Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Works - Larkin Administration Building
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Works brings Wright’s demolished and unrealized structures to life through immersive digital animations reconstructed from Wright’s original plans and drawings, along with archival photographs.
Designed for the Larkin Company of Buffalo, New York, and built from 1904 to 1906, the building was Wright's first large-scale commission to be built. Darwin Martin, the company's secretary, had viewed Wright's work first hand in Oak Park in 1902. It was Martin who encouraged John Larkin to hire Wright for the design of the company's headquarters. The Larkin Building was demolished in 1950.
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I was one of a team of three principal investigators who in 1967 produced, on an NSF grant, what I believe was the first computer graphics movie, very crude, but still . . . Our subject was the Robie house, and it was our hope that some day the idea could be used for recreation of lost buildings; we had especially in mind Hadrian's Villa and the Larkin Building. It is a rewarding surprise to see this video; very nice indeed. Grant Hildebrand Professor Emeritus, Architecture, Univ of Washington
Grant, is that Robie House film online?
That is high praise, coming from you, sir.
The Imperial Hotel viewing led me to subscribe to this channel and is so well done it’s nearly hard to tell it’s not real. Please see it if you can. Hopefully all his works will be documented using video as destruction comes without notice.
Thank you very much. I am honoured by your comment !
@@deezynar good stuff man
Penn Station's loss and the Chicago Stock Exchange Building by Louis Sullivan were the worst disasters of destruction in addition to this doomed masterpiece. The Larkin Building was magnificent.
Thank You for the fine work on this presentation.
Sad still...architecture isn't considered art...barely a step above Lego's by the world's great 'thinkers'.
There's townships like Southlake Texas that barricades all structures behind crepe myrtles and other shrubbery to the point GPS is required even for the residents..... and this's a place that the average residential lot's like a cool million plus the 'homes'. Beyond cookie cutter and as boring as zits on some lardass's butt.... liked it better when it was a rundown beer joint and filling station out in the middle of nowhere.... hada Hell of alot more class in those days... a syphilitic cancer on the nose of Texas.
Architecture's a gold-star to mankind's achievements.... otherwise it's back to the caves..... even a mud hut at least says the guy that lives in it's got a brain.
My mother and two of her sisters worked in the Larkin Bldg in the late teens and 1920s.They always said how happy they were working in the building, airconditioned, comfortable desk seat, an organ played during the day and an employee cafeteria.I attended Buffslo Technical HS not far from the building and passed it daily on way to school. FLLW did a lot of work in Buffalo a hundred years ago.Please visit the Darwin Martin House in the Delaware Park area of Buffalo. In late 1920s my grandparents built a modified FLLW prarie house in the suburb of Hamburg. I was born in the house and lived in it for several years until my parents built their own house nearby. The Beetow house was sold out of the family in the 50s, and the current owners are careful and respectful custodians of the house
wow more please on the grandparents house ?
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories.
That's so interesting to me that your mother and aunts remember the pipe organ. My understanding was that it was a very large Moller pipe organ that was played manually (by an organist) and had a roll player like a player piano which also could operate the organ.
Frank Lloyd Wright got a lot of satisfaction from the fact that the company hired to demolish The Larkin Building went bankrupt as it proved very difficult to tear her down. I've always loved The Larkin Building but never seen color photos of the interior before. Great job with the graphics
Thanks
This 3D video is absolute genius. To have the Larkin Bldg brought to life is amazing. Razin; your incredible. This work brings Jack Quinan's book "Larkin Building" to life
thank you
An amazing bit of work, this video. I just kept saying "Wow! How'd they do that?" Superb recreation of reality.
I knew Jack Quinan. I hope he can see this! A brilliant virtual reconstruction!
Thanks to the hard work of Razin Kahn and the backing of the Trust! What a wonderful recreation!
So sad that an architectural gem such as the Larkin Building is lost forever. Beautiful that it is reconstructed through animation by Razin Kahn. Thank you.
A travesty that Buffalo lost this building. Such a poor decision. What a privilege to been able to have worked there. Heartbreaking that it's gone 💔
The demolition was one of Buffalo's BIGGEST mistakes, but to the city's credit it did try many times to save the building. I'm from Buffalo and have read old new articles about this. Problem was the building had been vacant a number of years, had major structural damage and was located too far from the downtown core. The city tried for years but couldn't find a buyer. Historic preservation wasn't on the public's mind back then. But it's still hard to believe that anyone would demolish a building like this.
Today things are much different and the city and NY state have completely restored quite a few local landmarks, one of them being FLW's Darwin Martin House.
Do you have a reference to the article mentioning the structural damage? I was aware of vandalism, but I've been fascinated by this building for so many years and I've missed that reference. It is sad that potential buyers were uninterested because the building was designed for people and not the weight of machines.
@@daviddave7392 Hello Dave, no I didn't save the article, I happened upon it years ago. I too have been fascinated with this building. Here's a link to an article in the Buffalo News you may find interesting buffalonews.com/2016/06/11/buffalo-know-lost-larkin-administration-building/
. Also I'd recommend the book FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S LARKIN ADMINISTRATION BUILDING: MYTH AND FACT by Jack Quinan. It has a lot of info and excellent photo's. You can find it on Amazon.
@@tomb8112 Thanks Tom, I did find that Buffalo News article earlier, and it was helpful. I appreciate your recommendation about Jack Quinan's book, I'll add it to my collection. I remember exactly where I was in the late 1960's, reading the old Courier-Express, when I saw the pictures of the Martin House, thinking that it had to have been something just built, and when I found that Wright designed this at the turn of the last century, I was hooked. It was as if he was a time traveler, coming from the future and trying to build structures, statements that exceeded the technology of the times that could make them survive. I will always be in awe of what he was able to accomplish.
Any idea what happened to the sculptures atop the front columns of the building? The ones with figures kneeling under the globes. I saw a clipping from the Buffalo Evening News about the building being for sale and the sculptures are missing from the building. It isn't dated but the cars in the parking lot are from the 1930s.
Truly great work. As someone from Buffalo who loves the architectural history of the city I am blown away at how awesome this animation is. Thank you.
Thank you. This work should not be forgotten. It should never have been demolished.
It is gutting to watch the beauty of this soaring animation knowing the subject building in its perfection was torn apart and willfully destroyed. Humankind, will you ever learn.
Wright was an absolute genius of design. His work will never be equalled. I have always loved this building even though the photos available were scant. I understand that they installed a paved parking lot where the building once stood. Those responsible should have been shot at dawn on the day the first brick fell from this magnificent structure or something approaching that. Thank you for your work to reveal just how great this design really was.
Simply beautiful. So sad this has been destroyed. Thank you for sharing Razin Kahn!
For the person who did this 3D model/render (as the imperial hotel) You are a God to me...
😯
Excellent! A marvel building of it's time which would be just as effective today! Thanks for letting me tour this building, especially since it no longer exists!
One of the most surprising revelations for me was that the interior brick and exterior brick were such different colors. The buff colored brick inside clearly chosen to increase the daylight effect from the skylit atrium. The differing colors is unexpected when you think about later homes and how the exterior materials would be expressed inside to bring 'the outside in'.
Buffalo seemed to have been completely wrecked in the 50’s. Just fries me that this was demolished along with large potions of the Martin complex. A man ahead of his time...
The martin house in the Delaware Park of Buffalo has been restored over the past decades and with millions of $ of contributions It looks today as it did when constructed
So far ahead of his time, it's as if he was from another planet. This recreation almost brings me to tears, thinking of how beautiful it must have been for the workforce to enter a building so centered around the person and around their value of work itself; so vastly different today in so many businesses.
Phenomenal! What a testament to the visionary work of Frank Lloyd Wright! Superb rendering!
Wouldn't it be nice an organization re-created this building. It looks like it could be constructed green and would still be practical
I like it taupe and white better.
Well, don't build it in Buffalo again. Civic idiots that run that place would probably tear it down again.
@@markrichards6863 Too right.
A fine video. Always one of my favorites of all Mr Wright's jobs but this video really brings it to life. The design would fit right into today's business environment, except just for the elevated front entry.
Thank you
Outstanding, just how the light shapes the spaces and makes that interconection from the roof, elevated garden to the work places, architecture for humanity not for economist, just love it
Well done- kudos to Razin Kahn for his extraordinary work. It saddens me though thst this masterpiece is gone.
Wonderful tribute to a Modernist Masterpiece. Thank you to all involved!!!
Wait, it was demolished in 1950 and has been a empty lot EVER since ! unbelievable
It is now a parking lot
Who would want to build anything in Buffalo?
I'm waiting.
There was a large Moller pipe organ in the upper level of the building, and faced out into the court. Filling it with live music. No not as big as Wanamaker's in Philly, but still a good size.
There is SO MUCH beautiful history that has been lost in Buffalo. I remember the old Larkin Building, Wildroot and other factories that had fallen into disrepair and ultimately, razed.
Even the parks system was heavily destroyed during the 1950’s and 1960’s. I remember as a child, going to what was Humboldt Park before the city turned the parkways into the 33 freeway. As part of the Frederick Law Olmsted legacy, the Humboldt Parkway connected to Delaware Park. It was a wide, tree lined street. I wish they could turn it back into what it once was, but it’s not going to happen.
Beautiful building! I never heard of Frank Lloyd Wright until Urban Ghost Urban Exploration explored an abandoned haunted house in Florida by him. Then I started looking at other works of his, and found how unique and beautiful his homes are.
That house had nothing to do with FLW.
addictive portfolio , he has work all over the country we never go anywhere without trying to fit a visit to his work.
You're right, as it was I believe FLW's apprentice and someone else who designed it, however, it is very much the style of FLW's work.
I love the subtle Japanese elements in his work, even though he wasn't Japanese himself.
I don't believe we have any of his structures here in Canada, unfortunately.
@@JessiCat1980 The Japanese influence in Wrights work was especially integrated into his design philosophy after working in japan in the 1910s -1920s on projects such as the Imperial Hotel. Wright did design a pavilion in Alberta , but I think it was demolished. Depending on were you live in Canada , you may be able to visit some of wrights homes/buildings across the boarder in western NY. Wright designed homes around Buffalo NY (isn't far from Niagara Falls) and in Rochester NY.
A reproduction of this building looks like it would be just the bees knees for something like a public library.
What a brilliant and beautiful presentation and what terrible waste that the Larkin Building was demolished.
What a beatiful building. To think this was torn down. Can someone rebuild it back? Maybe somewhere else?
Excellent work creating this video - it really brings to life the original vision for the building.
It's interesting to see how modern the interior seems to be for a design over 100 years ago - long communal desks like we sit at today.
Thank you. Fantastic. 1950 Buffalo had lost faith in itself. Razin has made Buffalo GREAT again.
WOW! That is awesome! I can’t believe that they demolished this beautiful building and those ugly ass grain elevators are still standing.
Those grain elevators are magnificent architecture! Open your eyes!
Amazing computer animation on one of Wtights greatest buildings that had a lot of first time never before used innovations. I wish Wright was alive to see this video. He would be very impressed indeed.
What a beautiful building,
Thank you Razin for this wonderful animated recreation of an architectural gem. What a loss! So surprised that with Buffalo's reputation for saving buildings of significance, this could not have been saved.
Margaret
The demolition was one of Buffalo's BIGGEST mistakes, but to the city's credit it did try many times to save the building. I'm from Buffalo and have read old new articles about this. Problem was the building had been vacant a number of years, had major structural damage and was located too far from the downtown core. The city tried for years but couldn't find a buyer. Historic preservation wasn't on the public's mind back then. But it's still hard to believe that anyone would demolish a building like this.
Today things are much different and the city and NY state have completely restored quite a few local landmarks, one of them being FLW's Darwin Martin House.
@@tomb8112 Thank you very much for the explanation of what led to the building's demolition.
Wonderful architecture...Wonderful 3D work...wonderful music...Wonderful Feelings !...
Magnificent work. Bravo Razin Kahn!!
Wonderful!
Thanks!
Power applied to principle. Like a modern locomotive pulls a train of loaded rail cars.
This building for commerce rivals the Kaufmann house for domicile.
Excellent..many thanks for posting.
Wow. Breathtaking!!!!!
I really love his house and building a may be dead but his design Will live on. And best what I’m watching this in 2020😆😆😋😋
Pretty Cool. Now can you do the Singer Building in NYC? Built in 1908 and demolished in 1967-68. And maybe the Savoy Plaza Hotel built around 1927. It only lasted until 1967 also when General Motors razed it for their own piece of concrete that does no justice. Look at all the pictures taken thru the years of The Hotel Pierre, Sherry Netherland and the Savoy Plaza from the Central Park bridge. A picture in wintertime taken around 1947 is the one I always remember. Both these buildings were total works of art and if you did what you did on this video for those buildings.... Whoooooooo!!!
If you can cough up a few large bills, I'm sure Razin Kahn would be glad to do it.
I'm listening 🙂
FAscinating! Thank you for the effort in bringing this to us!
How could they destroy a work of art?
Absolute morons who thought a parking lot would be better.
It doesn't help the fact that this Building was located in the city of Buffalo NY. The city has been in gradual decline since the 1950s. about 80% of the historic buildings in Buffalo have been demolished and replaced with parking lots. This is because the overall population of the city has dwindled / dispersed to other areas in the county. The city government cannot afford to maintain old buildings left abandoned ,so they just demolish them. The city center and northern portion are fine in Buffalo ,but areas like the south and south east east side look like swiss cheese.
When it was torn down, it was simply an old building. FLW was not "Saint FLW" like he is now. If everything someone thinks is a work of art is preserved then nothing ever gets replaced. How could the railroads thoughtlessly destroy all of those masterpiece streamline locomotives designed by Henry Dreyfuss? Simple, they were replaced with diesel-electric locomotives and sent to the scrapyards.
Sad it wasn’t even replaced by something else. Parking Lot! Such a waste.
Thanks for the video. It's great. The building was a real work of art. But, it's a gigantic open space... It must have been hell to work in this building.
Stunning. What a loss.....
Beautiful by any standards then crushed and used as landfill and it's still going on today. We have our fair ( un unfair ) share of loss in France and in the UK from the 1920's to the 1970's over 5000 huge manor houses and estates have been destroyed. I wonder if they saved any parts of this Larkin building ? Was architectural salvage a thing then. This building was not even 50 years old.
Beautiful computer graphic digital presentation of a famous FLLW building. An amazing piece of technology put to good use for future generations to admire and appreciate. As an architect I couldn't help but admire both the building's design and the presentation. Job well done!
A great experience can be had by taking the full day FLW tour provided by the Darwin Martin House... We even stopped to see the remaining brick pier and the remaining parking lot that occupies the space where the Larking Building once stood. The folks in Buffalo have done right by Wright.
We can see and simulate the experience of tour de force Larkin in the present .
By living in this "future", we can pay tribute to the ghosts of our past.
(Tough break for Buff though ... the town would have been better off had it been preserved.)
Really cool - at around the 1:24 mark, you'll notice - bottom-centre - buddy walking on the spot.
I have an old book from 1906 that was left as a time capsule, in my old house about Larkin and its awesome to see what it really looked like back in its time :D
Beautiful presentation.
very similar to the Johnson Wax layout
But completely different.
They tore it down for a horrible parking lot? WTH? How inspiring it would had have been working there, what a loss. This would have made an incredible architectural building with the open areas and large tables. Idiots. Beautiful rendition for those of us who didn't get to see the real deal.
great video. Thank you for this amazing work!
If you’re a lover of Early 1900’s architecture, go to Buffalo, NY, most of the old buildings have been preserved from the boom days of the Erie Canal. We have five FLW houses, and a gas station built at the Pierce Arrow museum.
A loss to humanity. The highest of human thought - design, beauty, and virtues meant to stand the test of time demolished like yesterday’s trash. This made me cry.
Most of the year the interior should be considerably darker than what we see in the rendering.
The latitude there is 42.88°, therefore the Sun would be at around 70° only during and near the solstice.
That being said, the building was amazing for that time and it's sad it was demolished.
The interior greenery, lofty workspace and ample natural light echo from the past urban design concerns of today
The statue was over Co-operation, Economy Industry in the one picture. Did they move those statues around?
This rendering is very cool.
Rebuild it!
It may be hard considering the area where it was. Western NY isn't as well funded as downstate NY. Buffalo NY where the Larkin building was has been in decline since the 1950s and only now has stabilized somewhat.
A sincere thank you to the FLW Trust and Razin Kahn for creating and posting this for all of us to enjoy. "Don't (re)build it in Buffalo" comment was unfair. The city of Buffalo tried for almost 5 years to sell the building and advertised it all over the country. No buyers, which may have been due to the fact that the building was designed so specifically for the Larkin Co. Teardowns of buildings that we now wish we had have occurred all over the world and more are demo'd everyday. Today its trash, tomorrow treasure. Buffalo would have to have held on to it for at least another 30 or more years before anyone would care about it. Sure there was outcry at the time of the demo from architecture enthusiasts, but who was putting up the cash to buy it and preserve it? No one.
The Larkin Building had so many external Art Deco elements, before Art Deco existed. And indoors, it had many modern design elements that would still make it count as a current building, if only the city "leaders" had not been so foolish as to permit its demolition.
Such a shame. At least we have documentation for the buildings to preserve his genius.
Anyone that cares: "Wouldn't it be dreamy if someone could whisk up a rendered walk through of that building".
FLWF: "Would you please manually retain my martini?"
You just made my dream of the day come true! Thanks.
bravo for this!
This is awesome, it's so immersive I'm wondering why none of the men are wearing hats!
@Dreamstate Enjoy the building - don't worry about the people.
A Masterwork!
Leave it to bureaucrats to destroy national treasures like this one. Great rendition.
This is phenomenal - the video as well as the building itself. One thing I noticed was how there are all these nice decorative plants right below the roof lines, but no apparent way for people to see and enjoy them. Why were such nice plants put there without furnishings nearby? Seems like a nice place for a "break room" but perhaps they had not been invented some 115 years ago>
What a beautiful building. Such a shame that it wasn't saved.
My best guess as to the number of all types of bricks used in this construction is in the neighborhood of 3.147 billion bricks plus or minus a few.
This (with many alterations) seems like it would make an amazing high school.
Exceptional.
Was anything salvaged from the interior or exterior besides the brick wall?
Fabulous work---well done & Thank you!
What a crime to demolish in the name of progress 😱
The original Waldorf-Astoria was torn down in the name of progress. A building called the Empire State building was built in its place. But I agree. Many times great architecture is destroyed and replace with something far inferior.
Replaced by a Parking Lot! 🤨
Great fly through and colorization. What is there now, a parking lot?
Good ol Frank.
I’d seen only old black and gray photos of it and always thought, Wow, that’s ugly! But seeing this video-was I ever wrong!
WHY was the Larkin Building demolished?
Thank you.
Wright took no little perverse pleasure in the fact that it took twice as long to demolish the Larkin Building as it had taken him to build it.
As a Wright aficionado, I have visited the site. I have also dug into reference materials and have a fair idea how the air conditioning system worked. I am an air conditioning engineer, and study the history of refrigeration. Can other visitors direct me to primary sources? thanks.
I'd love to know where I could find the background music for this re-creation. It's stirring, fitting for such a reveal of how the building must have looked on opening day.
The music is called "Believe in Yourself" by Olive Musique and is available on PremiumBeat.com: www.premiumbeat.com/royalty-free-tracks/believe-in-yourself-2
@@FrankLloydWrightTrust1 Thank you so much. It adds both a power and sadness to the presentation, sadness that it is physically no longer with us. Like Wright himself, the Larkin Co. was so far ahead of its time.
On Maps . Google, I looked at 680 Seneca St. in Buffalo, suspecting it was now a parking lot. Yup- parking lot...
Why would they destroy such a wonderful and functional piece of architecture?
Does anyone know the name of the music playing in the background? Thanks
This sickens me. What a sacrilege!
Stunning!
Bravo !
Great work!
Fue un arquitecto genial me encantan sus edificios
Es verdad. El interior eataba abierto creando un ambiento de trabajo no encerrado. Todos se iban a sentir en comunication unos con los otros.
It's funny that America being a young country doesn't seem to make them want to keep their architecture. There have been so many historic buildings and chateaux in the US abandonned and demolished. You don't have to look any further than Detroit for exemples. The same people come to Europe and photograph and admire our achticture but don't seem to value their own.
I cannot believe no one in the entire United States saved this building. what a tragic loss
The difference between the past and todays architecture, there are very few details, many that require labor, will be deleted from the project due to cost.
The gothic cathedrals took centuries to build, today some of the biggest projects are finished in less than 2 years. Modern technology certainly helped, but labor is the killer of all projects.
Even renovation projects are becoming infeasible, too much hand labor.
The only time were are renovating is to stay away from the damn planning and zoning boards.
In 1986 our General manager told me that architecture was too difficult. He was right.
What a gorgeous building. Shame this whole "progress" thing we have. Learning to throw away value .. is not progress. Keeping something valuable is.