Master of Architecture candidate Dave Freedman's reflections on his journey to over 200 of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings have been featured in an article on Good News Toronto. The graduate student, and winner of the Howarth-Wright Graduate Fellowship, spent last summer visiting many sites in cities across the United States.

The fellowship, established in 2000 by former Dean and Professor Emeritus Thomas Howarth, provided funds for Freedman's field research on the prolific architect. In the article, recent grad Dustin Valen weighed in on the importance of the scholarship saying it "provides an opportunity for in-depth research into one of North America’s most influential practitioners of architecture in the 20th century.”

It is clear that Freedman's extensive travels provided a deeper understanding and appreciation for Wright's body of work, perhaps making it even more difficult to choose a favourite. “From the Guggenheim, to Fallingwater, to the Johnson Wax Administration Building and the Research Tower," Dave says in the article, "along with nearby Wingspread, to the Price Tower, both Taliesin and Taliesin West, and the textile block houses of the Los Angeles area, there were too many exceptional experiences to call out a single one.”

However hard it is to choose a favourite, Freedman's thesis does focus on one particular Wright project, a building that was never completed in build or design: the Mile High Illinois. "The skyscraper, if completed and built," the article describes, "would be the tallest in the world today — almost twice as high as the current record-holder, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai."

The article ends with Freedman's thoughts on his thesis, the culmination of his travels and research, “Wright’s Illinois tower was imagined for Chicago, but my proposition will be sited in Toronto and take into consideration 21st century understandings of structure, programmatic usage, circulation and site integration,” he said. “While Wright hinted at some of these concerns, many conclusions remained elusive since the project had barely reached a schematic stage during Wright’s lifetime.”

Click here to read the full article.

Photo credit: Nevena Niagolova