V. C. Morris Gift Shop
- Architect
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- City
- San Francisco, CA
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the V. C. Morris Gift Shop at 140 Maiden Lane in 1948, using its interior as a built prototype for the spiral ramp he would later design for the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Behind a nearly windowless brick facade, an arched entry leads into the circular space Wright tested here first.
the building
Guggenheim rehearsal. The circular ramp inside was Wright's proof of concept before the Guggenheim, built here first, at a fraction of the scale, to test the idea before committing it to a museum.
Black walnut furniture. All the built-in furniture is black walnut, original to a later renovation and designed by Manuel Sandoval, who had apprenticed and worked directly with Wright.
the architect
Frank Lloyd Wright used this small commercial commission to test an idea he would later scale up for the Guggenheim Museum. Decades later his former associate Aaron Green, who had also worked with Wright on the Marin County Civic Center, oversaw a restoration of the building to Wright's original vision.
More on Frank Lloyd Wrightsignificance
The building was restored to Wright's vision at a cost the gallery that commissioned it called a million dollars, later sold as of 2015 through the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, and briefly occupied in 2016 by Gwyneth Paltrow's goop MRKT.
more by Frank Lloyd Wright
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