If you ask most Americans who our country’s most famous architect was, they will tell you Frank Lloyd Wright (if they have an answer). If you ask Arizonans where Frank Lloyd Wright cut his teeth and made some of his most famous, landmark creations, they will tell you that it is right here in our state. Taliesin West, the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Gammage, all revolutionary from a design perspective, all housed in our neck of the woods.
While most architects toil about in anonymity, their names mostly footnotes in history or a simple name on a placard, Frank Lloyd Wright has had his legend carved in the annals of Arizona’s history, and that is largely due to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The Foundation has done an exemplary job at keeping his legend alive for subsequent generations, and much of that is due in large part from the custodianship of one man.
Stuart Graff served as President and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation for eight years, and recently announced that he will be stepping down to take a new position at an arts consultancy group. He will be staying on in an advisory capacity during the transition and assisting in the completion of projects that he had started. The Foundation currently has a job post up seeking a replacement who is a “confident and engaging team leader, diplomat, and relationship builder with a strong business acumen“.
Graff began his deep interest in Frank Lloyd Wright more than 50 years ago while studying engineering at Northwestern. While he says that a lack of drawing talent meant that he couldn’t carve a similar path, he did have a successful career and an attorney and executive while never losing his passion for the master’s work. In 2016 he took his now-previous role and helped usher the organization through both rough patches and a bit of a golden period.
Graff brought both an understanding of the corporate world as well as an innate sense of curiosity and a passion for design and exploration to the organization. His passion for the architect flowed through his work, as in his words, “his work gives us a space — and a well-known brand — from which to create and lead conversation and exploration around these issues, about which he wrote and worked through his career. And we get to do this work while offering those who participate with us a sublime beauty that can leave us optimistic about our challenges.”
While there have been many good leaders of the organization before Mr. Graft, his imprint unquestionably left the organization in a better place since he took the helm. Kudos to Mr. Graff on a job well done; a legend has been lifted to new heights and our state has a new generation of architecturally-curious minds as a result.