Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel Restoration & Whats wrong with current building practice?

[Starius]

Due to board picture posting restrictions, my initial post here is going to be divided between 3 posts so please bear with me!

During my recent visit to Mason city for the River City Festival I had the pleasure to see the Frank Lloyd Wright Park Inn Hotel & City National Bank building.

The building is currently under restoration and they hope for it to be finished by 2010 for it's 100th anniversary. (Assuming they can raise 11 million dollars worth of funds by then.)

Due to it's current condition, it's never been listed in any of Wright's best works... which is a genuine shame. Wright only designed 6 hotels.... and this is the only one left standing today. Not only that, but this is the only building he ever designed in the spirit of "convergence." It was a hotel, it was a bank, and also a law office. A 3-in-1, and he never did that anywhere else. This building should be a national treasure.

 

[Starius]

As you can see from the interior photos here, the insides still have a long ways to go. But it was a very interesting tour and we got to see the current state of all 3 floors. Most of the residents of Mason City haven't had the chance to see the interior before.

Here you can see a few vintage pictures of how it looked in the past.


And here are some models for current restoration and inn room renovation.

I thought this was pretty interesting. This was one of the original hotel room doors. It features a unique ventilation system in the door that allows air to flow through it while still not being able to see through from one side to the other. I'm sure it helped keep the rooms from getting too stuffy in the old days. This kind of door won't be making a comeback for the new inn rooms however.

Here is one of the new windows recreated by Anderson Windows, which is fitting because Anderson was the manufacturer of the original windows.

I believe this was one of the communal bathrooms on the 3rd floor, with a iron tub still there.

A lot of work ahead of them but I think its a great thing they're doing.

 

[Starius]

Between this tour and the Dillinger robbery re-inactment, I couldn't help but think about my own home town. I mean, our bank was robbed by Bonnie & Clyde in the 30s! Surely we could do our own little re-inactment of that for our summer festival day, right?

Well... might be a good idea if we still had our original bank building. It was still around when I was little but was torn town in the early 80s and replaced with a more "modern" looking bank building.

Our old bank, which I think was beautiful.

Our current bank that replaced it.


If you ask me... it wasn't worth taking down. I think the original had far more character than the current one. But in small towns, you see this all the time!
Old buildings with such character don't get taken care of and get torn down and replaced with... well, they get replaced with "blah buildings" at best. Small towns have it rough these days, why do we hurt ourselves even further by subtracting our character and heritage? If a building has to go down, at least replace the thing with as much as or more architectural character than what was before it! There is a town near here that has a public library that looks like a tin sided tool shed. Hardly the kind of building to invoke inspiration or stir the imagination.

So, at any rate, I applaud Mason City for taking the effort to preserve their architecture. (They have a good share of it too.) Smaller towns around here don't seem to care much anymore and it makes me rather sad.

Any of you live in smaller towns that are holding on to classic architecture?

 

[carter]

Starius,

I toured Falling Water in PA a number of years ago while they were beginning the reinforcement of the cantilevered concrete decks which were all sagging. The preservation of these buildings is very worthwhile.

Thanks for posting some excellent photos.

Now to find an excuse to go to Mason City, Iowa.

 

[dhermann1]

Did Wright design any furniture for the hotel? He designed the interior Falling Water to the point where he almost dictated the position the owners had to sit in. I'll bet he at least selected the furnishings. Thanks for the pix.
It's a shame that part of the "small town" mentality it that we have to be "up to date", which oftener than not means destroying the old and good, and replacing it with junk. Congrat to Mason City for the effort.

 

[Starius]

That's a good question, I don't actually know if Wright designed the furniture there but I'd think it very likely he did. I wish I had thought to ask that there.

I do know that some elements that have been gutted from the inn over the years have been returned. A iron railing was removed from it years ago and someone used it for yard fencing, but that has been returned to the restoration project. I didn't see any original furniture left in the building during the tour.

Mason City has another Frank Lloyd Wright building as well, which I unfortunately didn't get a chance to see while I was there.

The Stockman House was originally a school house designed by Wright in 1908 but is now a residence that offers tours to the public. I'd like to take a look through that whenever I get back to Mason City.

Wile walking down the street, however, I did come across this apartment building that caught my fancy.

It was a hotel originally, and apparently sometime between then and now it was.... a house of ill repute, if you get my meaning. But it made me happy just to look at it. The curvature of the iron railings and over the main entries gave me a nouveau vibe.

 

[texasgirl]

Thanks so much for posting these pictures. I didn't get a chance to check it out as we were so busy with the show. I look forward to seeing the end result! The former bank building where we did the reenactment had some pictures of the original inside. Everything was marble- the floors and walls. Just gorgeous, but they gutted it in the 60s

 

[dhermann1]

These medium sized cities have such potential to revive their classic profiles, if the desire is there. There's nothing more depressing than an old city that has ripped its own guts out, and replaced it with desolation. On the other hand, a city that revives its old downtown can spark a revival that can make everybody proud of their hometown.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

I bet all the little towns that tore down the nice, turn of the century brick buildings are kicking themselves now. It's hard to convince people to visit your quaint little town when it's full of late 60's modern junk for buildings. Even here in Houston a bunch of the nice brick two/three story storefront type buildings were torn down in the 70's and made into parking lots by land speculators. Now developers are building fake, "Disneyland" versions of the same thing on the same lots to try and get people to spend more time downtown.

 

[dhermann1]

It's still going on, rampantly. It's all about the money you can get from "development". And it's also about local, State, and Federal money that's corruptly diverted to boondoggles. Demolish good buildings that would cost a small amount to rehabilitate, spend a fortune on new construction, and the new buildings sit empty until a generation later they're demolished in turn. But all the political players get their piece of the pie.

 

[imoldfashioned]

Wow, Starius thanks so much for posting these pictures. You're right, if there was any justice this structure would be a national monument. So interesting that Anderson did the original windows.

 

[Akubra Guy]

Hi- new to FL and first post!

It is sad that in many peoples minds that old/vintage = junk. The worst example of "out with the old and in with the new" is the little town of Huron, Ohio located on the lake close to Cedar Point Amusement Park. In 1973 they completely bulldozed the ENTIRE downtown area for Government allocated HUD money that never materialized to rebuild the city to "modern" (ugly) standards.

The city council, against the citizens and business owners protests took over the entire downtown area by eminent domain and destroyed every last part of it, rerouted the main street, built a boat basin on the river to attract tourists and transient boaters (to what they were to come to--they never thought that out) and to this day there is no downtown area to speak of. We moved to Huron just a few years after this was done and it was just incredible the damage that had been done to a quaint small waterfront community-especially after seeing the pictures of what had been there before!

This city made national headline news for their stupidity.

 

[Starius]

Welcome to the Lounge, Akubra Guy!

I am both astonished and saddened to hear of such a town blunder! What you describe is practically inconceivable to me!

One can appreciate their initiative for a more prosperous future for their community.... but doing so at the cost of their physical history is a fine method for failure.

Any attraction for "newness," while indeed often powerful, is still fleeting and temporary for the unwavering fact that there is always something newer right around the corner. You want a more stable attraction that pays out more over time? Always go with the historic. Your historic treasures can only be added to, never taken away. (Well, unless you're dumb enough to bulldoze it all down.)
I mean, really, it can boil down to pure economics. I guess some people will never learn.

 

[tonyb]

It appears that much of what remains of our inventory of interesting old buildings owes its very existence to a sort of fortuitous neglect. When the suburbs boomed in the 1950s and '60s, many urban neighborhoods and entire small towns got abandoned by the more economically fortunate types. Had there been development pressure in those older districts, the structures would have been demolished to make way for it. But in much of the country the better opportunities were seen in the areas that had yet to see any development at all.
Now I see some of the more compelling mid-century stuff getting short shrift and having its essential character "improved" right out of it. And the close-in districts in many cities are more desirable (and expensive) than those outlying 'burbs.

 

[HadleyH]

[/QUOTE=Starius]


Frank Lloyd Wright's arquitecture moves me, it does it's so amazing :eusa_clap I adore it and the windows particulary in all of his houses are something else ... i always recognize his houses by the windows.

"...poetic, elegant and soulful Frank Lloyd Wright windows were hymns to nature."


This building should be made a national monument!

 

[Akubra Guy]

Thanks Starius for the welcome!

The Pictures that you have posted of that building are great--I've never seen that FLW building before--or at least don't remember it. I've always been a fan of his buildings and design and every one of his buildings should be preserved.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

With four shopping centers on every corner of every section of my town, I doubt there are any, but there is an area of the town here starting with the word, "old", and looking at some of the buildings, they look older than others, but I don't know how old.

There are however a few victorian homes and a lot of homes built in the 20's to the 60's. My house was moved to the lot where it sits and was built in the 60's somewhere else.

 

[Ande1964]

Every Wright building should be preserved. He was, himself, a national treasure.

My day spent at Falling Water was one of the most memorable of my life.

Anj

 

[Starius]

Every Wright building should be preserved. He was, himself, a national treasure.

My day spent at Falling Water was one of the most memorable of my life.

Anj

I'm afraid I don't know too much about the personal life of Frank Lloyd Wright, but when waiting in line for the tour through the renovation of the Inn a older gentleman was telling me all about what a "cad" he really was and how he had mistresses tucked away here and there. Ha ha, I'm afraid that only made me more interested in him...

 

[Ande1964]

Well, I think he was definitely a hard guy to live with. He knew how great he was, and wasn't shy about it.

Anj