A visitor on a walking tour at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West was killed in a freak accident on Friday when a piece of debris from the building’s roof fell and hit the man’s head, the New York Times reports.
The victim, identified as Brother Rogério Renato Mateucci, the rector of Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Brazil, was touring the UNESCO World Heritage site in Scottsdale, Arizona when strong winds—the local weather service reported gusts up to 32 miles per hour—dislodged a piece of the roof at around 2 pm. According to the Scottsdale Fire Department, he died instantly. No other injuries occurred.
“The Foundation extends its deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the individual who died Friday, October 16, following an accident at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona,” the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation shared in a comment to AD. “The Scottsdale Police Department is aware of the incident, and no further details will be shared out of respect for privacy and to allow officials to complete their work. The property is closed to the public until further notice.”
Taliesin West was designed in 1937.
Jim Steinfeldt/Getty ImagesWright designed the home in 1937 as his winter home and studio, imagining it as a desert camp that emerged from the arid grounds. Originally, the building was topped with a canvas roof, which offered protection from the hot sun while still allowing light to pass through the covering. “These were lightweight, translucent, and could be opened and closed to modulate air flow and temperature,” Rebecca Barron, Director of Preservation at Taliesin West, shared in a previous blog post from the foundation.
However, the material wasn’t waterproof and over time the building transitioned to year-round use (currently, it serves as the headquarters for Wright’s foundation in addition to other public programming) prompting the foundation to add fixed acrylic panels in the 1990s in certain areas. According to the blog post, the foundation is in the process of replacing the acrylic roof with a more resilient material that more closely resembled Wright’s canvas. The Times reported that Rogério was hit by an acrylic object, but the foundation did not comment on the condition of the roof when the accident occurred.
“Brother Rogério spoke and acted with a rare gentleness and had a remarkable ability to listen, always making room for others to be heard,” Paulo Mussi Augusto, Ph.D., Kent State’s associate vice president for global education, who worked closely with Mateucci through a partnership between their universities, said in a statement. “He loved beauty and found it where art and science met. As a man of faith, he was steadfast, slow to judge and always willing to give people another chance. His legacy will continue to inspire all of us who had the privilege of knowing him.”