Frank Lloyd Wright visited Arizona in 1927 to consult on the designs for the Arizona Biltmore. In the years after that visit, Wright and draughtsmen spent time at temporary sites in Arizona, including a desert camp they built near Chandler in 1929 that Wright named Ocatilla. In 1937, seeking a more permanent winter residence, Wright acquired several hundred acres of rugged desert at the foothills of the McDowell Mountains near Scottsdale, where he and apprentices began constructing Taliesin West as a desert camp where they planned to live each winter to escape Wisconsin weather. Wright conceived Taliesin West as a bold new endeavor for desert living, yet its designs also reflected his basic architectural ideas adapted to new circumstances, producing new forms. Those principles formed the basis of his Organic Architecture, a philosophy that integrated buildings with their surroundings, drew inspiration from the nature of their settings, and aimed to provide an ideal environment for working and living.