Frank Lloyd Wright URN from the Facade of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo

This is one of ten original urns that punctuated the complex, horizontal facade of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The hotel was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). The Imperial Hotel was considered one of Wright's most famous and respected buildings. The hotel was demolished in 1968 but some portions were preserved including this urn. The form of the urn - a circle defined by interlocking squares, is consistent with Wright's decorative use of geometric shapes throughout the hotel. The monumental urn is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I took this photo.

Scale model of FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT''s FALLINGWATER

This is a scale model of FALLINGWATER, also known as the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence designed by American architect FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867-1959) in 1934 in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. The model is on display at the Museum of Modern Art.

From wikipedia:

The house was built partly over a waterfall in Bear Run at Rural Route 1 in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains.

Hailed by TIME magazine shortly after its completion as Wright's "most beautiful job," the home partly inspired Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead, and is listed among Smithsonian magazine's Life List of 28 places "to visit before ...it's too late." Fallingwater was featured in Bob Vila's A&E Network production, Guide to Historic Homes of America. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named the house the "best all-time work of American architecture" and in 2007, it was ranked twenty-ninth on the list of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA.

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM after exterior restoration

Ceiling

These are photos of the the distinctive GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, taken when we visited last weekend. From September 2005 to July 2008, the Guggenheim Museum was enclosed in scaffolding while a team of architects, structural engineers, and conservators worked together to restore the building in preaparation for its 50th anniversary celebration in 2009. The museum is Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark building and his last major work that is widely revered today. From the street, the building looks approximately like a white ribbon curled into a cylindrical stack, slightly wider at the top than the bottom. Its appearance is in sharp contrast to the more typically boxy Manhattan buildings that surround it.

Information from wikipedia:

In the first phase of the restoration project, a team of restoration architects, structural engineers, and architectural conservators worked together to create a comprehensive assessment of the building's current condition that determined that the structure was, fundamentally sound. This initial condition assessment included: the removal of 11 coats of paint from the original surface, revealing hundreds of cracks caused over the years, primarily from seasonal temperature fluctuations detailed monitoring of the movement of selected cracks over 17 months impact-echo technology, in which sound waves are sent into the concrete and the rebound is measured in order to locate voids within the walls extensive laser surveys of the exterior and interior surfaces, believed to be the largest laser model ever constructed core drilling to gather samples of the original concrete and other construction materials testing of potential repair materials.

LINES AND CURVES, the GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM INTERIOR

My visit to the SOLOMON GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM on Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street) in Manhattan is always about experiencing not only the art on display, but also the structure of the museum itself. I made images of some aspects of the interior, including the spiraling floor plan, as well as the skylight as shown above. The museum was one of the last structures that FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT designed before his demise in 1959. It highlights the progression of his architectural designs from linear to circular, counteracting the right angles that typically dominate architecture. The floor plan is one single fluid ramp spiraling up six stories. A skylight illuminates the interior from above, and the white concrete walls reflect the light. Currently, the exterior of the building is undergoing restoration.

From Guggenheim.org:

"I need a fighter, a lover of space, an agitator, a tester and a wise man. . . . I want a temple of spirit, a monument!" —Hilla Rebay (art advisor to S. Guggenheim) to Frank Lloyd Wright, 1943

"Wright made no secret of his disenchantment with Guggenheim's choice of New York for his museum: "I can think of several more desirable places in the world to build his great museum," Wright wrote in 1949 to Arthur Holden, "but we will have to try New York." To Wright, the city was overbuilt, overpopulated, and lacked architectural merit."