The Towers of Frank Author(s): Michael Mostoller Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 38, No. 2 (Winter, 1985), pp. 13-17 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1424813 . Accessed: 01/08/2013 21:09

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This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 1 Aug 2013 21:09:38 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Towers of

MichaelMostoller is an architectpracticing in TheNational Life Insurance Company group was culation-serviceelement rises higher than the NewYork City. He has taughtat Rensselaer to be locatedin Water Tower Square in Chicago. twopart rectangles fronting on it so thatthey PolytechnicInstitute, Harvard & ColumbiaUni- Thecomerstone of theWater Tower was laidon see to growout of it. Eachrectangular part is versityand is nowan Associate Professor of March25, 1867,the year of Wright'sbirth. W. slab-likein shapeand is similarto hisPress Architectureat the New Jersey Institute of Tech- W. Boyington,the architect, created a Gothic Buildingof 1911. Infact the NationalLife solu- nology. fantasyof massivestone that has lasted to this tionsets fourPress-like buildings alongside each day-outlivingboth the Great Fire and the ram- otherto forma largerfigure. Weare witnessing a newboom in skyscraper pantgrowth on MichiganAvenue that A. W. buildingthat parallels the great eras of the Johnson,Wright's patron of the '20s,saw com- Thisact of groupingto forma newconfigured 1920sand 1960s. Yet the current work still ingand that was fully achieved in the 1970s towerpattemis an originalcontribution to the leavesunattended the formation of meaningful withthe gigantic Water Tower Place shopping, dilemmaof cityand tower. It solves the abso- conceptsof thecity and the tower. Fundamental hotel,office and residential complex. Of course, lutelyessential problem of officework and light questionsof the cityand the tower considered Wright's1920s project was notbuilt. That this whichconstantly influenced this type by positing togetherare left unaddressed inthe current is so is a greattragedy, for as we shallsee, it a maximumwidth dimension; while grouping speculativecraze: (1) Shouldthe tower dominate was designedat thetime when Wright's archi- thesenecessary individual elements into a new or be subordinateto the city, (2) Shouldit orga- tecturaland urbanistic impulses considered the buildingtype. This larger, crenellated form' nizethe cityand/or its partsor shouldit be cityas a dense,built-up place of buildings, facedthe green Square and its Water Tower, organizedby it, (3) Howcan a cityof many blocks,and streets and squares. andpreserved a solid edge to thespace. It went independentlysited towers create a viableurban beyondthe earlier Press Building solution which realm("a living city"), and (4) Howcan the Wright'sstrategy at thistime can be recon- hadsimply fitted a tallbuilding on a givencity towerand the city create a workof artof the structed.If we observetogether the ground level lot.While the NationalLife is admittedlya much twentiethcentury? perspective,Fig. 1, andthe axometric, Fig. 2, largerblock scale proposition, ittoo accepted we canconsider Wright's volumetric and urban theconstraints of blockand street essential to Aninteresting model for an analysis of these idea.The building consists of fourrectangular thecontinuity and spatial definition of an urban issuescan be foundin the work of ourgreatest volumes-set in parallelseries with the short place.Its layering in shallow revetments on the Americanarchitect, Frank Lloyd Wright-partic- facestoward the Square. They are linked at the towerfaces and the towers to backwall mass- ularlyhis work in the 1920sfor the National Life backthird point by an interconnectingcorridor ingsallowed the space of thesquare to pene- InsuranceBuilding in Chicagoand St. Mark'sin serviceand vertical circulation element. This cir- tratedeep into the building, and yet, be bound the Bouweriein NewYork City. In addition to thesetwo specific projects, the architecture and constructionof thetower in hiswork was a leit- motifof his personalstruggle for a newway of thinkingabout architecture. His lifelong search fora newarchitecture based upon natural form, innovativestructural technique and modular designwas reflectedin hiswork on thetall building.Each project was part of a theoretical developmentthat extended throughout his long career,symbolizing his constant battle for 'organic'architecture. There are lessons then, of urbanism,construction and design in the towers of FrankLloyd Wright. TheNational Life Insurance Project of 1920-24 standsat themidpoint of hiscareer and as well, at a certainbalance point in histhinking of the cityand tower. It fused a revolutionaryarchitec- tonicvision of space,structure and form with a conceptof an urbanrealm that was an active andvibrant city. uliii ?? Wright'searlier work on thetower accepted givenand constricted urban sites, as we shall 1. observelater. The National Life project allowed himto the workin go beyond prefatory many 1 Project:National Life Insurance Co. Chicago,Skyscraper, Chi- 2 Project:National Life Insurance Co. Chicago,Skyscraper, Chi- importantways. cago, Illinois,1924. Groundlevel perspective. (Hitchcock, cago, Illinois,1924. Axonometric.(Wright, An American #263) Architecture,p. 117) Winter1985, JAE 38/2

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3 "Skyscraperproperly related to streets,"1931 Sketch. lB (Wright,An American Architecture, pp. 130-131)

byit. Oneither end of the blockthe slab side at a middlescale (the lower scale being the win- preservedthe street spaces as well. dowmodule) to shapethe faces and comers of each'facade.' The result was completely three- Thusa subtleinteractional balance occurred dimensionalinfeeling. The bottom floors were betweenthe scale of theslab, the scale of the 0 carvedaway under the cantilever to createa '..- andthe urban ,?--55;;""" ..- configuration setting.Neither city senseof thestreet and of entryto shops.The *.D. norbuilding dominated, they coalesced into a slabsstepped back into two great masses along *.. . newentity. The height was keptrelatively low as theirown sides while remaining constant on the well, to a denialof reference,elim- leading point WaterTower Park front to createa dynamicvol- .,' ... inatingthe tower as a dominatingdistant focal umetricsense. Finally, the great core of the pointin the city. By creating a configurationof structurerose above all, with a treatmentof linkedindividual elements Wright hinted at the structuralrelief at thetop. resolutionof theanarchy that results from the simultaneityof independently conceived and Wright'sgrasp of thespectrum of architectonic competitivetower elements. developmentfrom detail to wholewas carried throughcompletely at NationalLife. The 'build- Afterthe configured tower invention of 1920-24 ing'was no longera bunchof elements,nor a Wrighttwice later attempted to achievethis syn- base-middle-topformula, nor a massenlivened thesisof building,height, street and open withdetail. It was a three-dimensionalspace- space.The first was in 1926(and updated in webthat fused inner and outer skin and mass 4 Romeoand Juliet windmill for MissesLloyd Jones, Hillside, in a of 1931) series hypotheticaldrawings of intowhat would have been a shimmering,som- Spring Green, , 1896 Photo (Wright,A Testament, twourban blocks, Fig. 3. Twogeneral types berwork of art. p. 31) wereshown: a perimeterblock pattem that cre- atedan innercourt, and a street-alley-streetpat- Wrightmay have sensed this achievement and tern.In both cases the ground plan was created theextent to whichit wentbeyond all prior work bybuildings of sixto tenstories which formed a on thetower-he showedit to 'LieberMeister' base.Two towers were placed on diagonalcor- LouisH. Sullivanshortly before he died.As nersof eachblock. Shops were placed at the Wrightrecalled, "Gratefully I remember-and secondlevel, served by an arcade.The arcades proudlytoo-that Sullivan said: "I had faith that bridgedthe streets at thecomers. Vehicular it wouldcome. It is a workof greatart. I knew trafficwas restrictedto groundlevel. A subway- whatI wastalking about these years-you ??,*rL; trainsystem was placedunderground forming a see?"Wright dedicated the design to Sullivan L?: three-levelmovement system. andseized the mantleof his mentorin skyscra- f?*

wasthe true master. But r . perdesign-Sullivan *?'i ti Thisurban vision extended the 1920-24propo- Wrightwould have to waitthirty years to builda ?rx

sitionof Nationallife to a genericlevel. It tallbuilding. I *a yl C? addressedthe urbancongestion problem as well I . .., f Wright'searlier work had hinted at someof this withthe tri-level scheme of separatedmovement u.. r, ? I ?t* 4 modes.This proposal of Wright'sis remarkably achievement.The structure at his Romeoand x . Julietwindmill, the massing at the PressBuild- I * r, *.. , similarto Harvey Corbett'sschemes for ????;??? I .; Wiley andthe thedevelopment of Manhattanwith the Regional ing exteriorskin at the LuxferPrism PlanAssociation of 1923.A similartri-level projectall led up to thisdesign. trafficscheme was offered in Corbett's proposal. Wright'scommission for his first tower came HoweverCorbett left unaddressed the issueof fromhis Mother's in 1896.It was thetower and the resultant street family simple space. enough:to erecta windmillon the newreservoir Ifwe considerthe architecture of the National forthe Hillside School run by Aunts Nell and Jane.As he noted,"This was decided upon by 5 Project:Luxfer Prism Co., Facade,Chicago, Illinois, 1897 LifeBuilding in moredetail we notethat each Pespective.(Wright, A Testament,p. 30) 'slab'of theconfiguration was supported by six a familygathering which the clan . .. held..." hollowpylons running to thefull height of the Itwould sit abovethe school he haddesigned buildingto revealitself on theupper floors. The earlier(1887), on a "whitesand-rock hill" visi- floorslabs were extensively cantilevered from blefrom the surrounding farms of hisfive 'patri- the pylons.Wright used the stairs and elevators archal'uncles, his aunts' brothers. The school alsoas pylonsto stabilizeand carry the sur- itselfsat on his Grandfather'soldhomestead. roundingfloor loads on a similarstrategy of cantilevering.The cantilevering allowed the massingof configuredslabs to be manipulated Winter1985, JAE 38/2

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7 Project:Grouped Apartment Towers, Chicago, Illinois, 1930 Perspective.(Hitchcock, #308)

In 1921 whiledesigning (National Life) Wright a 'directcontinuous' study that took pre- AABTri6ENT ( began liminaryform in two unpublishedattacks on the city, "InBondage" and "TheUsonian City" and reacheda firstconclusion in 1932 in his bookThe Disappearing City. Thus, curiously, L * Wrightproduced his most decisivelyurban 11-H-C-HIr[ II I .... <> a / 1--11l-iW"II-I 4VUNI /S ^ designsat the same timeas he definedhis une- quivocalopposition to the urbanphenomenon in its totality.3 GiorgioCiucci, 1979 Wright'ssecond greattower project of the '20s reflectedthis changingattitude. Wright'sSt. Mark'srepresented both a contin- uationand denialof the workon the National LifeInsurance project. It developedfurther the APtAinINT A ideasof structureand skinfirst used in Chicago 6 Project:St. Mark'sTower, , 1929 Plans, section, (Hitchcock,#305-307) in 1920 but deniedthe urbanidea of buildingon WaterTower Square. Wrightclearly meant St. Mark'sto be a total and completestatement of the toweras a new Thetwenty-nine year-old architect's first designs Thefacade of the LuxferPrism is certainlypro- architecture.It wouldexemplify all his work, forthe tower were criticized as beingexpensive vocative,Fig. 5. Itsgridding into squares and becauseof the uniquesolutions to structure, andfoolish by his uncles,who wanted steel or a theslightly projecting glazing set withinthis grid skin,space and urban place that it posited. moretraditional timber construction. The aunts, lendan airof geometricprecision and abstrac- however,approved, liking its 'dignity.'The new tionthat no othertall building of theera offered. Thestructure was again the hollowcentral core designfeatured a uniquehollow shell construc- Itis almosta completeglass wall, yet it stops supportingcantilevered slabs from which tion,with two interlocking volumes-a 'dia- shortof beinga curtainor screenas thetwo "wallscreens'were hung, Fig. 6. Thetree-like mondshaped part' and an 'octagonshaped elementsof glazingand the structural grid inter- structuralsystem and light skin would deny the part,'Rg. 4. lock.But we mustremember, this was 1897! 'senselessfeudal masses' of 'falsemasonry' that he sawNew York City architects putting up Telegraphedby Cramerthe local builder that the Lessradical is theframing element drawn aroundlight steel frames. Even the steel frame towerwould fall-if builtas designed-FLW aroundthis glazed grid and the delineation of a systemwas deniedand surpassed in Wright's repliedby Westem Union, "BUILD IT." Remark- base-middle-topformula (although the top is not use of steelin tension where it operatesmost ingon the mutuallysupporting, hollow forms, strongand is flat).However, certain aspects of efficiently,rather than in bendingin moment Wrightlater stated: thiscomposition have appeared everywhere, as connections,where it worksleast efficiently. Wrightclaimed later in A Testament.For Wright It wasall simple enough. You see, thewooden the 'Romeoand Juliet' tower signified a discov- Theensemble was plannedon a triangularmod- towerwas rooted as thetrees are. Unless eryof a principleof structuralform and volu- ulesimilar to designsfor a bargeon LakeTah- UPROOTEDit could not fall for it wouldnot metricmass, as wellas a personaltriumph of oeginin 1922and the camp Ocatillo Wright built break..... Try,sometime, yourself to breaka will.With the Luxfer'sconcentration on the in 1927while working on Dr.Alexander Chan- barrel. problemof skinand facade, the windmill and dler'sresort for millionaires-San Marcos in the office thebeginnings Desert.At St. Mark'seach was Thetower rode out its first big storm, and it buildingtogether provided apartment lastedout more. of Wright'sTowers. plannedexactly the same, using this module. many Mostfumiture was builtin, followingthe geom- to TheLuxfer Prism facade of 1897was of Strangely,while Wright had been eager etryand some of thebeds even have chamfered great assumesuccession to Sullivan's of the to Notonly did mastery comers.This was Wright's first use of thetrian- professionalimportance Wright. urban tallbuilding-he it openup a worldbeyond the private client, it paradigmatic type-the gularmodule-unit as theoverall generating disci- tookhim into a concernwith the urban scene alsobegan a seriesof attackson 'skyscraper- plinefor a majorproject. It was also used to ism'in the 1920s. He in New andthe of work.It also, as usual,chal- saw, particularly developthe central element at SanMarcos place York,a newform of verticalbuilding that lengedWright to rethinkthe nature of theprob- wherethe two legsof the projectmet at an lem-in thiscase an officefacade. He used marked"the milestone and gravestone-our angle.A three-dimensionalrectangular grid had skyscraper-inthe potentialcemeteries that our beenused at NationalLife but Wright now modemmaterials and non-classical composi- Ciucci tional proudestcities are to become"2Giorgio wantedto go furtherin the statement of thedif- procedures. hassuccinctly analysed this paradox: Winter1985, JAE 38/2

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8 Project: Hotel, Shops and Theater. Washing- 9 Project:, 1934-1938. Aerial perspective. ton, D.C.1940 Bird's-eyeview. (Hitchcock, #411) (Wright,Drawings, #221)

ferenceof his workfrom that of the restof bendsand a tallertower was introduced. Inthe 'architecture.'The triangular grid emerged in the Chicagoproject the perspective indicated an desertfrom the forms of mountainsand cacti. urbanintensity-cars inprofusion, a dirigible in Wrightjustified its use in humanhabitations, in thesky-but the grouped towers themselves sit TheArchitectural Forum in January1938, claim- intotal greenery. The Washington project, done ingit facilitatedand accommodated human in1940, is as Hitchcockhints, a brilliantpre- movementbetter than the rectangulargrid. monitionof post-World War II urban construc- tion-a greatassembly of apartments and hotel However,this functional issue should not dis- a andtheaters all set the onethat was rooms, shoppingcenter, guise philosophical paramount arounda giant parking garage. We now also inWright's use of thetriangular grid at this knowhowever, that what Hitchcock saw as time.Wright believed this grid brought the "urbanismatthe scalefor the andits intoa total proper twentieth building occupants harmony century,"is not urbanism atall. It was sub- withnatural law, not cultural and technical dic- urbanismatbest. tates. - -' 's---i. .. -_..!" --g1 _ I L ,-*.-. Inthe decade from the of National _ .~, Onanother thatof the of the beginning level, concept Lifeto the Depression and the demise of the St. 10 Project:Roger Lacy Hotel, Dallas, Texas, 1947. Perspective. urbanplace appropriate for a tallbuilding, Mark's settledhis (Wright,An American Architecture, p. 134) St. Mark's a of the Project,Wright finally ambig- Wright's constitutedrejection uousstand towards the city as goodor evil. urbanspace-making and space-defining charac- of center,etc., Fig.9. Inthis once again Wright's of NationalLife. His new tall Twentiethcentury "skyscraperism"-the city teristics building tightlypacked towers-became the symbol of thinkingconforms with other architectural was nowa singularpoint, or as chartedon an decadence. the notionsof a cityof towersbeing formulated sketchof theensemble and cultural Onlyby returning tower, aerialperspective as wellas man,to opencountry land, could then,Le Corbusier's Ville Radieuse, being the church,a groupof points.The shape was now "civilization"survive. mostprominent. anobelisk-tower, not a slab.The proportions wereroughly three times as tallas wide,the Wasthis the result of hisexperience inthe Later,in 1946,Wright experimented with a vari- generalside-on proportions as of the Romeo desertduring the design of St. Mark's?Certainly ationon hiscounty building-skyscraper regula- andJuliet windmill. Itwas meantto standin theintensity ofthe desert geography confirmed tionstype of mountedtower in the RogerLacy space,not create it. As Wrightstated, "this Wright'spropensity to prefer nature to society. hotelproject in Dallas,Fig. 10. Itsatrium-court skyscraperwas planned to standfree in an Theclamorous vilification of his person in the spaceand curtain wall were far ahead of itstime urbanpark and thus fit for human occupancy." twentiesmust also have contributed to his rejec- andhave now become universal and ubiquitous. Thisnew freestanding character of an integral tionof the urban place. But, finally the subse- A similarsolution was reachedfrom the neces- wholedominated Wright's thinking from then quentBroadacres vision of the thirties was an sityof addingto an existingmid-height building on. Thevision of thefreestanding block would extensionof hisTaliesin concept to theentire inthe famous Johnson's Wax tower of 1947.It soondominate modem architecture as the work society.Like the remains of St. Markwhich managedto meldinto one concept, the major inthe thirties in Europeattests. Wright's St. werestolen from the ancient city of Alexandria ideasof St. Mark'sand the mounted tower type Mark'scan therefore be seenas typicalin urban bythe Venetians in828 and taken to Veniceto of the regulationsstudies. termswith other 'avant garde' work while inno- starta newurban order in their lagoon, so vativein its architectoniclanguage. Wright'sNew York tower of St. Mark'swould Theoriginal Johnson's factory had been con- beplaced on the new ground of hissuburban structedas a greathypostyle hall, with dentri- Wrightattempted to extendthe St. Mark's Broadacre Inhis version of the 20th cen- formcolumns of Wright'sdesign. The research modelonto a scale-the City. larger ChicagoApart- tury"City in the Park" he wrote, tower,constructed ten years after St. Mark's, mentsof thefollowing year, 1930, and the confirmedhis intuitionof theorganic structural CrystalHeights Project in Washington,D.C. Towersof prismaticmaterials; steel, concrete conceptof thetower. He again used the hollow of 1940. andglass; shafts rising above greenery, each on corewith suspended slabs-the slabalternating itsown ... of the to formdouble interior 11. Inthe 7, a privategreen. Advantages height spaces,Fig. ChicagoApartments, Fig. doubling countryside-freshair, beautiful views, freedom The'effectwas streamlinedand recurredtwice to createa linearcluster form, "diaphanous, fromnoise and the traffic jam, growing acquain- feminine,"influencing other great works of this notunlike the NationalLife's crenellated slab, tancewith nature ..." but the century-theEngineering Building at Leicester using geometryand shape of St. Mark's James andRichards at inthe Bouwerie. First linkedtwo of the by Stirling Laboratory Wright Whilethe tall building is antitheticalto a life theUniversity of Pennsylvaniaby LouisI. Kahn. squarepin-wheel towers of St. Mark'stogether devotedto the landWright seemed to compre- to formbasic "building block." He then linked hendthat there could be stagesof lifewhen a IfJohnson's Wax fulfilled the generic principle thesetogether by balconies to forma continu- dramaticapartment in a toweroverlooking good of Wright'stower concepts, the in ous chain.At Crystal Heights, Fig. 8, a similar viewswould be a suitablehome. He also care- Bartlesville,Oklahoma was the sign of conclu- procedurewas followed. The chain furthermore fullyplaced them in his landscapeas markersof siveproof: "the tree that escaped the crowded importantcivic events-the stadium,the town forest,"Fig. 12. Thebuilding's complex exte- Winter1985, JAE 38/2

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Notes

j :. 1 NewYork work of the teens, includingthe infamousHave- 'Lf^ meyerBuilding, also adoptedthe crenellatedform, but failed to vt|use fik it to createa newtype and allowed it to remainmerelu and expedientto achievemaximum square footage on a block. c- "^^ ^2. Wright,Frank Lloyd. The Living City. New American Library, 1958. -*** <^:,_gs..,. 1-^ t ~ ~- | 8t^ '* i l Deal.et al tr, by BarbaraL. LaPenta from Italian. MIT Press, *k_ --~qk" ~E~9i~1979, p. 328.

11 ResearchTower, S. G. GJohnson and Son, Inc.Racine,Wisconsin, 1947. Perspective.(Wright, Drawings #165)

ror, enlivenedby the mixture of officesand conythat shielded the floor below from sun. Highwas Wright's last curtain call as thecentu- aparmbents,the severaland varied sun control Suspendedwindow walls of plastichung from ry'sgreatest 'affirmative protestant.' The Mile devices,the interpenetrating volumes, the thehollow slabs behind each balcony. The col- Highwas and is a greatprotest against the appearanceat the baseand the top of thecarry- oredrendering shows a greatgleaming golden scrabblingheap of 'anarchicindividuals' ingconcrete core, and its copper-glassskin obeliskdwarfing the Golden Beacon and the (Tarfud'sterm) trying to reachthe top of the confirmsWright's organic vision in the tall towersof Chicagoin the background. Itwas a city.Wright despised the commercial world and buildingtoday, one we couldall reconsider as proposalso stupendousthat one still does not itsrepresentation inthe skyscraper city. The city anarchitectural solution. Its aspect and silhou- knownow how to react.The Mile High, his last of towerswas not,to Wright,a tenableanswer etteare different from all sides. Its color is bold tower,is a greatfinal symbol of theparadoxes to centralization.Only a supremeact of building andsoft at thesame time. It does not rely on of Wright'sattitude towards the city. On the one couldsave the world that wants to buildhigh- academicformulas but achieves a base-middle- handhe believedin democracy, on theother he theerection of a tower'more permanent than topperception. Compared to eithercontempo- calledits manifestationa 'Mobocracy.' Inhis the Pyramids,'that housed 130,000 people, a rarystandard curtain wall structures (wall earlywork he believedin a collectiveurban form cityunto itself, a treethat became the forest. l screen),or avantgarde decorated boxes, of talland low buildings, in his lastworks he Wright'stower seems extraordinarily lively and absorbedthe city totally into a giantstructure. upto date.On the other hand it remainsurban- As an architectcommitted to creatingan image isticallyinferior to theproject for National Life of an emergingmodem society his architecture, andeven an eadystudy for St. Mark'sthat whileof unquestionedgreatness, remained includedthree towers. That neither were built intenselypersonal and never passed into the canbe attributedto economic factors, the generallanguage of architecture.Inaddition Depressionof coursecut off St. Mark'sand the Wright'sBroadacre City rejected the basic fact Bibliography developerof NationalLife never found the cour- thatthe emerging modem society was urban 1 Hitchcock,Henry Russell. In theNature of Materials.Da Capo, ageto proceed,according to Wright. andsuburban, not rural. The Mile High, or the 1975. ten MileHighs that Chicago actually needed 2 Wright,Frank Lloyd. An American Architecture ed. by Edgar Whilethe PriceTower was beingbuilt Wright might,thought Wright, resolve this dilemma, if Kaufmann.Horizon Press, 1955. a 3. Wright,Frank Lloyd. A Testament.Horizon Press, 1957. proposed tallerversion of it inthe 1950s for hisCity of Towerscould replace the traditional theChicago Lake front called, the "Golden Bea- 4 Wright,Frank Lloyd. Three Quarters of a Centuryof Drawings. city. HorizonPress, 1981. con."But the Golden Beacon, an extensionin 5 Wright,Frank Lloyd. The Living City. New American Library, heightof hisearlier concept was literallydwarfed Likea myththat, with the wave of a magic 1958. by his lastexperiment with the city and tower. word-wand,dissolves contradictions, the Mile 6 Wright,Frank Lloyd. An Autobiography. Horizon Press, 1977. Wrightpresented us withthe tower that was the city. I CantileverSky-City-528 stories--tnpod in i plan-one milehigh from grade to topfloor; dividedinto four sections-exposed members aluminumor stainlesssteel-elevators especially designedtandem-cabs ratchet-guided type, I , atomicpower-escalator service basement and i. I I. ;

firstfive floors-four quadruple land approaches . ^. to eachof thefour entrances-one entrance at .^ lj eachcomer--parking lot for about 15,000 cars andlanding decks for 150 helicopters. 'i L__j:. .... S, E~ Withmuch hoopla, Wright unveiled his Mile til .. I ... 13. It four - HighIllinois, Fig. rose, triangles 0

..* _ __ j~ . .I * arounda core, an odd - tripod forming rectangle, 'F \-. X likean arrowhead.Itsat likea 'rapierbladehan- dle'in the ground with a frameworklike a tree. . :* ; .* .. Itsgreat base for parking was similar to the CrystalHeights base. Rising from this giant pad *1 theobelisk twisted on itselfseveral times as it .! rose,each prow of theodd rectangle disappear- ingupward into an opposingform until a single 25 foottriangle remained at thetop. Each floor 12 H. C. Price CompanyTower, Bartlesville,Oklahoma, 1953- 13 Project:The Mile High Illinois, Skyscraper, Chicago, Illinois, wassurrounded by a goldcolored metal bal- 1956. Perspective.(Wright, A Testament,p. 196) 1956 PreliminarySketch. (Wright, A Testament,p. 238). Winter1985, JAE 38/2

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