KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Protecting the vision of Frank Lloyd Wright is the mission of Michael Miner.
“Frank Lloyd Wright is the best architect of all time. One of the greatest creative geniuses,” said Michael Miner, CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Revival Initiative. “We were originally formed in order to rebuild demolished or otherwise lost Frank Lloyd Wright structures on the original site.”
Restoring the past and redesigning the present is why Miner started the initiative.
"I thought we were beyond the point of losing Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, and when we did lose that building, we expanded the mandate of our nonprofit to include assisting building owners with restoration," Miner said.
Miner's work includes owners like Homer Williams, who has walked the halls of the Kansas City “Bott House” in Briarcliff, designed by Wright, for more than three decades.
“Eloise Botts was an unforgettable person," Williams said. "I had the first right of refusal to buy the house when she passed, and I was able to do it, that’s how it happened."
A fundraiser Saturday allowed the public to tour the home, which Williams, an architect himself, continues to watch over with Frank Lloyd Wright's vision that stood the test of time in mind.
“His whole career was pretty much predicated on a new identity that was American, that was indigenous, and we used materials and ways that were in keeping of how we live and not copying the European styles,” Williams said.
Leaving his mark for decades to come, the groundwork laid by Frank Lloyd Wright to creatively contribute to KC is something Miner says cannot be lost.
“Educate your kids, educate yourself, you can’t go wrong with arts," Miner said. "Mr. Wright always said with nature —and he was right about that, too — it will never fail you. True art will never fail you, either."
