Bartlesville’s Price Tower, designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is getting a new caretaker.
The Price Tower Arts Center is transferring ownership of the 19-story building to Copper Tree, a new, locally based group, said Donna Keffer, executive director of the PTAC.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We are excited that the Copper Tree team is committed, first and foremost, to (1) the long term preservation of the Price Tower and (2) the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright,” she said in a statement. “Copper Tree will remain strongly focused on making sure that the arts will continue to be a major centerpiece of the Price Tower’s mission.”
Among the components in the building are an art museum, restaurant, inn and office space.
Erected in 1956 as corporate headquarters for the H.C. Price Co., Wright referred to the 221-foot structure’s design as “the tree that escaped the crowded forest.” The only Wright-designed skyscraper, it is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Copper Tree plans to modernize the tower, 510 S. Dewey Ave., over the next 18 to 24 months, making improvements to the heating and air conditioning systems, elevators, windows and elsewhere, Keffer said. During the makeover, the building will at times be temporarily closed to the public, she said, adding that the new owners said it’s “a small price to pay in order to have this historic treasure returned to the rich condition that it deserves.”
The tower’s tree concept has four central shafts supporting cantilevered floors like a trunk. The outer walls are coated with “leaves” of copper.
Phillips Petroleum purchased the building in 1981 and 20 years later donated it to the Price Tower Arts Center under the leadership of C.J. Silas, former chairman of the oil company.
In 2007, it was designated a National Historic Landmark by then-U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne.