aliesin West sits partially embedded in the ground, oriented toward the distant mountains. The stretched canvas, which covers the roof, allows the sun's light and heat to penetrate interior spaces. Walls and structural piers are fashioned of the desert itself, with large chunks of local stone set randomly into concrete mixed from the desert sands. Conceiving Taliesin West as an archaeological endeavor rather than a purely architectural creation, Wright wanted his building to recover the meanings the site had for its original settlers and to return its present inhabitants to a state of innocent and mythic beginnings, capturing the building's unfinished and deliberately “primitive” look. Wright’s wife, Olgivanna, said, “It looked like something we had been excavating, not building.” “Every time you turn, you’re left looking out to the desert. It makes you feel part of things....” —Anne Whiston Spirn, Landscape Architect