“FORGET THE ARCHITECTURES OF THE WORLD EXCEPT AS SOMETHING GOOD IN THEIR WAY AND THEIR TIME.”
-FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
photo by frank lloyd wright foundation
WILLIAM WESLEY PETERS
William Wesley (Wes) Peters was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, June 12, 1912. In the 1920’s the family moved to Evansville where Peters attended Stanley Hall then Benjamin Bosse High school. Wes’s first year of college (1929-30) was spent at the University of Evansville (then known as Evansville College). He studied math and other courses that would facilitate his future architecture education. Peters went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which was the leading architectural school of the time. While at MIT, Peters was taught with the French National School of Architecture’s system of largely Classicism. Wes studied History and theory in conjunction with the French system. In 1932, Frank Lloyd Wright founded the artistic community of Taliesin Fellowship. Wes Peters was the first paying apprentice, and soon became his right hand man. Peters returned to Evansville in 1933, after a year at Taliesin, to form his own architectural firm. 1933-36 Peters’ firm thrived despite being in the midst of the Great Depression. It seems Wes’s father is largely responsible for many if not most of his son’s commissions, recommending clients, and co-signing loans. The Peters and Wright family were joined on April 1, 1935, when Wes married Wright’s adopted daughter Svetlana. Peters earned his architect registration soon after. Wes and Svetlana Peters moved back to Taliesin in late 1936, and Wes took on responsibility in the school alongside Wright. After Frank Lloyd Wright’s death, Peters became the Chief Architect and Vice President of Taliesin.
Wes Peters at Taliesin West, 1972 (AP Newsfeatures, March 17, 1972)
expansion of joseph stalin’s family tree and his connection to william wesley peters
CONNECTION TO FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Frank Lloyd Wright was trained by Louis Sullivan, a classic architect. Though Wright had great respect for his teacher, he greatly opposed many of the conventions of Classicising Architecture. His 1931 book titled Modern Architecture was in many ways a diatribe of the Beaux Arts system. As early as the 1920’s Wright has set out to establish a school based on his theory of art as the “lead in Education”. Post-Depression there was a need for architectural revival that spurred Wright’s efforts. Wright’s wife, Olgivanna Wright, convinced him to form his school in 1931, first under the name “Home School for the Allied Arts” which would later be known as Taliesin Fellowship. The school was established out of a revamped family farm near Spring Green Wisconsin. The school was featured in a 1932 Times article. William Wesley (Wes) Peters became Wright’s first paying apprentice that same year.
Wes Peters (left) with Frank Lloyd Wright (middle). (Photo: The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives,
The Museum of Modern Art, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)
