The Johnson Wax Building
1936 -1939
14th and Franklin Street
Racine, Wisconsin, USA
Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
Photograph by Jack E. Boucher
August 1969
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division,
Reproduction Number: HABS, WIS, 51-RACI, 5-6
"There in the Johnson Building you catch no sense of enclosure whatever at any angle, top or sides.... Interior space comes free, you are not aware of any boxing in at all. Restricted space simply is not there. Right there where you've always experienced this interior constriction you take a look at the sky!"
—Frank Lloyd Wright, In
the Realm of Ideas, edited by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Gerald Nordland
The Johnson Wax Building, also called the Administration Building, is constructed of more than 200 sizes and shapes of bricks. Light shines into the building through several layers of glass tubes which cannot be seen through. Wright also designed the original furniture for the building. Some chairs had only three legs, and would tip over if a forgetful secretary did not sit with correct posture.
Resources
Johnson Wax Administration
Building and Research Tower
Racine, Wisconsin, 1936
Author: Carter, Brian
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