I was twenty-three years old when I arrived.  With three and a third years of college behind me and two years with the United States Marine Corps, so I was in a hurry...(An architect I had worked for in L.A. called me at Taliesin and asked if I could get he and a client of his an interview with Mr. Wright.  Mr Wright agreed and the two men showed up as scheduled.  In the conversation Mr Wright told them, as he waved his hand at me and smiled, "We're going to try and make an architect of this boy [meaning me], that is, if he has patience enough."  It must have been obvious to him how impatient I was at that age.)

Frank Lloyd Wright taught on the apprenticeship method. This was different, and harked back to olden methods.  Michelangelo had been an apprentice to a sculptor in Florence; and, when he became a great sculptor, he took on apprentices who studied what he had done, worked on his projects, learned by observing, and doing, there under the tutelage of the Master.  Frank Lloyd Wright had served his apprenticeship, too, under Louis Sullivan.  And now all of us were working under Mr Wright.  In my opinion, this was a much better method than going to some University and being taught by professors, many of which had never done buildings themselves, but only taught.

Each of us had our own drafting table in the drafting room where we could work as we liked; although only a certain number were to work during the day there.  New apprentices were taken into the work of the drafting room one or two at a time over several months.  We started out as a draftsman, working on simple drawings at first.  But we were working on the drawings of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the greatest architect in the world!  With more experience, in time we were allowed to do more of the important work.

The rest had jobs outside, all of which were temporary; for there was constant rotation of work so that all would have a well-rounded experience, and learn to do many jobs well.  Mr Wright was always tearing down some part of the camp, re-designing it, having us do the drawings, and then we would do the actual construction.  Great training!  I remember I had jobs like pouring concrete, hammering and sawing lumber, building forms for the concrete and stone walls; cutting and welding steel (I really liked this); and collecting all the camp's garbage and taking it to the dump and burning it.  Most jobs were for a time of two or three weeks, and then we were given a different job.  The apprentices did everything including the preparation of all the food.

Nevertheless, we were required to get to the dining room by 7 a.m. if we wanted breakfast.  But I was used to staying up and watching the late show on tv, so I had difficulty getting up that early.  I quickly learned that good, homemade bread and gobs of peanut butter and plenty of milk were available at any time of day, and soon that became my standard breakfast.  Still, we had to report for work at 8 a.m., though we were off at 4 p.m., when we had gatherings out on the lawn for tea and cookies.

 There were four or five of us who usually stayed up and watched the 11:30 late show on tv, and we usually raided the icebox or freezer.  I recall the tins of homemade ice-cream.  Finally, a lock was put on the freezer because so much food was disappearing.  But we were budding architects; so each night we took the door off the freezer, got what we wanted, and put the door back on.

 Mr and Mrs Wright never ate with us except on Sunday mornings.  At those times we usually a terrific breakfast--later than 7 a.m. of course--after which Mr Wright gave us a fifteen or twenty minute talk, sometimes about architecture, sometimes about Nature, "Nature with a capital N," he would always say.  He especially liked the design of sea shells, and often he brought a few to the table with him and used them as design examples.

 I remember, at one Sunday's talk, Mr Wright told us about the famous story of the Wingspread house, the house for Mr Johnson, of Johnson's Wax.  As the story went, Mr Johnson had just moved into the huge house Frank Lloyd Wright had built for him and he was entertaining a great number of people at supper, with his chair at the head of the very long dining room table.  As he sat there and picked up his fork to begin eating, a drop of water from the glass roof high above struck him on the head.  He looked up just as another drop hit him in the face.  As the story goes, he rushed to the phone and called Frank Lloyd Wright and told him what had happened, asking the architect what he should do about it.  "Move your chair over a little bit," Mr Wright was reported as having said.

Laughing, Mr Wright then said to us, "Well, boys, the story is not true.  But don't kill it, because it's such a great story."

Of course, much has been said about Frank Lloyd Wright that was not true.  I know in the recent Ken Burns special on tv, it was said that all of the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright leaked, and all were over budget.  Not true!  He did many houses for teachers and college professors (seems they had enough education and had developed enough taste to really appreciate Mr. Wright's work), but those people were not highly paid and did not have the money for the building to be much over budget.  And as far as leaking roofs: maintenance must be done on buildings--as well as cars--or in time neither will not work very well.

At Christmas and then again on Mr Wright's birthday--which was sometime in June--we had what was called "His Box."  This was a wooden box, designed and made by one of the apprentices, which was about three feet square and into which each of us who wanted to were allowed to place some building we had designed--something we had created--and which Mr Wright would look at and give a critique of.  For the Christmas Box, I had designed and drawn renderings of a three-bedroom house with a series of flat roofs stepping up a hillside.  About my project which Mr Wright thought might be built, he said, "There will be many of these fine houses built in the next few years, and this will be one of the best of them."  And then he looked at me and smiled.  Praise from the Master!

In the drafting room were several large thick loose-leaf folders which contained reproductions of Mr Wright's original designs.  Fascinating to look through and study.  Much of my spare time was spent perusing these books.  I remember that one of the older apprentices (supposedly we were all apprentices) told me that Mr Wright had designed the masterpiece "Fallingwater" in three hours.  When I heard that I really felt like giving up, thinking that Frank Lloyd Wright was too much of a genius for mortal men to even be around.  But, then, as I rummaged through the vault where many original drawings were stored, carefully looking, I came upon several perspective drawings of "Fallingwater," each done from slightly different spots and showing somewhat different designs.  I know how long it takes to draw a perspective, so that stuff about designing "Fallingwater" in three hours was not true.  I felt that there was hope for me after all.

Mendal Glickman was Frank Lloyd Wright's chief engineer.  He did the structural (and electrical and mechanical, too) on Mr Wright's most difficult buildings.  When I was at Taliesin, Mr Glickman and his wife were there, nice, quiet people.  And he was a brilliant engineer!

One day I came by the drafting room and saw Mr Glickman sitting on the outside stone wall.  His head was in his hands and he looked sad.

 "Is something the matter, Mr Glickman?" I asked.

 He looked up and grimaced.

"Well...I just finished all the engineering on the Marin County Civic Center Pavilion.  Mr Wright came by and looked at the drawings and said, "I really don't like the way that thing looks.  I've been avoiding this, but I can't any longer.  I'm going to re-design it, so stop all your work on the Pavilion, boys."

The main building--the one which is built--of the Marin County Civic Center was a wonderful design.  But the open air pavilion, though, (I had thought) was not up to Mr Wrights usual standard: a catenary roof held up by huge pillars which didn't look right...

"But, Mr Glickman, don't you know that Mr Wright will make it much better...a building everyone will be proud of?"

And Frank Lloyd Wright did.  He threw out everything and started over.  It was great the second time.  (Can you imagine what this cost in dollars?  Most of the drawings and all of the engineering completed, only to be torn up, the whole process to begin again!  Very few architects would have enough integrity to do such a thing.  However, I don't think it will ever be built.)

 I was told that one day Mr Wright came in with a large roll of drawings under his arm: the approved Guggenheim Museum drawings.

 "Well, boys, I have finally gotten the approval of everybody:  the owner, the city, everybody.  Now, I am going to design the building for my approval."  His fourth design, I was told.

 I was privileged to be allowed to do some drafting work on the Marin County Civic Center.  A wonderful building!  Stepping across and uniting four hills in northern California...