Price Tower in Oklahoma holds the distinction of being the only skyscraper ever realised by Frank Lloyd Wright. However, its pedigree has not prevented the landmark from being embroiled in controversy, and next month, it will head to the auction block.
Wright designed the 19-storey copper and concrete building in Bartlesville in 1956 as the corporate HQ for the oil pipeline firm H.C. Price Company. Price Tower is Frank Lloyd Wright’s sole high-rise development (though he went on to design a number of residences for company founder Harold Price over the years), and he referred to it as ‘the tree that escaped the crowded forest’.
The architect drew on an earlier, unrealised design from 1925, with the tower featuring a central ‘trunk’ supporting concrete floors that cantilever like tree branches, complete with patinated copper ‘leaves’ and gold-tinted glass. Price Tower was envisaged as mixed-use from the start, including apartments, shops, and offices.
Photography: Keith Ewing (Creative Commons)
Photography: Keith Ewing (Creative Commons)
The H.C. Price Company sold the tower in 1981, and it was donated to the Price Tower Arts Center in 2001. The building underwent substantial refurbishment in 2003, later opening a museum, bar, and historic hotel, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2007. However, spiralling debts led to the building being sold to the present owners in 2023.
According to the local news outlet Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Price Tower is currently owned by Cynthia and Anthem Blanchard of Copper Tree, who bought it (along with its $600,000 of associated debt) in March 2023 for the nominal sum of $10 and a promise to infuse $10m into the project for upgrades and renovations. Attempts to revive it as a tech hub failed, as did efforts to open two restaurants on the premises, with debts soaring to $2m, and now the property has been shuttered ahead of its sale.
Adding to the controversy around the iconic building, Copper Tree sold off parts of it, including a Bruce Goff-designed gate and furniture that Wright had designed specifically for the building, expressly against the wishes of the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy.
The Price Tower will go under the hammer on the Ten-X Commercial Real Estate Auction Platform, with bidding scheduled from 7-9 October 2024. Bidding starts at $600,000, though the historic skyscraper is expected to sell for significantly more than that, potentially up to $4m.
