellowship, and in 1938 Wright found himself on the cover of Time magazine.

That year -- 1938 -- is of great significance for Wright, Madison, and Monona Terrace. It was in that year the architect first proposed a design for what eventually became Monona Terrace.

The New York Times took note of the center's tumultuous history in a 1995 story:

"Wright, who lived [in Madison] from age 11 to 19, planned 32 buildings in the city during his career. Of the nine that were built, eight remain, including a Prairie House, the Unitarian church and the first Usonian, Wright's prototype economy house for the American middle class, built for a newspaper reporter in 1936 for $5,000.

"But one plan for Madison stood out not just for the ambition of its design but for the legendary battles it created. Monona Terrace, a project unveiled in 1938, was a grand vision of towers, fountains and terraces rising from the shores of Lake Monona in the shadow of the Capitol."





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