I'm a big fan of FLW and when there's a chance to take a free tour of one of his buildings, I take it. This building may not be one of FLW better ones, but it does have an interesting history.

 

This is Gammage Auditorium on Arizona States (ASU) campus in Tempe. It was built in the early 1960s. The most interesting part is that the auditorium was originally supposed to be an opera house in Baghdad, Iraq. FLW was close to 90 by this time. He flew into Iraq and noticed an island on one of the rivers and instantly decided to build the Auditorium there. When told that the island is owned by the King of Iraq and would need to get his permission, FLW promptly did just that and the King agree to his plans. One minor problem, a few days later the King was overthrown and killed! Can you say Saddam? FLW got the hell out there. The plans were selved until the ASU opportunity came along.

 

 

The FLW adjusted the design for ASU when the Iraq thing didn't pan out.

 

This is the main entrance

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's probably hard to tell here, there are no aisles. The seats run from one end to the other. The rows are wide enough to make this happen. Lots of legroom.

 

This photo was pulled from a website. The lighting was so low when I did the tour nothing came out.

 

This is the only contrasting color. FLW's wife suggested this. Hmmm...

 

Outside

 

 

 

 

Wow. Reminds me somewhat of the Guggenheim with a little bit of the Racine Wax building thrown in. The only FLW I've ever been in was Talesine (sp?) in Spring Green when I was 6. In the theater I took a seat in the raised balcony area right in the corner, and the tour guide told me that was always were Frank sat.

does not look like flw on the outside, but it sure does on the inside. yeah its kind of gugg-like in there. i like it.

 

fyi - even tho some prof lives there you can still tour the flw house in oberlin one weekend every month. it's sharp.

Cool, thanks for showing.  I've seen that building on the outside many times, but have never been inside.