Whitefish building one of Wright's final projects
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building on Central Avenue in downtown Whitefish is not a commercial building that stands out in any overt way, but the famous architect’s philosophy was all about blending into the environment.
Designed as a medical clinic in 1958, the year before he died, the building was one of his final architectural works.
Natural light filled the original interior through a double clerestory window and 64-feet-long wall of floor-to-ceiling glass facing west. Part of Wright’s original design called for a landscaped garden of low bushes and perennials where a parking area now is located.
A lapped-board parapet on the roof once held flowers and plants, but now conceals the building’s air-conditioning unit.
Wright’s philosophy of organic architecture was his claim to fame. His idea was to promote harmony between human habitation and the natural world.
“Wright believed that good architecture could bring dignity and joy to everyday life,” a Western Work article about the Whitefish Wright building noted. “For the clinic’s patients, he demonstrated that this could be accomplished in a medical setting. In an atmosphere more reminiscent of a domestic living room than a doctor’s office, Wright used warm colors and natural materials to impart a sense of serenity and comfort.”
While some of the original interior features have been eliminated by remodeling through the years, the massive brick fireplace that served as a focal point of the original medical clinic waiting room is still in place, with two built-in curved banquettes flanking the hearth to form an inglenook.
Wright designed the brick building for the medical practices of Drs. Lockridge, McIntyre and Whalen.
As the story goes, the doctors first contacted a Great Falls architectural firm about designing their clinic, but the bid came back exorbitantly high. When Dr. Lockridge’s wife saw the estimate, she purportedly exclaimed: “My gosh, we may as well have Frank Lloyd Wright design it.”
“There was one intriguing element in the design that appears to be without precedent in Wright’s work: a seven-foot diameter plastic sphere pointed in the center of the glass wall facing the garden,” Western Work stated. “Half inside and half outside the glass wall, this voluptuous white orb was supported by a 25-foot-diameter brick planter, which also bisected the wall.
“Lit from below by floodlights, the glowing translucent bubble must have appeared almost otherworldly.”
The big white ball was used initially as a terrarium and perhaps was designed to emulate a full moon. When the clinic became First State Bank in 1964, the sphere and circular planter were removed to allow for a front entrance to the bank. There were later attempts to find remnants of the sphere, but to no avail.