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June 2002 (rev. 6/06/07)
1. I joined the Fellowship on 1/1/1958. The main attraction was the Broadacre City concept. I had visited Taliesin West in the summer of 1957 on my way to San Diego, California. I visited John Lloyd Wright who encouraged me to talk to, �My Father Who Is On Earth� (he apologized for this, the title of a book he had written; I had done a report on it in an English course in college. When I was a child, about 1942 I was given a set of Lincoln Logs which he invented in 1920.). Thence I went to Los Angeles and worked for a structural engineer contracting with Hughes Aircraft. Hughes later offered a job to me tripling the salary. I refused - my mind was on entering Taliesin. I returned to Phoenix about November and found a job working for architect Edward Varney. I first heard of FLW in 1951 on the first day of my first architectural design class at Texas A&M - the teacher, architect Hal Mosley wrote "Frank Lloyd Wright" on the blackboard and said "this is the World's greatest architect". By the 3rd year one of my designs was so Wrightian that my classmates started calling me "Frank Lloyd Boyd". My best designs were archived at A&M but once when fellow apprentices at Taliesin found some of my drawings on top of the locker they were impressed and asked if I had shown them to FLW - I had never had occasion or opportunity or need to. I was admitted about the middle of December, 1957 after a walk-in 15 minute interview. I only answered FLW's questions without mentioning Broadacre City. He asked, "So you want to be an architect?" I said, "I want to learn the principles." He said, "Of building? I answered, "Yes". Then he said politely, "Have a seat." While he read his mail, we carried on our conversation. I mentioned I was working for Varney whom he knew of. I mentioned Ernest Langford, head of the Architecture Department at A&M who was Wright friendly, had retired and was replaced by Edward Rominiec, a Harvard (Gropius) man who apparently disdained Wright. He said he would accept me on the GI Bill if I could pay $200 to start. I said I could and he said to Gene, "Sign him up".
2. Education: In September 1933 - about six months after I was born in the Old Humble Camp 37 miles north of Houston, Texas - we moved to Crane, Near my Dad's parents home in West Texas. We lived out in the country in the Gulf Oil Camp a mile south of town surrounded by mesquite trees and cactus with rocky peaks starting a mile to the south, sheep and cattle grazing on the McElroy, et al lease with wind-mill and rain water tanks to swim in and oil wells scattered about. The camp housed all employees and their families of all social classes and ranks. Mother liked to read and had lots of books; she was a "Room Mother" in my elementary school until I was in the 5th grade; it was about this time, I was given a set of Lincoln Logs, which John Lloyd Wright invented in 1920 while he was with his architect father, Frank Lloyd Wright building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan. It was not until the year 2014 that I became aware of this after, reviewing a copy of John Lloyd Wright' biography of "My Father Who Is On Earth". My Dad was upwardly mobile and wanted me to go to college. He mentioned West Point after I showed an interest in the Boy Scouts. Dad's parents lived in town and were active in the First Baptist Church. Mother had been raised Baptist but Dad would not go to Church and mother seldom attended. They took me to my Grandparents for that. Granddad, a County Commissioner and Road Supervisor, was a Deacon; Grandmother was a Sunday school teacher. I had a religious conversion when I was eleven which spiritually separated me from the rest of my family. I attended Church and Sunday School until Dad died. Mother became ill and went in the Hospital in McCamey twenty miles south. With my sister Carla who was two years older I stayed in our new house in Crane for a few months before we moved to McCamey the summer of '47. There we lived in a house two blocks from school. After rejecting a proposal from the local newspaper publisher, Mother remarried in December 1948 to Beeler Brown, divorced, a base ball player, beautician and oil-field worker. In the summer of 1949 we moved to Grandfalls, 30 miles west of Crane. I was recovering from an appendectomy which almost killed me. I missed some time in school. I recall a few weeks there in High School later moving back to Crane for the last part of that school year. I remained with my Grandparents in Crane until I graduated about May 1951. I found a summer job with Gulf Oil in the oilfield 70 miles north of Crane, to pay my first year of College. I lived in the bunkhouse there.. As a child I remember visiting the bunkhouses in the Gulf Camp in Crane and an old carpenter who stayed there. I used to watch them building the houses as the camp grew.
I entered Texas A&M in September 1951 to study Architecture - I had no idea it was a military college and second only to West Point. I found it was very Wright friendly up until the time I withdrew in my senior year; I first heard of FLW in 1951 on the first day of my first architectural design class at Texas A&M - the teacher, architect Hal Mosley wrote "Frank Lloyd Wright" on the blackboard and said "this is the World's greatest architect". Looking back, I imagine my first thought of being an architect was about 1950-51 when I probably saw the movie, The Fountainhead. I recall asking my high school teacher in mechanical drawing about architecture as a course of study at Texas A&M - I had excelled as a draftsman in a contest sponsored by A&M. In the Spring of 1957 when I was in my senior year of Architecture at Texas A&M, we were assigned the problem of re-designing the campus for the year 2000. Researching the problem of City Planning led me to read FLW's, WHEN DEMOCRACY BUILDS. Still I had no idea how to apply this or any other known concept to the problem we were assigned then (but I do now). Someone said the only way you can solve the problem is to fake it; it was one of he great unsolved problems of the profession... so, I withdrew from school and spent the rest of the year working for architects, first in Fort Worth, Texas where I was living and later that Summer I went to California stopping at Taliesin West for a self-guided tour. �Aunt� Sophie and �Uncle� Valado gave me the run of the place. It seemed no one else was there. In Los Angeles I worked for a structural engineer contracted to Hugh�s Aircraft. I returned to Phoenix about November and worked for architect Edward Varney until I joined the Fellowship.
3. After Taliesin, in deep contemplation, I studied religion for 3 1/2 years. In 1963 I resumed work in construction and for various architects to complete my required three year architect-in-training pre-exam time, continuing research in City Planning on my own time. I recall while in one office the Dec. 24, 1965 issue of LIFE magazine on city planning was floating around the office. One article was, "No One's In Charge!". I asked one architect why architects did not take charge - he said, "we have to make a living". When I returned to my home town to start practice in June of 1966, I felt an ethical and professional responsibility to take charge of the situation and find a solution. I wrote a letter to the Governor of Texas and expressed my intentions and received a letter of commendation with an introduction to the newly formed Regional Planning Commissions (AKA Area Councils of Governments). I entered into pure research spending three hours a day in libraries for several years working various and sundry temporary jo bs two or three days a week. From 1971-72, I studied law by correspondence took a course in real estate and got a salesman's license. I returned to school from 1973-75 to study business management at a local branch of the University of Texas. In 1977 I conceived an idea for solving the problem of city planning once and for all: however, I immediately encountered opposition from the status quo.
Presently, in 2003, research and development continue - I am now using library computers for this. It has been an unpaid task, so far but I am sure the idea is viable and has real market value. See KYMAK web site for details.
4. FLW's talk after Sunday morning breakfast was a positive experience as were occasional personal interactions with him in the drafting room and on construction projects around Taliesin. fellowshipping with other fellows was positive.
5. That some of the buildings and grounds were unkempt.
6. Getting the feel of being an architect for the first time and finding the solution to the problem in City Planning.
7. No built projects, yet.
8. I found it similar to living in a dorm at college and a barracks in the army except that the surroundings were so beautiful at Taliesin and we had more privacy especially in the Arizona desert. In Wisconsin I had a room at Hillside next to the drafting room.
9. I remember Bruce who gave me a lot of his time and attention, Inigo an architect from Canada who did nice work. Nari, Dan, Roy, Mike, Vern S., Vern K., Patricia, Shirley and Shreve & Deirdre Babcock for their fellowship and friendliness.
10. Greek Orthodox Church for Milwaukee, WI - I worked on the plot plan, and drew detailed exterior wall elevations of the arched windows. At one point I was exempted from other duties normally assigned apprentices in order to complete these drawings; FLW sent Wes Peters to the kitchen at Hillside with Nari Gandhi to relieve me to tell me to return to the drafting room. I said, "Thank God! or whoever is responsible". I first saw this building about 1987 when they were re-roofing it. I thought it strange that the stained glass was an uncharacteristic pictorial rather than the usual FLLW geometrical design.
Marin County Government Center - I lettered the titles of the working drawings and worked on the scale mod el. FLW observed my work in both cases, asking approvingly, "who did this"? While I was lettering the titles he came up to me and said approvingly, "did you do this; keep at it, someday." I made the green house and eaves ornamentation for the scale mo del. I drew a section of a retaining wall approved by Jack Howe but altered by Mark Hyman. I visited Aaron Green's office in San Francisco looking for a job in 1959; the drawings were on the table so I told Charles Gardner who was in the office alone what I had done. He pulled out a ten dollar bill and gave it to me. This paid my rent for another week or so. I also visited the site in Marin County about that time, when there was nothing but an old bath tub there in the dale for a cattle watering trough.
11. Pavilion construction - I heard this structure was not approved of by FLW; however I suppose he suffered us to work on it to satisfy Olgivanna who had started it while he was away. I spent time with Inigo and others doing the opus-insertum walls, assembling the roof panels and mixing concrete with Joe Fabrius supervising.
Theater remodeling - I supervised a crew for a period of time on this project which involved changes in the interior and with Roy Guderian adding flagstone around the fountain at the entrance.
12. I planned to stay for one year but stayed 14 months the last two months were free. I saw FLW just before leaving and expressed my gratitude by smiling broadly while we looked at each other in silence. I had been admitted personally by FLLW after a 15 minute walk-in interview about the middle of December 1957 - later, some older apprentices at Taliesin became hostile to or jealous of me and went about to discredit me and even to question FLLW's sanity as one older apprentice I knew (Bruce) in Olgivanna's group had. My departure was later than I had planned because an older apprentice (Bruce) had asked me to stay another year. When I did, I was allowed to keep my money and stay for free, but when I refused their terms I was called to a meeting of a group of apprentices along with a few of my friends and they summarily asked us to leave. It came as a surprise - I was sad but tragically amused! I said I would not leave until had seen FLW. It was a couple or more weeks before I did and during breakfast one Sunday Frank and Olgivanna both raved over my arrangement of the dining room which was my assignment for that week - they said approvingly, who did this" as they entered. FLW said, �stand up a take a bow". This may still be on the tape recording made of these events.
The following week, FLW came up to me on a job site and we stood looking at each other for a long time. I was smiling brightly - he looked quizzically at me and finally with a grin he turned and walked away. I believe he understood � he died broken hearted shortly afterward. Since I had planned to leave after a year anyway; having stayed fourteen months, I went away from Taliesin in peace being completely satisfied with my experience there and with FLW. I was encouraged to study his ideas further as I do and seek to implement by way of building Broadacre City.
13. I was unable to keep in touch with things at Taliesin. This allowed or forced me to find my own way. I have not had any regular contact. I dropped by for a brief visit at Taliesin West about 1960 and 1966 and at Taliesin in 1967. Last year (2001) I found information on the internet about the Midglen Taliesin Fellows and subscribed to their publications. This got my name back on the list of fellows.
14. A few years ago I read somewhere (THE ACADEMIC REVOLUTION (?)) that a year with a Master is worth four years of college. I think this is because it inspires one to learn. That was my experience after Taliesin. I learned mainly by reading books and periodicals by and about FLW and following up on his references to other important ideas and personalities. I took his final edition of the book about Broadacre City, THE LIVING CITY as the thesis for my research in city planning.
Having had this personal encounter with FLW made it all come alive.
See my web site at Background
Douglas Boyd...Taliesin '58
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Additions and notes: 9:18 AM 8/9/02
I have added a line to item 10 about Marin Co.
At item 12 I should say three new apprentices I had befriended were called in with me. We had all been taken into the fellowship personally by FLW in the interest of the cause of architecture without consulting with his wife. Recently I have found others who had come and gone under similar circumstances.
http://www.modusmodern.com/robertgreen/robert_green.asp
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