Price Tower - Bartlesville, OK - Part 1

Over the Memorial Day weekend, myself, the Architect and some friends traveled to Bartlesville, OK to spend the weekend at the Price Tower. The Price Tower is the only skyscraper designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that was ever built. It was originally, a design for the Bowery in NYC. Harold Price, owner of the H.C. Price Co. (an oil pipeline company) commissioned the building of this skyscraper. The building's inspiration is a tree. The building is covered in copper louvers which represent the leaves of a tree.

Price Tower was conceived as a mixed-use development. When it was built it had apartments, office spaces for the Price Company, a beauty salon, commissary, and dress shop. Today, the apartments are now The Inn at Price Tower. The lower level is a museum (Price Tower Arts Center) and the commissary is the Copper Bar. The Price Tower Arts Center restored the Price family's apartment and the company's offices to their original MCM glory and gives tours of the building. Now onto the pictures!

The vertical louvers are the apartments, now the rooms at the Inn. The horizontal louvers are the office spaces. The "66" sculpture is by Robert Indiana. The "66" is for Philips 66 oil, the Philips Oil Company was founded in Bartlesville, OK.



































The triangles jutting off the building are small balconies for each apartment. I use balcony loosely - there is only enough room for one person to stand out there and no room for any furniture.















The living room on the first floor of our room. The furniture was "inspired" by FLW designs. True to form, it wasn't the most comfortable furniture to sit on.






















These were the stairs of death leading up to the sleeping loft. I have no idea what FLW was thinking. The stairs are at an angle, so when you step on the tread your foot hangs half of the stair and they are very steep.















A view of the copper trim on the sleeping loft. This detail is mirrored on the copper trim on the outside of the building.










The kitchenette in our room. When these were apartments, the kitchen had a range/oven, refrigerator, sink and a dishwasher.

















The FLW designed logo for the Price Company. This logo is inset on every floor of the building in the exact center of the building - the "trunk of the tree." It is one of the few squares you will find in the building. Triangles were the dominant motif at Price Tower.







The view from the outside stairwell leading to the 19th floor. This was the only picture I was allowed to take on the tour.

Part 2 of my trip will have pictures from around Bartlesville, along with places to see and eat.