Monthly Update
A Major Milestone for the OA+D Archives
In mid-August, OA+D completed an important cross-country move, transporting a truckload of archival materials from storage in Chicago to our home base in Chandler, Arizona.
Packed with boxes, crates, flat files, and more, the collection traveled 1,752 miles across prairies, plains, mountains, and desert before arriving at OA+D’s processing center. The materials have now been safely unloaded, and work is already underway to process, organize, and integrate them into the larger Archives.
This move marks a major milestone for OA+D. With the majority of our collections now centralized in Chandler, OA+D has become the world’s largest repository of archival materials devoted to organic architecture and design. Bringing these materials together will strengthen preservation, improve access for researchers, and support future exhibitions, publications, and educational programs.
Achievements like this are made possible through the financial support of OA+D’s generous donors, subscribers, and members. By joining Friends of OA+D, our sustaining membership program, you can provide reliable, ongoing support for the preservation and sharing of this extraordinary architectural legacy.
Become a Friend of OA+D today and help us continue this important work.
An Ocatilla Evening: Reserve Your Tickets Today
Join the Organic Architecture + Design Archives on Friday, November 6, 2026, for An Ocatilla Evening, OA+D’s annual fundraising celebration at the Chandler Museum.
The event coincides with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s annual conference taking place in the Valley, making it a special opportunity to gather with architecture enthusiasts from across the country. All conference attendees and members of the public are welcome to order tickets.
Guests will experience Ocatilla: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Lost Desert Masterpiece in an intimate after-hours setting while enjoying hors d’oeuvres, drinks, conversation, and a silent auction featuring unique items and experiences.
At the heart of the exhibition is a full-scale reconstruction of one of Wright’s 1929 Ocatilla cabins, accompanied by rare archival materials, historic photographs, original objects, and more. Together, they reveal how Wright’s short-lived desert encampment helped reshape his ideas about architecture, landscape, and life in the Southwest.
Proceeds from the evening support OA+D’s work to preserve, protect, research, and share the history of organic architecture and design through archival stewardship, exhibitions, publications, and public programs.
Friday, November 6, 2026
Chandler Museum
Tickets: $75 per person
Hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and silent auction included
Space is limited, and this is an event not to be missed. Whether you are attending the Conservancy conference or simply share a passion for architecture and design, reserve your place now for an unforgettable evening in support of OA+D.
From the Archives: Two Original Drawings for the Sidney Bazett House
OA+D has added two original Frank Lloyd Wright drawings for the Louise and Sidney Bazett House, a Usonian designed in 1939 and built in Hillsborough, California, to its growing collections.
The first drawing presents exterior elevations and a plan of the house, including its broad rooflines, extensive glazing, masonry forms, and distinctive geometric layout. The second focuses on architectural details and proposed changes, with studies for the roof, ceiling, flower box, living room, workspace, and construction conditions. Frank Lloyd Wright's handwritten notes, corrections, and initialed approvals offer a revealing look at the design process as ideas were reviewed and refined.
Together, these drawings provide an important record of Wright’s attention to both the overall composition of the house and the precise details that shaped its final form. Their folds, pencil marks, colored lines, and working notations also preserve the physical evidence of how architectural drawings were handled and used as active design documents.
Now part of the OA+D Archives, these remarkable sheets will be carefully preserved, documented, and made available for future research, exhibitions, and publications.
If you have archival materials related to Frank Lloyd Wright, the Taliesin Fellowship, or any other organic architectural or design items that you're interested in donating for our growing collections, please let us know by contacting us at info@oadarchives.org.
Support the Archives. Share the story. Become a Friend of OA+D.
OA+D NEWS & EVENTS
OA+D Featured in Phoenix Home & Garden
OA+D is honored to be featured in the August/September 2026 issue of Phoenix Home & Garden. Written by Nora Trulsson, “Preservation Dedication” explores how OA+D grew from the passion of three collectors into a major architectural resource preserving more than 300,000 drawings, models, photographs, books, furnishings, artworks, and other objects related to organic architecture and design.
The article takes readers inside OA+D’s Chandler facilities and highlights treasures connected to Frank Lloyd Wright, William Wesley Peters, Louis Sullivan, Eugene Masselink, Paolo Soleri, Bruce Goff, and many others. It also shares the story behind the organization’s founding, the importance of keeping the Taliesin Architects Collection in Arizona, and OA+D’s continuing commitment to making these materials accessible through research, publications, exhibitions, and public programs.
The feature also looks ahead to Ocatilla: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Lost Desert Masterpiece, opening October 27 at the Chandler Museum, and OA+D’s ambitious vision for a permanent museum and archives facility.
New Book from OA+D Archives Press: Frank Lloyd Wright Encore
OA+D is pleased to announce the publication of Frank Lloyd Wright Encore: Space and the Organic Ideal by eminent Wright scholar Neil Levine.
Through three illuminating essays, Levine explores how Frank Lloyd Wright transformed architecture from a collection of static enclosures into fluid, multidimensional, and deeply human spatial experiences. Tracing Wright’s development from the vertical geometries of his early designs to the interpenetrating spaces of his mature work, Levine reveals how the architect’s concept of openness evolved as both an artistic and philosophical pursuit.
This handsome 128-page hardcover features more than 40 color and black-and-white photographs and architectural drawings. Levine examines how Wright’s organic ideal grew from an aesthetic principle into a comprehensive worldview that united material, purpose, context, idea, and spirit.
Frank Lloyd Wright Encore will be available in early September 2026, and is now available for pre-order for $25. Please note that this special publication is not included with a Journal OA+D subscription and must be purchased separately.