How Do You Get Frank Lloyd Wright?
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After a year-long restoration, Frank Lloyd Wright's famous research tower at S.C. Johnson's headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, is set to reopen in May. It's a triumph of modernism. The facade is made up of thousands of glass tubes, hovering in between tiers of red brick, all of it supported by cantilevered steel beams.
But pay attention to those materials -- steel, glass and brick. How would you begin to restore a piece of glass, or an I-beam? It's a conundrum facing preservationists across the country: What does it mean to restore a building made out of modern materials?