How many times have I been to Bartlesville, just over the shortgrass prairie hills from my hometown...and I never knew about the Bruce Goff designed Playtower, now alas fenced off from the public due to structural instability. There is a movement to save and refurbish it...join the cause or donate at savethegoffplaytower!
There are nice photos of this by Goff afficionados (these are from brucegoffbartlesville) but no one seems to tell the story. Why a playtower? Why Goff? Why here? Does anyone know?
P.S. See the exhibit featuring computer recreations of Goff's unbuilt works currently on at the Fred Jones museum in Norman.
UPDATE: Thanks to reader RobyntheSlug for providing the following:
"Mary Lou Price — the mother of Joe Price — asked him to design something she could present to the children of Bartlesville." (source is the Bartlesville Examiner)
The Prices are, of course, Bartlesville's patrons of architecture: Mary, along with her husband Harold, built Frank Lloyd Wrigh'ts only realized skyscraper, the Price Tower, and Joe Price commissioned Bruce Goff to build Shin'en Khan, now lost to arson.
I was born in B'ville! It's cool to see it get some cyber love! Thanks!
ReplyDelete"Mary Lou Price — the mother of Joe Price — asked him to design something she could present to the children of Bartlesville."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.examiner-enterprise.com/articles/2009/06/18/news/news659.txt
Hi Arcady,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to talk with you about this blog and what you do, but I have no idea how to reach you.
Please let me know here or go to BROODWORK.com and click on the contact info. You are doing some amazing research here!!!
Thanks,
Rebecca Niederlander