Award Winning Taliesin West

As KU starts the overtime period against Colorado (bah!), I figured I'd type up a few blogs. Sitting here on my bum is as good a time as any since I'm a little behind in my blogging because I've been traveling a bit.

Over the weekend, I took a trip over to Phoenix for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Region Conference. Kicked off the Conference with a tour of Taliesin West, the famous architectural school and home of Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale, Arizona. While I'm not very up on my architecture, I gotta say, Taliesin was AMAZINGLY cool! If you ever get a chance to visit any of his homes, go for it! You won't be disappointed!

First up - a shot of me at the entrance of the tour:
My SWE pals Elizabeth and Sarah:
A view from outside - this portion used to be the "home" for the architectural students (apartments along the top, dining in the front area, and the grass/pool were play areas for the kiddos):Another view from outside (note that the buildings are not very high, as Wright believed it shouldn't be taller than the surrounding cacti and trees):He even designed the totally sweet chairs (and this was a low table that you could review architectural drawings; and yes, that's a plant in the middle - nature was included in every part of the property):
A view of downtown Scottsdale - can't see it? That's the point - it's pretty far out there (and most of the plants were imported):
One neato aspect was the fact that there weren't any interior lights. The windows were all angled such that the 360-some days of sunshine would provide all of the light needed and at night time, the fireplaces (in every room) provided the light:
Maybe on my future travels I'll try to catch a few more Frank Lloyd Wright houses, as I think I caught the architecture bug!

For the remainder of the SWE Conference, I had a blast. Got to catch up with all of my SWE pals, sit in on a few interesting presentations, and enjoy the warm Phoenix weather.

However, the REAL highlight for the Conference was being awarded with the "Emerging Leader" Award for the Region. I had no idea that I won, so I was quite thrilled when they called my name! Here's a cheesy picture with my pal Deb (and I can't take credit for the photo and honestly, I'm not sure who snapped it...):
But now, I'm back in gloomy Albuquerque (it snowed today) and am counting the minutes until Spring gets here... At least I'm back home with my boys, so all is grand! (And KU just won the game!)

Rock chalk,
~kerrie