Reviving a Masterpiece

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Frank Lloyd Wright is often referred to as the greatest of all American architects, and for good reason. His body of work includes some of the world's most iconic structures of the modern era, including the famously bucolic residence Falling Water, New York's spiral Guggenheim Museum and Scottsdale's surreal Taliesin West, among many, many others.

In all, Wright designed 1,141 buildings of which 532 were built, with 409 still standing. His work included numerous private homes, schools, churches, libraries, bridges and museums. One project, however, is unique as Wright's one and only foray into designing a plantation.

RELATED: A Close Look at Taliesin West

This property, known as Auldbrass, located in Yemassee, S.C., occupied Wright off and on from 1938 until his death in 1959. Among the structures planned for the space was this amazing swimming pool. In 1989, Carecraft member company Crystal Pools of Columbia, S.C., was chosen to build the pool using Wright's original aesthetic design, while updating the pool with modern technology such as an in-floor cleaning system, among other features.

The pool is 125 feet 6 inches long and 21 feet 6 inches wide and holds 118,000 gallons of water. The hexagonal spa unites the hexagon-shaped floor tiles of the home. The pool's walls mirror the inward sloping of Wright's other Auldbrass structures and give the waterscape the illusion of being dramatically deeper. The decks are colored in a striking Taliesin Red, a color developed by Wright himself.

The project now joins a handful of pools in the Wright design cannon. Others include the triangular pool at Taliesin West, the beautifully simplistic rectangular pool at Falling Water's guesthouse and the pool at the Innis House in Los Angeles.

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