"No other American city can claim as many of the architect's proposed designs and as many of his finished works"
-Susan Pigorsch

When Frank Lloyd Wright moved back to Madison in 1911, he was already an internationally famous architect and a respected visionary. He'd made his mark in Chicago with his pure American style, he'd spent a year in Europe, and he'd soon have commissions in Japan, California, and New York. But he would continue to work in Madison, considering it "a city favored by nature as no other living city." He introduced some of his most innovative designs in Madison for local clients, from the beginning of his career to the end, he designed for the city of Madison itself. Few places in America can claim as many of the architect's finished works and no other can claim as many of his proposed designs, which were created throughout his career.

Yet, he was also an arrogant critic of his hometown. He did not hesitate to chastise the populace who he felt turned their backs on their own good fortune. This attitude turned many Madisonians against him, nevertheless, Wright left the city with an internationally important legacy.

Many of the drawings of buildings that he produced for sites in and around the area have never been published, but they have been exhibited in the Elvehjem Museum of Art in 1980. Several of the designs introduce new construction techniques, such as an ingenious crane-and-hoist system for a Lake Mendota boathouse; under-floor hot-water heating, and track-type lighting for the first Usonian house.

Together, the drawings of the buildings, boathouses, and commercial spaces that might have been are testimony to what Madison might still yet become. Monona Terrace one of these projects that became a decades-long battle between those who shared Wright's vision for a city jewel on the lakefront and those who did not.

It was a turning point in Wright's relationship with Madison. His campaign for a waterfront building would have cost $1 million in federal funding and was ultimately defeated. This failure in the 1940s and again in the 1950s was perhaps Wright's most painful defeat. Just as he was achieving his greatest fame, for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, for the Marin County courthouse in California, Madisonians disrespected him. But Wright remained unconcerned. "Madison is old but I am persuaded already that young Madison, whatever its age may be, wants the Monona Terrace project for the children of its children's children" he wrote... and he was right!