I'm constantly hearing about the very much deserved virtues of FLW (usually from those with little knowledge of him beyond Fallingwater but that doesn't detract from his obvious talent) and occasionally I hear about his being insignificant and not a big deal - it's funny but even though many of his designs are quite significant (look at the Guggenheim or the Johnson Wax building, for instance), I feel his largest contribution is in the Wright Fellowship, Taliesin and his apprentices. I'm on some design forums and he is constantly being diminished as unimportant and compared to other modern architects like Lautner, then someone points out that John Lautner was indirectly one of his apprentices and it becomes a foot-in-mouth moment for the detractor.

If you're into architecture and design, for the record FLW had 263 apprentices (1932-1959, not all of whom went on to practice architecture) whom he directly taught (plus many more at Taliesin after his death, who were taught by his apprentices). His influence on architecture and design is really quite obvious when put into that perspective.

-- John