The first influence which really permeated Wright's buildings to any great degree, however, was traditional Japanese architecture. Wright, who early acquired an interest in Japanese prints, seems to have seen his first Japanese building at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Here, the Japanese government pavilion was a half-size reproduction of a typical wooden temple complete with dark horizontal and vertical beams forming an exterior pattern, white rectangular wall panels, and a deeply overhanging roof. The Japanese concern for the relationship of buildings to their natural surroundings also undoubtedly impressed Wright, as did the exquisite ordering of details to the whole of the structure. Wright always denied the influence of Japanese architecture upon his work for some unknown reason, but many of the early "prairie houses" manifest this influence too clearly for the architect's denial to be believed. Good examples of these "Japanese prairie houses" are the Hickox house of 1900 and the Bradley house, also of 1900, both in Kankakee, Illinois. In these houses, not only the overhanging roofs, grid patterns of dark beams, and white plaster panels are reminiscent of Japanese construction, but also their markedly horizontal orientation and modular organization are characteristic of Japanese buildings.

Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan

Ironically enough, when Wright was actually commissioned to design a hotel in Tokyo, he abandoned his Japanese-influenced style for a new architectural mode. The Imperial Hotel of 1916-22 (now demolished) was the first of his structures suggestive of the Mayan ceremonial buildings of Yucatan. Like Wright's "Japanese prairie houses," however, the Imperial Hotel was not an exact reproduction of a Pre-Columbian structure. The architect thoroughly assimilated Mayan motifs into his own stylistic concept to produce a building with a feeling similar to such complexes as the Nunnery at Uxmal. The richly textured lava that faced the walls of the Imperial Hotel was reminiscent of the inventive geometric patterns carved in rectangular panels by Mayan stonemasons in Mexico. Also belonging to Wright's "Mayan" period are a group of houses in the Los Angeles area constructed of pre-cast concrete blocks. These houses, for example, the Freeman house of 1924, also have the massive character peculiar to Mayan architecture.

Taliesin West

By the end of the 1920's, Wright began to abandon architectural ornament in favor of simpler surfaces on his houses. He exploited the textures of natural materials, of stone, wood and brick, instead of creating modular decorative designs. His own home, Taliesin West (begun in 1938) near Phoenix, Arizona, with its local sandstone set in concrete walls, almost disappears into its desert surroundings.

Wright was always interested in the patterns created by nature, too. In 1922, he designed some summer cabins for Lake Tahoe, California, which remained on paper. These drawings show structures suggestive of the crystal formations that grow in rocks. Wright also used triangular and polygonal modules in many of his skyscraper projects, such as the St. Mark's Apartment Tower of 1929 in New York City. As early as 1925 he created his first spiral design, seen in a drawing for the Gordon Strong Automobile Objective and Planetarium planned for Sugar Loaf Mountain, Maryland (never built). The Guggenheim Museum in New York (finished in 1959) also resembles a snail or conch shell. Many of Wright's buildings are constructed along circular modules, for example, the Johnson Wax Administration Building at Racine, Wisconsin of 1936-39. Wright always abhorred "the boxes" that were the dwellings of most Americans, and preferred the flowing, organic form of the circle to the harsh artificial form of the rectangle. He wanted his buildings to be in harmony with nature.