There’s no shortage of words that have been used over the years to describe Frank Lloyd Wright: brilliant, arrogant, unrivaled, cranky, inspiring, scandalous, or legendary, just to name some. But few can depict him like Roland Reisley. “He became a mentor and a friend,” the retired physicist who later worked in the electronic instrument business, tells AD.
When Reisley was just 26 years old, Frank Lloyd Wright agreed to design a home for him and his wife, Ronny, who passed away a few years back. A little under 75 years later (he just celebrated his 100th birthday), he is Wright’s last living client. “The house has been wonderful, and my life here has been good,” he says. “I think the house has contributed to my health and longevity.”
In the early 1950s, Wright was highly revered as one of, if not the best, modern American architect. By this point, he’d already designed some of his most influential works—the Guggenheim Museum, Fallingwater, and the Imperial Hotel, for example—and despite family scandals, personal tragedies, and the fact that at 80-something years old he was well into his golden years, the architect was at the top of his game. The Reisleys, newlyweds at the time, never dreamed of asking him to design their home, but it just so happened that luck was on their side.
.JPG "Working With Frank Lloyd Wright: The Architect’s Last Living Client Shares His Experience With the Visionary 1")
In 1950, the couple joined Usonia Homes, a cooperative community supervised by Frank Lloyd Wright, and chose a building site. One thing led to another, and Wright ultimately expressed interest in designing their home. “It was a remarkably good experience,” Reisley remembers. “I had a very good relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright.”
Wright’s original vision centered on a 1,800-square foot, low-slung house embedded into a small hill on the couple’s land. One of his Usonian creations, which were intended to be affordable and intertwined with the natural landscape, the residence was to be defined by a cantilevered carport and two stone masonry pillars. However, once the architect handed over the blueprints, Ronny noticed a problem. “She said there was no broom closet,” Reisley remembers. Further, there wasn’t space for the couple’s many books.