Winged Victory: The Larkin Building

She takes our breath even as she lifts our spirits, Winged Victory, Niké of Samothrace, once a votive offering to defunct gods, a memorial, perhaps, to a battle won long ago, long forgotten, not all of her, not the full statue, but the assembled fragments we know and have known for well over a century, which still inspires and takes us to the point of flight.

THOUGHT
FEELING
ACTION

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin building, massive, firmly anchored, yet energetic, lifts us in a different way, taking us back in memory, over a century ago, to memories left behind.

SIMPLICITY
TENACITY
STABILITY

More coming. . . .

LIBERTY
EQUALITY
FRATERNITY

INTELLIGENCE
JUDGMENT
INITIATIVE

HONEST LABOR
NEEDS NO MASTER
SIMPLE JUSTICE
NEEDS NO SLAVES

In short, if the incentive that results from the family-gathering under conditions ideal for body and mind counts for lesser errors, cheerful alacrity and quickened and sustained intelligence in duties to be performed, we have created some very real values.

Frank Lloyd Wright

ALL THINGs WHATSOEVER YE
WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD DO
TO YOU DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM

ASK AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU
SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND KNOCK
AND IT SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU

CO-OPERATION
ECONOMY
INDUSTRY

According to one newspaper account, “everything removable has been stripped by vandals. Lighting fixtures, door knobs, plumbing, and even part of the copper roof have been torn away systematically by thieves.” Another stated, “Every double-paned window is shattered. The tall iron grate which graces the entrance has toppled from rusted hinges. The iron fence topping a low brick wall around the structure went into a wartime scrap collection.”

Jack Quinan/Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building