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BUSINESS NEWS EIGHT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT BUILDINGS INSCRIBED ON UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LIST The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, has officially inscribed The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, which includes eight major works spanning 50 years of Wright’s career, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Wright is widely considered to be the greatest American architect of the 20th century, and the sites in the group inscription span his influential career. They include Unity Temple (Oak Park, Illinois), theFrederickC. RobieHouse (Chicago), Taliesin (Spring Green, Wisconsin), Hollyhock House (Los Angeles), Fallingwater (Mill Run, Pennsylvania), the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House (Madison, Wisconsin), Taliesin West (Scottsdale, Arizona), and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York). There are more than 1,000 World Heritage sites around the world, and the group of Wright sites is now among only 24 sites in the U.S. The collection represents the first modern architecture designation in the country on the prestigious list. “This recognition by UNESCO is a significant way for us to reconfirm how important Frank Lloyd Wright was to the development of modern architecture around the world,” says Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, an international organization dedicated to the preservation of all of Wright’s remaining built works. “There are nearly 400 remaining structures designed by Wright. Our hope is that the inscription of these eight major works also brings awareness to the importance of preserving all of his buildings as a vital part of our artistic, cultural and architectural heritage. All communities where a Wright building stands should appreciate what they have and share in the responsibility to protect their local – and world – heritage.” “It is an immense honor to have Frank Lloyd
Wright’s work recognized on the world stage among the most vital and important cultural sites on Earth like Taj Mahal in India, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt and the Statue of Liberty in New York,” said Stuart Graff, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. “To have this unique American legacy placed alongside these precious few sites around the globe is meaningful because it recognizes the profound influence of this American architect and his impact on the whole world. This designation is a great source of national pride, and while eight buildings are included in the inscription, it recognizes the importance of Wright’s work, embodied in every one of his buildings and designs. These sites are not simply World Heritage monuments because they are beautiful. It’s so much more than that. These are places of profound influence, inspiration and connection.” The eight inscribed sites have played a prominent role in the development and evolution of modern architecture during the first half of the 20th century and continuing to the present. UNESCO considers the international importance of a potential World Heritage Site based on its “Outstanding Universal Value,” which in the Wright series is manifested in three attributes. First, it is an architecture responsive to functional and emotional needs, achieved through geometric abstraction and spatial manipulation. Second, the design of the buildings in this series is fundamentally rooted in nature’s forms and principles. Third, the series represents an architecture conceived to be responsive to the evolving American experience, but which is universal in its appeal. The Wright nomination has been in development for more than 15 years, a coordinated effort between the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, each of the nominated sites and independent scholars, with a substantial financial commitment realized through subsidies and donations, countless
hours donated by staff and volunteers, and the guidance and assistance of the National Park Service. The nomination effort was spearheaded by Fallingwater Director Emerita and founding Conservancy board member Lynda Waggoner, with Fallingwater contributing support and expertise in the nomination’s preparation. The Conservancy will now coordinate the activities of the Frank Lloyd Wright World Heritage Council, chaired by Waggoner, which was established to support the responsible conservation and promotion of the eight World Heritage sites. In 2015, the U.S. nominated a series of 10 Wright-designed sites to the World Heritage List. At its meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, in July 2016, the World Heritage Committee decided to “refer” the nomination for revisions. Over the past two years, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy worked with the council of sites and leading scholars to revise the nomination and rework the justification for inscription. The National Park Service submitted the Wright nomination to the World Heritage Centre in Paris on November 20, 2018, and it was reviewed and inscribed at the 2019 session of the World Heritage Committee in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, established by Wright in 1940, is dedicated to preserving Taliesin and Taliesin West for future generations, and inspiring society through an understanding and experience of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas, architecture and design. Wright’s legacy, reflected in contemporary work around sustainable and affordable architecture and excellence in design, is of even greater importance today than in his own time. The Foundation is forward-looking, but rooted in the history of the Taliesin communities. Please visit FrankLloydWright.org for more information on tour schedules, cultural and educational experiences and events.
your people – even if it is negative – most will appreciate you. It can be rewarding when you see your people and company flourish. In any case, giving feedback is your job as a leader and you need to do it. MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com. “Giving feedback to your employees is a major part of your job as a leader of an AEC firm. It is not a pleasant job and may have a negative connotation, but it is necessary nevertheless if you want your people to do better and your company to prosper.”
MARK ZWEIG, from page 3
surprises for the employees. If they do, you aren’t providing enough regular feedback to them every day. And no, I am not one of those people who believes these are necessary in order to protect ourselves from employee lawsuits. I think you will find more often than not that the employees we need to move out for poor performance have a long history of positive reviews which will only give them ammunition for a wrongful termination lawsuit. ❚ ❚ People will dodge your feedback. Just like your teenagers at home probably do, your people know when they have messed up and will work hard to avoid hearing the lecture (being corrected). But nevertheless, just as is the case when you are a parent, it is your responsibility to deliver necessary feedback so your employees can learn and the company can do better. No one likes working for a jerk. That said, IF you approach feedback from the standpoint that you are trying to help
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THE ZWEIG LETTER November 4, 2019, ISSUE 1319
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