Marin has the only ___ by Frank Lloyd Wright and he was how old?

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Frank Lloyd Wright is the name to know when it comes to American architecture. You’re likely aware that he designed the Marin County Civic Center, but here are some interesting facts you may not know.

The Civic Center was his only government project! In his early career, he became famous for homes like Fallingwater, with his “organic architecture” philosophy – envisioning buildings in harmony with nature, the landscape, and human life. Later in his career, he took on massive projects like the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. But never a government project, until Marin…

In 1957, when Marin County’s Board of Supervisors voted to hire Frank Lloyd Wright, he was already 90 years old! This choice was not without its controversy. However, its backers were convinced that only someone of Wright’s genius could design a civic center worthy of Marin’s beautiful landscape. It came with a 10% design fee though…

I was curious how much that 10% would be in today’s dollars. With some rough math including the Auditorium and fairgrounds construction costs ($20M total), the fee would have been about $2M. In today’s dollars, that equates to $20M (10x increase). Honestly, that doesn’t sound like too much. You aren’t building anything like that for $200M today, which would have resulted in a much higher percentage-based design fee.

Did you know Frank Lloyd Wright wanted the roof to be gold? After he died in 1959, his firm continued the project. They made the decision to change the roof color to the now iconic sky blue because they thought the gold paint would not hold up to the elements well and soon look a dirty brown.

If any of this is interesting to you, you may want to check out the 90 minute tour. Tours run year-round on Fridays, and now Wednesdays too. It often sells out, so book in advance.

Did you know there is a small lake out by Peacock Gap / McNears Beach on the East side of San Rafael?

Around this lake are some beautiful custom homes, this one coming in at 4,482 square feet with an incredible deck and private dock. Impressive details throughout given the size and price point.

That’s right, this is currently listed at $2.5M and it was listed a year ago for $3.5M. So you just saved yourself a million dollars! Not too shabby, yourself on the back.

Zillow link

Thanks for reading. We will be back with the regular events and activities email Wednesday morning!

— Allison + Brian

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