pass through at least two more recognizable stages in his architectural design, the textile block (1917-1924), and the Usonian (1936-1959).In 1909 Wright left the United States for Europe with Mamah Brothwick, the wife of a former client. He left behind a comfortable home life including a wife and six children and a well-established business. His European travels brought him fame across the sea at a greater level than that he had received in his native homeland. Wright did not stay long in Europe, returning in 1910 to Chicago and Wisconsin where he began construction on his second home, "Taliesin" in 1911. The year 1913 brought Frank a contract for Midway Gardens in downtown Chicago, an entertainment park on the south side of Chicago, which exists today only in the original plans and drawings. In 1914 disaster struck Wright's personal life and work on one fateful day, when "Taliesin", completed by this time, burned and his present mistress, her two children, and four of Wright's leading workmen, were murdered by a raging servant. Wright ran away again. This time it was across the Pacific to Japan.In Japan, Wright completed one of his masterpieces, The Imperial Hotel. The project provided Wright with an engineering problem as well as an architectural challenge. Finished in 1922, the Imperial hotel was criticized for its aesthetic design. The hotel was designed to be stable in an area plagued by earthquakes. The design found praise when the hotel survived without damage a devastating earthquake just a year after it was completed. Wright had managed to design a "floating foundation" for the building, which combined oriental simplicity, in modern world comfort. This was one of the few periods in Wright's life were his financial situation was at a positive level. Imperial Hotel Returning to the United States in 1922, Wright pursued the use of a new material in residential homes, concrete. Most of these "textile block" houses were...
