Taliesin West is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important works. It is a National Historic Landmark and is one of eight Frank Lloyd Wright sites collectively inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. It was Wright’s great experiment in the desert created as an escape from the bitter winters of his home Taliesin, in Wisconsin. Initially built in 1938 as a winter camp on the western slope of the foothills of the McDowell Mountains, Taliesin West evolved into a layered complex of buildings where a community of dozens of people lived, worked, and played. It was Wright’s desert masterpiece where he experimented until his death in 1959 with his ideas about organic architecture and its relationship to the landscape. Taliesin West also served as the winter residence for the Taliesin Fellowship, Wright’s apprenticeship where hundreds of young designers received training in organic architecture.

In 2014 Harboe Architects won a national selection process to develop a Preservation Master Plan for the campus and its 80,000 s.f. of buildings. The Plan described how Taliesin West evolved over time, documented the existing conditions of the various buildings, and outlined a road map for the future restoration and long term care of the whole facility. A critical part of the document was to establish a preservation philosophy that will guide all future work for the complex. The plan was completed in May 2015, followed by an accessibility analysis for the campus in 2019. In 2021-22, Harboe Architects completed construction documents for reconstructing the fabric roof on Wright’s office.