Following a two-year saga, Price Tower, Frank Lloyd Wright’s sole skyscraper, has found new owners. And now, so have its historic furnishings. The Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy has stepped in to acquire the building’s original artifacts to safeguard a vital piece of the visionary architect’s legacy.
The organization, which advocates for the preservation of Wright’s designs, has purchased 11 items designed by the architect for the Bartlesville, Oklahoma building. The objects were acquired from 20c Design, the Dallas-based dealer which had in turn bought the objects in 2024 from the tower’s previous owner, Copper Tree Group—in a sale that breached the conservancy’s preservation easement on the building.
Interior of Price Tower. Photo: John H. Waters, AIA.
Over email, the conservancy declined to reveal the purchase price, stressing instead that the acquisition was a far more efficient strategy toward preservation than litigation. The move prevents the further sale and dispersal of furnishings that the conservancy noted are integral to Wright’s holistic vision for Price Tower.
“Our top priority was to keep these artifacts together and off the private market,” Barbara Gordon, the conservancy’s executive director, said in a statement. “The purchase allowed us to secure our easement-protected items without the uncertainty and high cost of pursuing further legal action. We’re deeply grateful to the generous donors who made it possible for us to save these unique Wright-designed items.”
Copper panel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Price Tower. Photo: 20c Design.
The conservancy’s acquisition includes the tower’s original rolling directory board, copper tables, stools, an armchair, and copper relief panels. The objects, as well as the building’s other historic artifacts, were found by the conservancy to be in fair to good condition in a March 2025 inspection.
Wright had designed the building’s furniture, furnishings, textiles, and decorative artworks as part of the commission from H. C. Price Company in 1955. The upholstery emerged as part of his Taliesin line of fabrics and wallpapers, while the furniture was conceived with angles to mirror the tower’s own. Harold Price Sr.’s corporate office on the 17th floor held Wright’s mural of stacked squares, titled The Blue Moon and inscribed “To ‘Hal’- FLLW.”
Armchair designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Price Tower. Photo: 20c Design.
Copper Tree Group purchased Price Tower in 2022, with plans to modernize the building as part of a larger regeneration project. Instead, the company began evicting tenants and selling the tower’s furnishings, and reneged on the property’s debts. The tower was put up for auction last August, before the sale was halted by a legal filing from property developer McFarlin Building Company, which claimed it had signed an earlier agreement with Copper Tree president Cynthia Blanchard to purchase the building.
In April 2025, Price Tower was sold to McFarlin Building Company for $1.4 million.
Detail of Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Photo: © Mark Hertzberg / ZUMA Press Wire.
The conservancy will work with the property’s new owners to reinstate the 11 original artifacts, which are currently being stored in a secure facility in the Dallas area. In its announcement of the purchase, the organization emphasized that it does not typically acquire architectural objects, but has taken this rare step to “ensure their eventual return to Price Tower.”
“Our goal is to return the items to Bartlesville when the time is right; there is a lot of work being done at Price Tower right now to bring it back into operation, so we feel that they are safer in storage and not in the way,” Gordon told me over email. “We will work out the details with the new owners on how we can keep them with the building for the public to enjoy.”
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