The Story of the Tower: The Tree that Escaped the Crowded Forest

118 Pages·98.041 MB·English

by  Frank Lloyd Wright

Toward all
I raise high the perpendicular hand. I make the signal
To remain after me in sight forever
For all the haunts and homes of men
Where the city of the faithfullest friends stands
Where thrift is in its place but prudence is in its place
Where behavior is the finest of the fine arts
Where outside authority enters always after the
precedence of inside authority
Where the city that has produced the greatest man stands
There the greatest city stands
WALT WHITMAN 1860
THE STORY OF THE TOWER

F R A N K L L O Y D W R I G H T
T HE S T OR Y OF T H E T O W E R
[HE TREE THAT ESCAPED THE CROWDED FOREST
I o R I z O N P R E S S N E W Y O R K 1 9 5 6
Copyright 1956 by Frank Lloyd Wright
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 56-7826
Photography by Joe D. Price
Format by Paul Grotz
, .
120 1)73
O. WjVs
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION by Harold C. Price 7
plan:
St. Mark’s project 10
THE STORY OF THE TOWER DRAWING:
St. Mark’s project 10
TEXT 11
COLOR PLATES:
Original drawing of tower 23
THE TOWER IS PLANNED Night view of tower 24
PLANS:
Ground floor 28
Second floor 31
An upper floor 31
PHOTOGRAPHS 27-31
BREAKING GROUND PHOTOGRAPHS 34-37
THE TOWER TAKES ROOT PHOTOGRAPHS 40-51
g plan:
r
u THE PLAN TAKES SHAPE Diagram of a mezzanine floor 58
l
C
c PHOTOGRAPHS 54-59
M
7
5
'
1591760
THE STRUCTURE IN PROCESS photographs 62-73
plan:
Ground floor 80
THE COUNTENANCE EMERGES drawing:
Section through south side 89
PHOTOGRAPHS 76-95
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS photographs 98-107
COLOR PLATES:
Day view of tower 121
Interior, office of Harold Price 122
Interior, apartment living room 122
Interior, apartment dining area 122
THE SKYSCRAPER COMES plans:
INTO ITS OWN Diagram of an upper floor 115
An upper floor 120
Office of Harold Price 132
drawings :
Apartment bedroom 126
Apartment living room 126
A typical office 128
photographs 110-133
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 134
INTRODUCTION
When Frank Lloyd Wright suggested that I write an introduc­
tion to this book, I declined. If there is anyone in the world who
needs no introduction, it is Mr. Wright.
But when his publisher joined in the suggestion on the grounds
that many people would be interested in knowing how we came to
build the Tower, I agreed to try it.
Why did we build the Tower? The answer goes back to a day in
October, 1915—forty years ago when I first came to Bartlesville,
as a chemist in the zinc smelters. It was then a town with a popula­
tion of less than ten thousand. There was no Phillips Petroleum
Company or Cities Service Oil Company. There were two brothers,
Frank and L. E. Phillips, running the town’s largest bank. The
town’s foremost surgeon, Dr. Webber, was drilling oil wells and
raising cattle and refusing to bill most of his patients. There were
the Tylers, father and son, using the abundant limestone to make
cement and raise fine cattle.
Although Bartlesville was located in an old oil field and was quite
a cattle raising center, the main industry was three large zinc
smelters.
The first World War brought on changes. The Phillips brothers
started their oil company. A group of gas companies and small pro­
ducing oil companies were consolidated into what was to become
the large Cities Service Oil Company. After the war, during the
7
depression in 1920, two of the smelters shut down permanently,
and I was out of a job, and with borrowed capital started one of the
first electric welding shops in the southwest. A boy named Adams
came to town as a clerk with Phillips. A man named Arutunoff
came from Russia after the revolution with an idea for a sub­
mersible oil pump.
All of this over thirty years ago. The little town grew steadily.
The people with big, fine ideas remained there. As their enterprises
prospered they did not pick up and move to larger cities. Instead,
they made every effort to make their town a better place in which
to live.
The big oil companies brought in thousands of families, includ­
ing hundreds of engineers and scientists. But the town did not
boom. It grew instead on a firm foundation and changed from a
town to a little city, headquarters of business activities that ex­
tended not only throughout the United States, but throughout the
entire Western Hemisphere and foreign lands. Phillips Petroleum
Company, now under the direction of Adams, and the Cities Service
Oil Company are among the largest in the industry. Arutunoff’s
pumps are sold all over the world. The little electric welding shop
developed into a construction company that welded and built pipe
lines all over North and South America.
Now, how did we come to build this Tower? We wanted a build­
ing of our own. We agreed to build a three story building with
another company taking the entire first floor. My two sons, Harold
and Joe, recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma,
suggested we get Frank Lloyd Wright to design the building. They
argued that it would cost no more to get a building with a beautiful,
outstanding design than it would to get the usual box-type design.
We all appreciated the benefits we had received from living in
our community, a community that had been very helpful to a young
man with no material assets. Therefore, we desired to build a
structure which would be a credit to our city for years to come.
However, I did not believe that Mr. Wright would be interested in
such a small building. My sons telephoned him and made an ap­
pointment. We went to Taliesin. I told him I wanted a three story
building with about 25,000 square feet of floor space. He said im­
mediately that three floors was most inefficient and suggested ten
floors of 2,500 square feet each. We finally compromised on nine­
teen floors, and included apartments with the offices.
I hope this introduction answers the question, “Why did we build
the Tower?”
I must acknowledge that working with Mr. Wright and the
Wright Fellowship has been an unforgettable and most gratifying
experience that tends to add a vital living personality to the edifice.
I want to express my sincere appreciation to the builder, Haskell
Culwell, whose understanding and cooperation enabled his work­
men to execute the architect’s conception of a beautiful and inspir­
ing building into actual structure.
It it not for me to dedicate this book but I can assume the prero­
gative of dedicating the Tower, and I dedicate it to my sons, who are
responsible for its inception and instrumental in its construction.
Harold C. Price