Frank Lloyd Wright's Impact on Architecture and Civil Engineering

One of the most influential and well-known architectural engineers in America during the twentieth century has got to be Frank Lloyd Wright. He’s created and designed many creative and functional buildings for most of his career which spanned to about seventy years. His futuristic and modern designs were unique and creative, yet they were still functional for one to live in them. His eccentric thinking has brought about and greatly influenced the image of twentieth century architecture. His works have paved the way to the designs and structures of the civil engineers and architects that we have today in the twenty-first century.

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in June 8, 1869 in Richland Center, Wisconsin. He was the eldest of the three children of William and Anna Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright’s mother was from Wales and immigrated with her family. Her father and brothers ended up being skilled carpenters in the Wisconsin River Valley and built their own houses. His father, William Wright was a Baptist minister. At three years of age, Wright and his family moved to Massachusetts for his father to work as a minister. Around 1880, they moved to Madison, Wisconsin. His father then opens a music conservatory, while Wright went to school and worked at his uncle’s farm in Spring Green in the summers. He was attending Madison High School, and in 1885, his parents divorced. In the same year, Wright leaves Madison High School at age 18, and without graduating. He went and had employment as a draftsman’s apprentice in Madison, Wisconsin. The following year, while he was still working, Wright took civil engineering courses in the University of Wisconsin. Then in 1887, Wright leaves Madison and goes to Chicago, Illinois, and obtained a job...

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... unique and radical designs, but these designs that were considered radical at the time are what we see these days as he has affected modern architecture greatly. He also has affected engineering, as he has proved that with radical designs and forms, there can still be functionality in them. He has also brought unique ways that can help a building from many dangers and situations. His designing of the Imperial Hotel, in my opinion, has helped influence civil engineers all over the world of how a building can survive an earthquake. Also, his unique use of geometric patterns in his works such as the Fallingwater residence in Pennsylvania, and the use of cantilevers and a waterfall in the residence have influenced many engineers and architects all around. All in all, it is clear that he has earned himself a place in history as a genius in architecture and engineering.