Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building Frank Lloyd Wright designed the administration building for the Larkin Company beginning in 1903. He was engaged to design the structure after Larkin officers William R. Heath and Darwin D. Martin urged company owner John D. Larkin Sr. to do so. The building housed the offices of the large mail order company which began as a soap manufacturer but grew into a more diversified enterprise. The design of the building is considered to be one if not the most significant structure ever built in North America as it became the model for modern architecture and the age of the machine. The building articulated its various functions in a way that expressed its internal organization including its corner stairs and its high nostril like air intakes. The placement of these service functions on the building's outside walls allowed a central skylight to flood the workspaces with natural light. The structure was mostly demolished in 1950 following the failed attempts by the company to shift from mail order business to retail establishments then popularized by automobile driven consumers. The phantom fence pier adjacent to this panel was built above the existing foundations that remained from the building's enclosing fence and is intended to define the scale of the structure



as well as orient the viewer. Frank Lloyd Wright's rendering of the central atrium.

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Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building
Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building
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