Rare Frank Lloyd Wright Gas Station

BUFFALO FILLING STATION - FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Like many artists, architects have portfolios with so many ideas that never see the light of day.

The Buffalo Pierce-Arrow Museum in New York has brought one of Frank Lloyd Wright's imaginative conceptual projects to life.

The museum debuted the Buffalo Filling Station. This work was unrealized and originally designed in 1927.  Patrons of this striking station would have waited to have their cars serviced in comfort.

The salmon-colored concrete structure boasts a second-level viewing platform, restrooms and even a fireplace.  The copper roof is pierced by two 45-foot-tall poles which Wright referred to as "totems".

This design is pure WRIGHT.  Its shifting floorplates, precise ornamentation, elongate shape and subdued color palette.

Wright's interest in the automobile's role in architecture was well known and if he had had his way, we all would have been traveling and filling up in style.

- Eddy