Much of Wright’s Bold Vision Remains Out of Reach, a Dream
Many of the dreams and schemes of Frank Lloyd Wright never came to fruition. For example, he envisioned:
* A steel cathedral for New York City, more than 1,000 feet high, with space for a million worshipers “of all denominations.”
* A cultural center on an island in the Tigris, as fantastic as anything in the Arabian Nights, for the King of Iraq. The king, unfortunately, was assassinated before the project got off the drafting board.
* The “Mile High Illinois Building,” a 500-story tower for state offices in Chicago, with room for 100,000 civil servants, 15,000 automobiles and 100 helicopters.
* A proposed state Capitol for Arizona, a sprawling, horizontal, canopy-like structure, all on one level, with gardens, fountains and pools, which Wright deemed “a true oasis in the desert.”
* A “butterfly-wing” bridge across San Francisco Bay, proposed by Wright in 1949 and now the subject of serious renewed interest since last October’s disastrous earthquake.
* Broadacre City, a planned community to replace the crowded cities: no grade crossings, billboards or utility poles, houses all on one-acre plots, tree-shaded, flower-lined roads and some “noiseless” airfields, for commuting to work, distribution and recreation areas, all within a radius of 50 to 100 miles.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
