Frank Lloyd Wright Unbuilt - Wieland Motel Project
As I’ve been talking about my June photography workshop in Mason City, Iowa where we will stay at the only remaining Frank Loyd Wright designed hotel (@historicparkinnhotel) It got me thinking, what other unbuilt hotels did he design?
Turns out, it’s a bunch…
I posted about the unbuilt Bramlett Motor hotel a few weeks ago but I like this one as well – It’s called the Wieland Motel Project (1956).
Designed for a client in Hagerstown, Maryland, this motel was to be set in a garden-like field, with the office and restaurant in one large circular building and the motel units, two stories high, in a gentle arc on the right. The cars would park in or under a portion of the second level, keeping them safe from bad weather as well as partially concealed within the building rather than surrounding it.
On the upper-left corner Wright has written,
"Your Excellency! That you might be interested in the type of motel we are building in the U.S. instead of hotels. FLLW. (Kindly preserve and return - these are originals)."
The note is a record of his intention to send the drawing to the king of Iraq and his cultural commission, but the fact that the drawing has remained in the collection leads us to believe that the revolution in Iraq intervened, and the drawing was never sent.
🔺
The special to “Your Excellency!” note is cool.
I like the fact that you park underneath your room for protection, easy access and most important you can look at your windows and not see them!
What do you think? (comment below)
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