What If Frank Lloyd Wright Designed a Hotel?
Where: 1-1 Uchisaiwai-cho 1-chome, Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo,
Japan
What if famous architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright designed a hotel? Well, it's too bad he's deceased and it's even just as sad that he already did design a hotel, and it too is deceased. The pillar above is pretty much all that's left of the place that's visible, as a new hotel sits on the old location of Wright's grand Imperial Hotel Tokyo.
The Imperial Tokyo has had something of a tragic life, which, along with its reputation with luxury and superior service, has helped to make the Imperial into something of a legendary hotel. You see, the Imperial first opened in 1890, only to burn down. Then Frank Lloyd Wright received the commission to rebuild it, and the second Imperial opened with his design in 1915.
In 1923, an 8.3-magnitude earthquake damaged the hotel greatly and after many more years of use, it was demolished with its more decorative pieces—the entrance hall, most famously— carted off for display at the Meiji Mura Museum.
Thus ended the short-lived Frank Lloyd Wright hotel, as the current Imperial Hotel is a cement eyesore constructed in 1968. When you walk inside, however, the first thing to greet you is the pillar pictured above, a piece from Frank Lloyd Wright's design. It is a pillar of the old dining room, damaged in the 1923 earthquake. It can qualify as hotel art, but it's definitely a whole load of hotel history as well.
But wait! There is one remaining place to experience Frank Lloyd Wright's design at The Imperial (we don't mean by going to a museum). We'll tell you about this special nook tomorrow.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
Comment (1)
Post a CommentReturn to » What If Frank Lloyd Wright Designed a Hotel?
Return to » What If Frank Lloyd Wright Designed a Hotel?
Join the conversation!