A hotel in an Oklahoma skyscraper by Frank Lloyd Wright is reportedly set to close amid reports that the owner has sold historical items without “review or approval” from the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy.
Local investment company and owner Copper Tree Inc is reportedly temporarily closing the hotel in September 2024 in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower after facing backlash from selling historical items to help pay for the hotel’s high operating costs.
“You have all of these costs,” Copper Tree Inc CEO Cynthia Blanchard told local outlet News on 6. And you’re running at 40 per cent occupancy for the hotel. You can’t sustain that.”
Completed in 1956 and located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Price Tower is one of two high-rise buildings realised by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It was under the ownership of a non-profit until its sale to private buyer Copper Tree Inc early last year.
Originally, it served as the headquarters for the Price Company and contained residential apartments before it was restored and converted into a hotel, restaurant and gallery space, which has been its most recent use.
In Spring 2024, local news outlet Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise reported that Copper Tree Inc had sold “multiple items” to a Dallas-based design dealer, including a historical gate designed by architect Bruce Goff that was donated to the tower as well as Wright-designed furniture pieces.
According to the easement-holding Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy (the Conservancy), these sales included several items protected by an easement donated to the Conservancy in 2011 by the building’s then proprietor, the non-profit Price Tower Arts Center (PTAC).
At the time, the Conversancy reportedly refrained from taking legal action against the sales, “hoping to achieve a positive outcome without taking legal action” against the new owner.
“The Conservancy immediately reminded the owner that, under the terms of the easement, they were not permitted to sell easement-protected items without the Conservancy’s consent,” said the Conservancy.
“These items were sold without the Conservancy’s review or approval.”
Protected items in the sale included a directory board, an armchair and copper relief panels designed by Wright for the building.
“We’re not aware of any other example of Wright ever designing a directory board,” the Conservancy preservation programs director John Waters told Dezeen. “It’s for the Price Tower, so it is completely unique and one of a kind.”
“That is an object that we would have never agreed to the sale of.”
The Conservancy also noted it would “seek legal recourse against any purchaser of items” covered by the easement moving forward.
Blanchard told local radio station Bartlesville Radio that she had sold the items “to raise cash to pay bills” and that the previous ownership had also sold items for similar reasons.
Waters noted that the Conservancy “did not encourage it, but we had conversations with them around these items,” regarding previous sales.
He also said the sold items “lose something” when removed from the context in which they were created.
“These items are of particular importance when they remain in the context for which they were designed,” said Waters. “They lose something when they are taken from that context. And the site loses something.”
According to New on 6, the 19-room hotel will close for the time being, but the property will remain open for historical tours. It is unclear if the restaurant on site will remain open.
Copper Tree Inc did not respond to Dezeen’s request for comment.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs have undergone a number a redesigns and informed the design of new projects in recent years. For example, Lindal Cedar Homes released purchasable house designs informed by Wright’s Usonian philosophy and a theatre designed by the architect was restored on the Talisen property.
The photography is by Warren LeMay via Flickr unless stated.
