Thursday, March 21, 2013

28 November 1956: Frank Lloyd Wright Tours Southdale

28 November 1956: an unimpressed Frank Lloyd Wright tours Edina’s new Southdale Mall, the nation’s first fully-enclosed shopping mall.

In a public address that evening, Wright, speaking to an audience of 2500 persons in downtown Minneapolis, described Southdale as “A Flight From Egypt” and declared Minneapolis an architectural wasteland, proclaiming that most buildings in downtown Minneapolis needed to be blown up immediately.

Newspapers of the time reported that Wright’s speech was received with sustained applause.
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3 comments:

  1. VercingetorixMarch 24, 2013 6:06 PM

    Now that's an amazing picture. I love the notion of FLW passing on Minneapolis architecture and Southdale in particular.

    ReplyDelete
  2. VercingetorixMarch 24, 2013 6:08 PM

    Where did you find that picture?

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  3. Drew80March 25, 2013 11:23 PM

    I thought it was a fascinating photograph, too.

    It was taken by a local newspaper photographer.

    ReplyDelete