(Photo courtesy of Andriew Pielage, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)

Taliesin West is the winter home for students of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, who spend the other half of the year at Taliesin in Wisconsin.

In August, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Scottsdale announced that its architecture school, Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, would lose its accreditation in 2017.

After months of public backlash and social media campaigns against the decision by students and alumni, the foundation had a change of heart over the weekend.

All 17 members of the foundation's board of trustees voted in favor of working toward independently incorporating the school, which is currently a division of the foundation. This move would mean the school could continue offering a master's degree program beyond 2017, because as an independent entity it would be in compliance with new accreditation rules set in 2012 by the Higher Learning Commission, the agency that accredits the Wright school and other colleges and universities.

This recent decision is a complete change of direction from when KJZZ spoke to the foundation's CEO, Sean Malone, earlier this month. At the time, Malone said the foundation wasn't comfortable with spinning off the school for many reasons, and that the decision was final.

But all that changed over the weekend.

"The passion exhibited over the past few weeks by the students, faculty, and other supporters of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture is shared by every member of the Foundation Board and staff leadership," Malone said to students and staff this weekend in an email obtained by KJZZ. "This gives me confidence that the board and (Higher Learning Commission's) financial independence conditions can be met."

Nothing is set in stone yet and there are many details that still need to be worked out. "It will require the raising of significant funding to support the school, in a short period of time," Malone said in the email.

But students, alumni and other school supporters all consider these measures to be steps in the right direction.