Saturday, October 4, 2008

Saturday Drive

The Price Tower is a nineteen story, 221 foot high tower that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertically-oriented Wright structures extant.

Wright nicknamed the Price Tower, which was built on the Oklahoma prairie, "the tree that escaped the crowded forest," referring not only to the building's construction, but also to the origins of its design. The Price Tower is supported by a central "trunk" of four elevator shafts which are anchored in place by a deep central foundation, as a tree is by its taproot. The nineteen floors of the building are cantilevered from this central core, like the branches of a tree. The outer walls hang from the floors and are clad in patinated copper "leaves."

Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower was his pioneering experiment in the multi-use skyscraper: a tall, slim, richly detailed structure whose purpose was to combine business offices, retail and apartments.

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