Beschreibung:

WRIGHT, Frank Lloyd (1869-1959)]. Blueprint perspective drawing, highlighted in colored wax pencil, labelled in lower right-hand corner (by the architect?) "Project Alteration San Marcos Hotel Frank Lloyd Wri[ght],".in yellow wax pencil in block letters, n.p., n.d. [1936]. Oblong sheet, 41.3/8 x 22 in., upper and lower right-hand corners defective (affecting three letters of inscription and part of ruled border), these sections neatly renewed in matching blue paper, framed. A WRIGHT PERSPECTIVE BLUEPRINT FOR THE SAN MARCOS HOTEL 1936 An attractive, large-scale perspective drawing, for an important unbuilt project, the San Marcos Hotel, designed in 1927-28 by Wright for Dr. Alexander Chandler, in Chandler, Arizona (south of Phoenix). Wright was asked to completely redesign an existing resort hotel: "The exterior was to receive a totally new surface as well as all the interior rooms being redone ... on the lawn behind the hotel Mr. Wright designed a special pavilion as a separate new building ... To conceal the heavy and ill-proportioned building that already existed on the site, Mr Wright made use of trellises and pergolas, planted with vines and bougainvillaea, to blend and soften the whole... (Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer F.L.L. Wright Monograph, 1924-1936 ). The drawing (recorded in the Wright Archives as "Aeriel Perspecive," no. 3607.030) depicts the sprawling desert resort hotel amidst large palm trees and flowering plants. The low-slung main structure, at the center of the drawing, is anchored by large rectangular pylons and slabs; from these extend large cantilevered slabs (in familiar Wright fashion), which set off shaded paved courtyards with pergolas, arbors and garden quadrangles. The main building shows rows of large windows set well back from the flat roof overhang (a feature of the "prairie style"), and several vertical corners appear to be entirely glass. In the foreground are plazas lined with flowering trees and a pool partially shaded by large trees. Portions of the blueprint have been delicately color-tinted in orange-red, tan, gray-green and yellow. Wright met Chandler when working in Phoenix on the Arizona Biltmore Hotel; he was asked to redesign Chandler's design for a large new hotel, christened San Marcos in the Desert, which was an elaborate series of interlocking terraces, with each room, bath, hallway and closet acessible to sunlight. Due to the crash of 1929, Chandler was unable to proceed with that very expensive project and instead opted for a redesign of his existing resort in the same spirit. Alas it too was never built. On San-Marcos-in-the-Desert, see Pfeiffer, Masterworks from the Archives , New York, 1990. (Christie's is grateful to Penny Fowler of Taliesin West for assistance in the identification of this project).