Taliesin Preservation’s restoration of the Hillside Theater at Frank Lloyd Wright’s former estate in Spring Green, Wisconsin, has been completed following a five-year and $1.1 million transformation effort for The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Originally designed in 1903 to serve the Hillside Home School that was included in the 800-acre estate in the heavily forested Driftless Area, the space is now once again capable of hosting theatrical productions and will precede its public reopening with a series of film screenings and musical performances throughout the summer.
Aspects of the restoration work included adding a fresh HVAC system, repairing subgrade water damage, ADA-compliant accessibility enhancements, adding two fresh green rooms to the basement, and issuing major repairs to the building’s roof and interior/exterior finishes.
The hand-sewn curtain, gifted to Wright by pupils of the foundation who were working with his design, provides a final finishing touch to the restoration work. The theater was inaugurated on June 10th with the season opening of the Rural Musicians Forum.
“Reopening the Hillside Theater is more than just a preservation milestone; it’s about reinvigorating a cornerstone of our cultural heritage and providing an immediate benefit—in the form of a newly restored theater—for our neighboring communities and visitors to the region,” Stuart Graff, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, said to the media, adding it would “[foster] a deeper connection to the arts as part of Frank Lloyd Wright’s lasting legacy.”
The project was funded in part thanks to a grant from the National Park Service’s Save America’s Treasures program. The National Endowment for the Arts and National Trust for Historic Preservation also provided grants to lend a hand fund the renovations. It follows the former School of Architecture at Taliesin’s decision to close in 2020 after operating continuously in the Wisconsin location for 88 years.
