A visitor on a walking tour of a major Frank Lloyd Wright architectural property in Arizona died on Friday after he was hit by debris from its roof, local officials said.
Brother Rogério Renato Mateucci, the rector of Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Brazil, was touring Taliesin West in Scottsdale when strong winds ripped off part of its roofing. Brother Rogério, who was a member of the Catholic order of Marists, was struck in the head and died instantly, the Scottsdale Arizona Fire Department said in a statement.
A statement from his university said he had been hit in the head by an acrylic object.
Wind warnings had been issued across the Southwest on Friday. At the Scottsdale Airport, strong winds were reported all day, with gusts reaching as high as 32 miles per hour around 2 p.m., when Brother Rogério, 55, was struck at the famed building.
Taliesin West was built in 1937 as both a living laboratory for architectural study and a winter retreat for Mr. Wright and his students. The desert studio, nestled in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains, is a World Heritage site and a National Historic Landmark.
Mr. Wright envisioned Taliesin West as a desert utopia, comprising “low-slung buildings designed to reflect the sweeping expansiveness of the desert,” according to the foundation’s website. The structure was built largely of “desert masonry,” including local rock set in wooden form, bound by a mixture of cement and desert sand to make the buildings feel like they were an extension of the desert. (Mr. Wright lived primarily at a complex known as Taliesin in southwestern Wisconsin.)
Taliesin West is closed to the public until further notice. In a statement, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation said it “extends its deepest condolences to the family and loved ones” of Brother Rogério but provided no further details about the accident.
Brother Rogério’s university in Brazil, which canceled classes on Monday, said in a statement that he was on an institutional visit to Arizona State University in Tempe as part of an international immersion program.
Taliesin West is popular with tourists, with more than 100,000 visiting annually for guided walks around the property.
Over the years, the Scottsdale complex has been altered and expanded, including the addition of a music pavilion. During Mr. Wright’s time, the roofing was made out of canvas and framed by wooden beams. But a fire in the mid-1960s burned the pavilion to the ground, and it was rebuilt. By the 1990s, the roofing system was changed from fiberglass to an acrylic exterior sheet, according to the foundation’s website.
The complex has been undergoing major renovations since 2021.
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