Can you imagine if Buffalo still possessed The Larkin Administration Building? The structure was certainly one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s modern masterpiece marvels, complete with its own form of air conditioning (using ice blocks), radiant heat, and built-in furniture. We’ve all seen the historic photos, which give us a sense of the building’s magnificence, but we never had a chance to see the building in person, because it was demoed in 1950, before most of us were born. That means that we have had to use our imaginations to get a sense of the inner workings of the building… until now.
Finally, a virtual tour of this iconic Wright structure has been produced. The tour is both exhilarating and heartbreaking. It’s about as close as we will ever get to walking through the structure.
“Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Works is an ongoing educational series of digital animations exploring some of Wright’s most important demolished and unrealized structures. The project brings these lost buildings to life through immersive digital animations reconstructed from Wright’s original plans and drawings, along with archival photographs.” – Frank Lloyd Wright Trust
There is still hope that some day, the Administration Building might be rebuilt. There is a movement underway that could make the dream a reality, much to the chagrin of the architectural purists.