No Airstream repair issues today! Just a romp through a rare icon of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.
We had a leisurely morning and an easy drive north from Oklahoma City to Bartlesville, OK, located north of Tulsa, and a few miles south of the Kansas border. Bartlesville is an oil town, subject to oil’s booms and busts. Mr. Harold Price wanted to expand his oil pipeline business, and to do so, he needed a new building. In 1952, he contacted FLW and told him of his intention to build a 4 story building for about $750,000. FLW visited Bartlesville, rejected the chosen site, rejected the concept of a 4 story building, and convinced Mr. Price that what he really wanted was a 19 story building that would cost $2,000,000. It was completed in 1957, just before FLW’s death. And, to make a long story short, here it is:
The building is laid out on a hexagonal grid, with a structure of concrete and all else being non-bearing walls. The ground floor contained the local utility company offices, a salon, the lobby, and a fancy dress shop. The tower floors each had three offices and one (2 level) apartment. The top floor, where you can see the facade steps back, is the office of Mr. Price and his secretary. If you look at the tower, the areas with horizontal louvers are offices, and the areas with the vertical louvers are the apartments. There are eight 2 level apartments, about 850 square feet, each with 2 bedrooms. One apartment was kept by Mr. Price for corporate functions, two others were rented to long-term tenants, but the others were only rarely rented. The rent, in 1957, was $285 per month, so you can see that this was an extremely expensive place.
We had a tour of the building, seeing Mr. Price’s office and one of the apartments, all beautifully restored. There are 4 very small, odd shaped elevators (hexagonal grid, remember?). There is one stair. It is a delightful and beautiful building!
Mr. Price and his sons ran his firm from the tower for about 30 years; His firm was then bought by Phillips Petroleum, who used the building for about 10 years until they moved their headquarters out of Bartlesville. After that the building sat empty, until Phillips had it restored about 10 years ago. Here is the fun part:
The tower was converted to a hotel!
So we took the opportunity to leave the Villa in the parking lot next door, and we spent the night in the tower. Our room was one on the office spaces. (The 2 story apartments are also part of the hotel, but they are much more expensive…) The interiors of our room is not original FLW, of course, since it used to be one of the office spaces. But is was designed by the FLW devotees at Taliesen, the FLW school and studio…
Here I am sitting uncomfortably in the FLW-style stair (which are always uncomfortable…
The rooms are quite bright – only my camera skills make them seem a little dark…
And the Villa, parked below…
We had a delightful time walking the town, having lunch in a local pub, and having drinks and dinner in the restaurant atop the Price Tower, located in one of the 2 story apartments…
I also took a selfie with Frank to celebrate his 150th birthday…
And an enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 
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