Taliesin (WI) - Cost to fully restore

[Tim]

Hello -

We toured Taliesin (WI) last week. My son asked me how much it would cost to fully restore Taliesin. What would that cost? I guessed $50M. That is about $1000 per ft2, and then rounding up. Are there any estimates on the matter or has anyone worked up a budget?

Thank you!

[SDR]

Let us agree to call it Taliesin---or Taliesin North, if a qualifier is really necessary. (Wasn't that Mr Wright's last published name for it, in "The Natural House" ?) And while we're at it, who was it who called the Wrights' suite at the Plaza in New York "Taliesin East" ?

S

[Roderick Grant]

Taliesin is approximately 36,000 sf. There was an estimate many years ago of $50M. I have no idea how much restoration has been done so far, or how much it has cost. DD Martin cost ~$50M. I bet Taliesin could easily double that.

Perhaps "Spring Green" can chime in?

[Tim]

I removed "east". Fair enough!

[Tim]

$50M to $100M doesn't seem too far off the mark.

[outside in]

we'll never know, as the "model" for taliesin restoration involves a crew running around fixing things. A process that has no beginning and no end, without accountability for budgets, timetables or markers of progress. From a marketing prospective, there are no singular projects with a specific budget to raise money for, no fund-raising campaign and no celebration upon completion. Taliesin will never be restored using the current model.

[DRN]

Agreed.
Given that much of it was built on a shoestring budget by semi-skilled labor directed by an owner/architect who seemingly saw Taliesin in the later years as a full scale study model, how would one restore it? To its original state...what month or year? Using the original means and methods?...the house is now a World Heritage site...does one build to match, or instead for the ages using hidden steel and concrete where needed?
Has the great civil engineering puzzle of safely directing storm water from the hilltop around or under Taliesin been completed?

[Roderick Grant]

One of those questions has been answered: The date for restoration is April 9, 1959,

To keep the ramshackle building standing, there will have to be hidden supports here and there. Hopefully such will be done adroitly, without being glaring about it. At Hollyhock, there are I-beams fully disclosed holding up the porch in Sugar Top's room, without apology. That sort of approach to 'restoration' grates on my nerves.