Frank Lloyd Wright’s former winter home has closed to visitors after an acrylic roof fragment killed a university rector. Police are investigating the death as a weather-related accident.
Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s former winter home and studio in Scottsdale, Arizona, remains closed to the public after a visitor was killed by a fragment of roofing on October 16. The closure will last until further notice, The Art Newspaper reported on October 21.
Established in 1937, the UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historic Landmark also served as an architecture school. It began offering guided tours after Wright’s death in 1959.
According to the Scottsdale Fire Department, as reported by The Art Newspaper, an acrylic fragment struck Rogério Renato Mateucci during an afternoon walking tour, when wind gusts reached 32 mph. Mateucci, rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Brazil, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police are investigating the death as a weather-related accident, The Art Newspaper reported. The structural cause of the roof’s detachment remains unconfirmed.
Mateucci’s colleague Vidal Martins questioned how the roofing had been attached and called for safety measures. Martins was not on the tour but visited the scene afterward. He believed a curved, translucent roof panel shown in a photograph he supplied to a newspaper was the object that struck Mateucci, according to The Art Newspaper.
The publication also relayed an anonymous former employee’s claims to local news that he had seen two other objects break loose from the roof and had filmed a similar panel partially detaching during a summer monsoon. The former employee said he believed insufficient money was being directed towards building safety. These are allegations about maintenance and earlier incidents, not findings from the police investigation.
The black, gold and green edition follows September’s sold-out preorders. Nintendo’s replenished launch-day stock also quickly sold out.
1 min
Taliesin West’s original roofs used canvas stretched across wooden beams. The lightweight material could be opened or closed to regulate airflow and temperature, then removed and stored when Wright and his students left for the summer. As the site was adapted for year-round use from the late 1950s, fibreglass panels replaced the canvas. Insulated acrylic panels followed.
Earlier in 2026, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation preservation director Rebecca Barron said a 2011 energy audit had found the acrylic roofs were not energy efficient. She said the foundation had spent the past decade developing a plan to replace panels that were “nearing the end of their serviceable life” with modern fabric roofs intended to withstand the desert climate and honour Wright’s original design.
The foundation, which manages the site, says it is withholding further details out of respect for Mateucci’s privacy and to allow authorities to complete their investigation. It has not announced a reopening date and did not comment when asked about safety measures it plans before visitors return.
Her 16 September–October shows grossed $125.5 million and sold 539,000 tickets, setting records for revenue and attendance per performance.
3 min
Wolf Alice will support every concert on the April–July run, including both London shows. Subscriber presales begin November 2, followed by Visa access and an Artist Presale before general sales open November 6.
4 min
