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Last summer, Jason Fried made the three-hour drive from Chicago to Taliesin, the house Frank Lloyd Wright built in the hills of southwest Wisconsin. Wright, who lived there for 48 years, used the house as a sketch pad, constantly remodeling it to try out new ideas.
"I was completely blown away," says Mr. Fried, president of 37signals LLC, a software design company in Chicago. Beyond the architect's attention to detail, Mr. Fried says, he was struck by the beauty of the land and the sense of calm it conveyed.
Mr. Fried, an architecture buff who has been drawn to Wright's use of natural materials since he was a kid, is typical of visitors to the 600-acre estate. They're mostly architects and enthusiasts well-versed in Wright's work who need no...