[amor de cosmos]

Larkin Admin Building by FLW. 1st building with air conditioning, 1st building with metal-bound plate glass doors & windows... demolished in 1950

In 1939 the firm made interior modifications and moved retail operations into the building. In 1943, the firm's fortunes were in decline and it sold this building and others. The Larkin Company, which never recovered from the Great Depression and changes in American retailing, eventually declared bankruptcy.

Wright's Administration building was foreclosed upon for back taxes in 1945 by the city of Buffalo. The city tried to sell the building over the next five years and considered other uses. In the meanwhile, it was vandalized. In 1949 the building was sold to the Western Trading Corporation, who announced plans to demolish it for a truck stop. It did so in 1950 despite protests from the architectural community. No truck stop ever materialized. A single brick pier along a railroad embankment is all that remains from Wright's original building. The remainder of the site is now a parking lot with a marker and an illustrated educational panel.

The space was so calm that the company actually installed an organ on the top floor. (hard to tell in the pics)








http://www.terrastories.com/bearings...arkin-building


http://archives.buffalorising.com/st...rt_1_the_ghost