This is a commission I made last year for the FLLW Foundation Quarterly Magazine, it is the Valley National Bank, a small bank office that FLLW designed in Tucson, Arizona in 1957.

As always, Wright’s ideas were ahead of his time by designing a bank in which it was possible to access without having to get out of the car through a “drive-in” windows. The client, with more conservative ideas, rejected the design.

I had the chance to work with a complete set of original working drawings, but even in this case, there is always room for speculation. Wright pointed out in his drawings which were the materials to be used in each case: Roman brick, poured concrete with special exposed aggregate and a skylight composed of plastic and copper, but in his project, he didn’t decide the exact brick model or the color of the materials, postponing those decisions to the construction phase of the building. This way of working is also common today, but that leaves us in doubt of the choice he would have taken.

Due to the lack of time, I could not model the beautiful interior of this building, bathed in overhead natural light, which I hope to carry out someday.

More information and debate here (from the middle of the page)

The images can be seen with a higher resolution here, the Quarterly Magazine is available here and if you are interested in a Fine Art Print, check this page

Enjoy!