hawkplay Owner of Frank Lloyd Wright Skyscraper Sues Preservation Group

Updated:2024-11-11 03:36    Views:72

The owner of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed skyscraper in Oklahoma is suing a nonprofit that works to protect the architect’s legacy, arguing that the preservation group’s efforts to enforce an easement on the property have affected its ability to sell the building.

The 19-story building, Price Tower, located in Bartlesville and commissioned in 1952, has been on the auction block since August and is scheduled to be sold on Nov. 18.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy filed liens against the owner in August based on the sale of some Wright-designed furnishings from the building, which the conservancy says are covered under an easement it was granted in 2011 by a previous nonprofit owner of the building.

Copper Tree Group, which last year bought what experts consider to be Wright’s only skyscraper, says the easement is no longer in effect.

In the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in District Court in Washington County, Okla., Copper Tree Group is asking a judge to declare the liens null and void, to enjoin the conservancy from interfering with the sale of the building or its furnishings and to award at least $75,000 in damages.

The court fight is the latest in a series of complications for the building, which was originally built for the H.C. Price Company. Though Wright designed other tall structures, Price Tower is considered his only skyscraper because it stands higher than the others and was built to fulfill Wright’s formal vision for a skyscraper as a vertical street that combined offices, residences and retail businesses.

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