How Unrealized Designs by Frank Lloyd Wright Would Have Looked Like

Frank Lloyd Wright is among the most prolific American architects. His career spanned over seven decades, during which time he realized more than 1,000 structures. However, not all of his architectural marvels were met with approval, and many of his designs were left unbuilt. Here’s how three of them would’ve looked like if they were actually built. All three designs were digitally reconstructed by David Romero.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation stands behind David Romero’s project. The foundation, which is best known for inspiring people to seek balance in architecture through meaningful connections with nature and arts, commissioned the Spanish architect in 2018 to reconstruct some of Wright’s designs. Romero has always been drawn toward the American architect’s style and was happy to receive the chance to use his architectural rendering tools to bring to life many of Wright’s unbuilt structures.

National Life Insurance Building

The National Life Insurance Building was a very forward-thinking structure for its time. The 25-story glass fortress was designed to be situated in Chicago. If Frank Lloyd Wright’s idea had been picked up and realized, it would’ve changed the city’s skyline forever. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has said in a statement that the building was also designed to pay tribute to the great architect’s mentor, Louis Sullivan.

Lake Tahoe Summer Colony

Lake Tahoe Summer Colony wasn’t actually one of the architect’s commissioned projects. Nevertheless, Frank Lloyd Wright started to work on it in 1923 with the vision of obtaining land in the Emerald Bay, where he would have the chance to build his dream Colony. Wright designed the project as an array of cottage houses on the shore of Lake Tahoe. The imagery Romero realized with his software tools shows only one aspect of the immense project. Namely, he rendered the Adirondack-style floating cabins to life.

Arizona Capitol Building

Arguably the greatest building that never came to life was the Arizona Capitol Building. The unrealized oasis of democracy, as the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has named it, was submitted in 1957. As he wasn’t commissioned to design the new capitol building, his design was viewed with criticism rather than an appraisal. Romero said he felt the challenge of rendering the building to life, as it was the largest project he’d worked on so far.