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[Image: Second Proposal for the Imperial Hotel, Second Main Wing, cross-sectional view, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, Avery Library of Architecture and Art, Columbia University]
The Wright Imperial Hotel at 100: Frank Lloyd Wright and the World
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was a master of modern American architecture. Known for the Kaufman Residence and the Guggenheim Museum, Wright also worked on the Imperial Hotel's second main building (now partially relocated and preserved in the Museum Meiji-Mura) and the Jiyu Gakuen Tomorrow Hall and was an avid ukiyo-e enthusiast.
The Imperial Hotel was completed exactly 100 years ago in 1923, on the day of the Great Kanto Earthquake. The Imperial Hotel, which brought Wright great fame for surviving the disaster, was a grand project, a city in itself, with a variety of facilities including a theater and ballrooms as well as guest rooms on a vast site. Wright's application of the diverse cultures he had encountered in the past was evident in this project, and his experimentation at this time would lead to a rich development in his subsequent architecture. An organic connection with the surrounding landscape. The dynamic correspondence between micro and macro, part and whole. The conception of a high-rise building connected to nature. For Wright, the Imperial Hotel was a building that stood at the very node of architecture.
In 2012, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation transferred over 50,000 drawings and other materials to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Avery Library of Architecture and Art at Columbia University, where research continues to illuminate Wright's broad vision and intellect, not only in architecture, but also in art, design, writing, landscape architecture, education, innovation, and urban planning.
This exhibition will present the results of this recent research. Based on the results of this recent research, and with the full cooperation of the Foundation and the Avery Library of Architecture and Art, this exhibition will reveal Wright's pioneering activities and interactions with diverse cultures, centered on the Imperial Hotel.
Wright's global perspective, which traversed the globe, resonates with the challenges of the 21st century today and should provide recommendations for the future to come.
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