Issue Oct 9th 2024 October 9th 2024

The Headlines

Price Tower Auction Rescheduled

The auctioning off of the Price Tower, a historic Bartlesville landmark, is now on hold for a short time. The 19-story Frank Lloyd Wright tower was being put up for auction with a starting bid of $600,000, however, there is a newly filed lawsuit that was put in place to stop the sale of the tower. The temporary halt of the Price Tower’s sale was requested by the current owner while some legal matters are being worked out.

The auction has been rescheduled for mid-November. The McFarlin Building Company filed a lawsuit against Copper Tree Inc. and Green Copper Holdings, the owners of Price Tower. The lawsuit accused the companies of breaking a contract to sell the iconic tower. The lawsuit claimed on May 23, Copper Tree and Green Copper Holdings agreed to sell Price Tower to McFarlin Building for $1.4 million. The lawsuit had a copy of the contract of sale showing Cynthia Blanchard, president of Copper Tree and secretary of Green Copper Holdings, signed the contract to sell Price Tower on May 26. The quitclaim deed document which is the transfer of property states Blanchard purchased the building for $10 in 2023.

Now, according to the lawsuit, "the McFarlin Building, LLC asks the court to grant it specific performance of the contract of sale, order that defendants sell the property to the plaintiff at the price agreed upon in the contract of sale."The suit also claimed immediate action is necessary to preserve the building and its contents. It lists out McFarlin's concerns saying there is no active insurance policy covering Price Tower and there are no adequate fire escapes or fire suppression systems.

McFarlin said they are concerned about Blanchard's conduct in running Price Tower. It has been reported Blanchard sold some of the historic furnishings inside Price Tower. When Blanchard bought the tower there was an agreement protecting those historic items.

The lawsuit said the company is expecting to invest as much as $10 million into Price Tower if they buy the property. This is all happening days after a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing charged Blanchard's husband, Anthem Blanchard, for allegedly defrauding investors of more than $5 million.

The 11 Most Beautiful Modernist Buildings In The World

Architectural Digest highlights some of the most breathtaking modernist buildings from around the globe, celebrating their unique designs and innovative approaches. A key figure in this movement is Frank Lloyd Wright, whose creations like Fallingwater exemplify the seamless blend of architecture with nature, showcasing how buildings can enhance their surroundings rather than overpower them.

Wright's influence has inspired many other architects to break away from traditional styles, resulting in a variety of stunning structures that redefine beauty in architecture. If you're curious about how these designs come together and the ideas behind them, there's a lot more to discover!

Louis Sullivan: A Glorious, Photo-Filled Tribute

For the first time, every remaining structure designed by Louis Sullivan is captured in striking color by one of America’s preeminent architectural photographers, James Caulfield. The story of Sullivan’s life and accomplishments, skyscrapers and ornamentation, students like Frank Lloyd Wright, and poverty at the end of his life, has been recorded by James’ long-time collaborator, Patrick F. Cannon. Louis Sullivan An American Architect is an absolute tour de force, more than 400 images in its 288 pages, cementing Sullivan as one of the world’s greatest architects.

Published by Glessner House and made possible by a grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the book shows why Cannon and Caulfield have won three Gold Medals in architecture at the Independent Publisher Book Awards. The book shows the range of the architect’s work from residences to skyscrapers, opera houses to banks, hotels to cemetery monuments.

“During this journey of more than a year, it’s been an honor to rediscover the 40 remaining buildings designed by Sullivan. I was truly taken with the exuberant color palette in which he worked, and which has arguably escaped wide notice, due to the preponderance of vintage black and white photography that predominately exists to inform us of his work,” Caulfield told Classic Chicago.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Proteges Flood The Realty Market

Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright left behind a long legacy when he died—and not just in the form of his most iconic buildings, which include New York’s Guggenheim Museum and the iconic Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania.

In addition to those, and many other architectural gems, Wright left behind a lasting impression on many of the designers and architects who were lucky enough to serve as his protégés over the years. Several of them even followed in his footsteps to create midcentury modern masterpieces of their own, all of which bear an uncanny similarity to their mentor’s original works.

According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, over the years, there have been “over a thousand apprentices” who have drawn inspiration from the legendary designer, putting their own spin on his unique style.

This includes those who worked alongside Wright at Taliesin in Wisconsin, and Taliesin West in Arizona, as part of the Taliesin Fellowship, which began in 1932. Or, they worked with Wright on projects like the American System-Built Homes.

After his death in 1959, Wright’s apprentices founded Taliesin Associated Architects, and the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture continued until its 2020 closure. Many of the apprentices continued designing homes thereafter. And now, more than five decades after Wright’s passing, the market has been hit with a rare influx of homes designed by his protégés—seven are currently available to buy across the U.S., with prices ranging from $275,000 all the way up to $4.6 million.

Aaron Green-Designed Anderson Residence Photos

A well-preserved, mid-century home perched on a nearly 3.5-acre ocean bluff in Rancho Palos Verdes is on the market, asking $8.8 million.

Known as the Judge and Jeannie Anderson Residence after its original owners, this 2,175-square-foot, wood-and-glass dwelling with stone accents and a butterfly roof has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Although modest in size, it is architecturally significant.

The house was the creation of modernist Aaron G. Green, a Frank Lloyd Wright disciple. Green ran an architectural practice out of San Francisco, while also serving as Wright’s West Coast representative for the last eight years of the transformative architect’s life. Wright died in April 1959 at 91. Green died in June 2001 at 84.

“He was probably the closest and most trusted architect in Frank Lloyd Wright’s orbit at the time,” said listing agent Nate Cole of Modern California House, which specializes in architectural properties. “He worked on Frank Lloyd Wright’s only oceanfront home, the Della Walker House in Carmel.

This home has areas of dramatic openness; others are more intimate and withdrawn. Two guest bedrooms and both baths face northeast towards a serene and private Japanese garden. In the primary bedroom, a wall of windows frames head-on ocean views. The apex of the room’s corner opens completely to the outside by way of two monumental glass doors, and a quarried stone fireplace flanks the bedside. At the opposite end of the home, the kitchen is disguised as fine furniture, blending seamlessly with myriad built-ins throughout. From a central dining area, steps follow the contour of the land down to a sunken living room with original built-in seating and architect-designed furniture. A massive stone fireplace anchors the space, with adjacent mitered corner glass walls offering unobstructed panorama.

Architect Eric Lloyd Wright oversaw a 2003 primary bath expansion, swimming pool update and spa tub addition with reverence to the harmonious design of the home and its surrounding terraces, planters, and gardens. With the adjacent canyon and Abalone Cove to the east, and several hundred feet of Pacific Ocean frontage to the south, the Anderson Residence offers an incredible degree of privacy and space. A study in serenity.

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