Beautiful, the SC Johnson Wax Headquarters are definitely a masterpiece of /r/ModernistArchitecture. Curiously, the columns shown in this post were quite controversial at the time.
They are 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter at the bottom and 18 feet (5.48 m) in diameter at the top, on a wide, round platform that Wright termed the "lily pad." This did not accord with building codes at the time; they deemed the pillar’s dimensions too slender at the base to support the weight.
Building inspectors required that a test column be built and loaded with twelve tons of material. The test column was not only tough enough to support the requested weight but Wright insisted that it be loaded with more weight. It took sixty tons of materials before the column cracked (and even then, only collapsing when the wooden beams supporting the "lily-pad" were removed; crashing the 60 tons of materials to the ground, even damaging a water main 30 feet underground). After this demonstration, a vindicated Wright was given his building permit.
ComprehensiveCause1 says
Wax….The wave of the future
joaoslr says
Beautiful, the SC Johnson Wax Headquarters are definitely a masterpiece of /r/ModernistArchitecture. Curiously, the columns shown in this post were quite controversial at the time.
They are 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter at the bottom and 18 feet (5.48 m) in diameter at the top, on a wide, round platform that Wright termed the "lily pad." This did not accord with building codes at the time; they deemed the pillar’s dimensions too slender at the base to support the weight.
Building inspectors required that a test column be built and loaded with twelve tons of material. The test column was not only tough enough to support the requested weight but Wright insisted that it be loaded with more weight. It took sixty tons of materials before the column cracked (and even then, only collapsing when the wooden beams supporting the "lily-pad" were removed; crashing the 60 tons of materials to the ground, even damaging a water main 30 feet underground). After this demonstration, a vindicated Wright was given his building permit.