Frank Lloyd Wright

History and architectural buffs will appreciate this October tour of Pennsylvania that highlights the works of Frank Lloyd Wright as well as historic buildings and art museums in Pittsburgh. The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust leads this trip to the famed Fallingwater and other Wright-designed residences, the Kentuck Knob and the Duncan House. Other itinerary stops include the Balter and Blum houses designed by Peter Berndtson, H.H. Richardson's Allegheny County Courthouse and Henry Clay Frick's Union Arcade and more.

Paolo Soleri, an Italian-born architect who created a visionary prototype for a new kind of ecologically sensitive city in the remote Arizona desert four decades ago, only to watch the suburban sprawl he detested begin to creep near it in recent years, has died. He was 93. Soleri died of natural causes Tuesday at his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., according to an official with the architect's foundation . PHOTOS: Paolo Soleri | 1919-2013 A onetime apprentice at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West compound on the edge of Scottsdale, Ariz., Soleri founded his own desert settlement, called Arcosanti, in 1970 at a site roughly 70 miles north of downtown Phoenix.

The archives of architect Frank Lloyd Wright have found a new home -- two homes, to be precise -- in New York. The archives have been jointly acquired by the Museum of Modern Art and Columbia University. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation said it will retain all copyright and intellectual-property responsibility for the late architect's work. Under the agreement, the complete physical archives will be transferred to Columbia and MoMA. Columbia will receive the paper-based material from the archive, including drawings and Wright's personal and professional correspondence.

The storied Sowden House in Los Feliz is for sale at $4.888 million. Set behind gates and obscured from the street by heavy foliage, the residence has sometimes been called the Jaws house for its Mayan temple-like façade. Typical of Lloyd Wright designs, beyond the original copper entry door are stairs and a tight hallway, creating a feeling of compression before opening up to the living spaces within. The 1927 structure is made of so-called “textile” blocks, patterned concrete blocks also favored by the architect's father, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Thirteen pieces of furniture designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright have been acquired by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. The organization said that the furniture has been on display since 2009 as part of a long-term loan from the prominent New York collectors Joyce and Erving Wolf. The purchase was made directly from the Wolfs, according to the Huntington. It declined to say how much it paid for the furniture. Funds for the acquisition came from the Huntington's Virginia Steele Scott Acquisition Fund for American Art.    Lloyd Wright designed the furniture in the set for various interiors.

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's signature Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Ariz., the gated Beverly Hills estate dubbed the Jewelry Box unfolds with hidden compartments and built-in shelves at every turn in Wright's modern and minimalist style. Designed and built by Louis Bosbrooker for himself and his wife in 1962, the home's open floor plan of the living-dining area, Japanese-style folding doors and cabinetry with minimal hardware echo Wright's sensibilities.

To open a book and have the Guggenheim Museum curve out at your fingertips isn't quite as breathtaking as visiting the real thing in New York, but it's not a bad substitute. And the other fold-outs in Roland Lewis' oversize " Frank Lloyd Wright in Pop-Up" (Thunder Bay Press: 36 pp., $24.95) also echo the striking planes of the iconic architect's work. Stretch the covers and terraces, overhangs, glass corners and additional details surge off the page. One spread, which focuses on Wright's interior design, includes a pop-up version of his chandelier.

In the depths of the Depression, architect Frank Lloyd Wright developed a housing style called Usonian. These middle-class homes were meant to be affordable and connected to their setting. They blurred the distinction between indoors and out, featuring plenty of glass, extended roofs and a carport (a word Wright coined). The Rosenbaum House in Florence, Ala., has been called the purest example of the Usonian style. Why it's a treasure: When newlyweds Mildred and Stanley Rosenbaum moved into their home in 1939, crowds gathered to gawk at the unusual flat-roofed building.

The Derby House is a child's dream castle--stacks of dark blocks reaching skyward. Its hulk is enshrouded in foliage. Its facade is massive and forbidding. One half-expects Mayan ghosts to surge from its bowels, spears outstretched in greeting. Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, built the house in 1926 for businessman James Derby, his wife and two sons. The Derbys separated prior to the home's completion; only Mrs. Derby and the children eventually lived within its mysterious walls.

Paolo Soleri, an Italian-born architect who created a visionary prototype for a new kind of ecologically sensitive city in the remote Arizona desert four decades ago, only to watch the suburban sprawl he detested begin to creep near it in recent years, has died. He was 93. Soleri died of natural causes Tuesday at his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., according to an official with the architect's foundation . PHOTOS: Paolo Soleri | 1919-2013 A onetime apprentice at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West compound on the edge of Scottsdale, Ariz., Soleri founded his own desert settlement, called Arcosanti, in 1970 at a site roughly 70 miles north of downtown Phoenix.

For her first L.A. solo exhibition at Francois Ghebaly Gallery, Romanian-born artist Andra Ursuta has built a ruin of a modernist swing set. Propped up on either side by precarious stacks of hollow concrete blocks that form a kind of lattice, a smooth, bright orange crossbar supports two swings, each composed of two seats hung back to back. Painted in bright colors, the seats have holes cut into them. They are at once geometric abstractions - circles within squares - and toilets.  The potentially uncontrollable distribution of excrement that this scenario implies is a parent's nightmare, and yet, is also regulated.

A house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for his son is back on the Phoenix market, part of the latest confrontation between preservationists and owners over how to deal with artistically important properties. A prospective buyer of the house, known as the David and Gladys Wright House, has dropped his bid to buy the 2,500-square-foot building in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix, Robert Joffe, the agent for the current owner, said in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Thirteen pieces of furniture designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright have been acquired by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. The organization said that the furniture has been on display since 2009 as part of a long-term loan from the prominent New York collectors Joyce and Erving Wolf. The purchase was made directly from the Wolfs, according to the Huntington. It declined to say how much it paid for the furniture. Funds for the acquisition came from the Huntington's Virginia Steele Scott Acquisition Fund for American Art.    Lloyd Wright designed the furniture in the set for various interiors.

A historic Frank Lloyd Wright home in Phoenix has narrowly escaped being demolished.   The 1952 concrete structure -- which features a sweeping spiral staircase and is set amid orange orchards in the city's Arcadia neighborhood -- was originally designed for Wright's son and daughter-in-law, David and Gladys Wright. Developer 8081 Meridian bought the home in June for $1.8 million, with plans to divide the two-acre plot and destroy the home. The developer says it had been issued a valid demolition permit; the city of Phoenix says whoever issued the permit made a mistake.

This 16-room Arts and Crafts masterpiece on the edge of San Diego's Balboa Park was the home of George and Anna Marston and their five children. Marston, a philanthropist, civic leader and owner of the city's premier department store, commissioned architects William S. Hebbard and Irving Gill to build an English Tudor-style home. Mid-project, Gill visited his old friend Frank Lloyd Wright and was inspired to change the design. The result is this 1905 Craftsman masterpiece. Why it's a treasure: The design was cutting edge then, and it's still relevant today, with rooftop copper pipes for solar water heating and a cistern that recycles rainwater for the gardens.

In the depths of the Depression, architect Frank Lloyd Wright developed a housing style called Usonian. These middle-class homes were meant to be affordable and connected to their setting. They blurred the distinction between indoors and out, featuring plenty of glass, extended roofs and a carport (a word Wright coined). The Rosenbaum House in Florence, Ala., has been called the purest example of the Usonian style. Why it's a treasure: When newlyweds Mildred and Stanley Rosenbaum moved into their home in 1939, crowds gathered to gawk at the unusual flat-roofed building.

A house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for his son is back on the Phoenix market, part of the latest confrontation between preservationists and owners over how to deal with artistically important properties. A prospective buyer of the house, known as the David and Gladys Wright House, has dropped his bid to buy the 2,500-square-foot building in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix, Robert Joffe, the agent for the current owner, said in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Somewhere out there Frank Lloyd Wright may be laughing. At least Brendan Gill hopes so. Gill would hate it if the ghost of that titan of architecture, who died in 1959 at age 92, is moping around the Great Beyond--simply because Gill's new biography paints Wright as a lying, profligate, ruthless, egocentric genius. It certainly would be uncharacteristic, Gill says, noting fondly that embarrassment was one of the few things that did not come easily to his friend Wright.

After The Times published its obituary of Pedro E. Guerrero, the photographer best known for documenting the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, I got in touch with Emily Bills, director of the Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury University and co-curator of a retrospective of Guerrero's work on view in the spring. Bills said Guerrero should be remembered not only for working with artistic giants such as Wright and sculptors Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson, but also for his ability to adapt his photography for his subjects.

Pedro E. Guerrero, a photographer whose early work with architect Frank Lloyd Wright sparked a long, distinguished career in the worlds of fine art and glossy magazines, died Thursday. He was 95. Guerrero died at his home in Florence, Ariz., said his daughter Susan Guerrero. He had battled cancer for several years. Unlike his more famous contemporary, Julius Shulman, whose photographs of Southern California's modern architecture have formed an indelible, collective image of Los Angeles' progressive mid-20th-century lifestyle, Guerrero became known for interpreting a single architect's vision.