Visit These 5 Frank Lloyd Wright-Designed Commercial Buildings

Just like his houses, Wright’s nonresidential buildings sit in harmony with their surroundings

from left to right buildings designed by frank lloyd wright including the city national bank building the s c johnson research tower and the marin county civic center

left to right: The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed City National Bank building, which is connected to the Historic Park Inn Hotel in Mason City, Iowa; the SC Johnson Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin; and the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California.

Sheryl Jean / Courtesy of SC Johnson / Sheryl Jean

Sheryl Jean,

AARP

En español

Published June 26, 2023

People often travel with a purpose, such as visiting art and cultural sites.

Frank Lloyd Wright, a pioneer of the Prairie style who has been called the greatest American architect of all time, inspires such travel.

Most of his roughly 400 remaining buildings are houses, including Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, the Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago, Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona.

But Wright also designed many nonresidential buildings where visitors can tour, dine or stay overnight. Several still function in their original capacity, such as churches and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City; others are National Historic Landmarks or on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mostly self-taught, Wright stretched boundaries in his professional — and personal — life, using unconventional forms and materials.

“Wright was certainly among the first celebrity architects,” says John Waters, an architect and preservation programs manager for the nonprofit Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in Chicago. “He had a genius for self-promotion and had several dramatic events in his life that catch the imagination. Ultimately, his buildings are what his enduring legacy [is] based on.”

Beth Sikkema, 70, of Cocoa Beach, Florida, has visited dozens of Wright-designed sites across the country. “His architecture just speaks to my soul,” she says. “Even though [his nonresidential buildings] are designed for multiple people, there’s still a feeling of intimacy to them in the way they’re designed.”

Here are five iconic Wright-designed commercial sites to visit:

round shapes and round windows in the marin county civic center in san rafael california

Rounded organic shapes are used throughout the Marin County Civic Center.

Sheryl Jean

Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California

The gold spire and blue-roofed civic center in Marin County, north of San Francisco, rises from the green hills like a spaceship. It showcases Wright’s organic architecture, featuring circular shapes, skylights, indoor plants and openings to the outdoors.

This was Wright’s only completed government public project and one of his most notable later works. He designed it in the late 1950s, but it was built after his death in 1959. The site also includes a circular post office, his only commission for a U.S. government structure.

It’s one of Ann Armstrong’s favorite Wright-designed commercial creations. “He always talked about not putting buildings onto a hill but into a hill so it fit better into its environment and didn’t overwhelm it,” says the 55-year-old San Francisco resident, who travels to see Wright’s architecture.

Although the complex still operates as a county government center, including offices, a superior court and a public library, visitors can roam and view historical exhibits for free (not on weekends). Docent-led tours on Fridays cost $12 for adults, $7 for those 65 and older. Visitors also can download an interactive mobile app or take a self-guided tour.

Glass designed by Frank Lloyd Wright inside the Historic Park Inn hotel in Mason City, Iowa

Frank Lloyd Wright not only designed the Historic Park Inn Hotel, but also the art glass in it, including this skylight.

Sheryl Jean

Historic Park Inn Hotel, Mason City, Iowa

You can stay, dine at or tour the Historic Park Inn Hotel, the world’s last remaining Wright-designed hotel.

Built in 1909-1910, the hotel and the now-connected City National Bank boast Wright’s classic Prairie style, with overhanging roofs, a skylighted ceiling and stained glass windows.

Over time, the building fell into disrepair and became vacant. The hotel reopened in 2011 after an $18.5 million restoration thanks to community members. Much of the woodwork and art glass, including the large skylight in the hotel lounge, are original. One of the property’s original owners, James E. Blythe, moved the skylight to his home in the 1920s, but it was reinstalled during restoration, says Peggy Bang, a founding director of Wright on the Park, the nonprofit organization that owns the property.

Architectural tours cost $10. Average hotel room (double occupancy) prices range from about $115 to $300, depending on the type of room and season. You also can rent the ballroom for events.

s c johnson great workroom as it looked in use in the nineteen fifties in racine wisconsin

The Great Workroom at SC Johnson’s headquarters looked like this in the 1950s.

Courtesy of SC Johnson

SC Johnson corporate headquarters, Racine, Wisconsin

The buildings Wright designed for SC Johnson, the maker of household brands like Glade, Off! and Windex, made Architectural Digest’s 2017 list of the “100 Most Important Buildings of the 20th Century.” They remain part of a working company headquarters.

Although the roof of the administration building (1939) leaked in the early years, its open office plan, top-lit space and “lily pad” columns were unusual then. The 15-story cantilevered Research Tower (1950), which features Pyrex tubes instead of windows, closed in 1982 because it no longer met safety codes; it was renovated in 2013.

Like many other Wright towers in the Midwest, Research Tower marks “that here is something important, here is something where we transformed the wealth of agriculture or industry into a wider world,” says Aaron Betsky, professor of architecture at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. “They also present a different shape to the rolling hills or flatness of the land,” adds the former president of the School of Architecture at Taliesin in Scottsdale.

The company gets about 15,000 visitors a year, says Adrienne Pedersen, a spokeswoman for SC Johnson. On various tours, which are all free, visitors will see the Administration Building, including the Great Workroom, Research Tower (a third-floor laboratory has been recreated to what it would have looked like years ago), and some Wright-designed furniture, including a three-legged chair, she adds. There also is a gift shop, and a gallery offering rotating Wright-related exhibits. Tour times and days change seasonally.

the annie pfeiffer chapel at florida southern college in lakeland florida

The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel was the first building at Florida Southern College.

John Waters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy

Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Florida

Florida’s oldest private college hosts the world’s largest collection of Wright-designed structures in one place. It also is the only Wright-designed college campus. Of 18 buildings designed, 13 were built over more than two decades starting in the 1930s.

The college offers several tours, including a night tour, ranging from $5 to $125 per person. Members of AARP, AAA and the military can get a 10 percent discount. Don’t miss: the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, with a 65-foot-tall bell tower and vaulted skylights; Fletcher Theatre, the only Wright-designed theater-in-the-round to be built; Wright’s only constructed planetarium; the Water Dome; and the Esplanade, a more than mile-long system of covered walkways between buildings.

the indholm oil company gas station in cloquet minnesota

The Lindholm Oil Company gas station features a cantilevered roof and glass-fronted lounge.

By McGhiever - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Lindholm Oil Company gas station, Cloquet, Minnesota

This is the only Wright-designed gas station that is still operational. With a cantilevered copper roof, glass-fronted lounge and skylighted garage bays, it’s not your average roadside station.

Tourists visit from all over the world, says Chris Chartier, business owner of the now-named R.W. Lindholm Service Station. He leases the building and lets visitors roam and walk up to the lounge.

Wright “represents a sense of the possibilities and beauty of the landscape that is such a part of this country,” says Betsky, the architecture professor. “I suggest you look at what he did and not the myth he built up around himself.”

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Sheryl Jean is a contributing writer who covers aging, business, technology, travel, health and human-interest stories. A former reporter for several daily metropolitan newspapers, her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune and The Dallas Morning News and on the American Heart Association’s website.