Point of View -- Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California

by Darin Volpe

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Point of View -- Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California

Artist

Darin Volpe

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Photograph - Photography

Description

The Marin County Civic Center was designed by the celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for the project. Frank Lloyd Wright hadn't even participated in design competition. However, county supervisor Vera Schultz arranged a meeting between the design committee, a group of supervisors, and Wright when he was in Berkeley for a lecture at the university. The supervisors supported Frank Lloyd Wright becoming the architect on the project, but William Fusselman, a conservative supervisor who opposed the rapid pace of change in Marin County, objected. Aside from believing that Wright's fee was too high, he believed that Wright's design philosophy (which included placing the public library above the county supervisors chambers to symbolically put the power of public knowledge over political power), was too “socialist.” Schultz and four other supervisors eventually voted for Wright to design the facility, with Fusselman being the dissenting vote.

Frank Lloyd Wright believed that architecture could be transformative. “Buildings, like people, must first be sincere, must be true.” To Wright, architecture was about more than just buildings. His designs were intended to be in harmony with its inhabitants and the landscape.

The Civic Center would be Wright's last major project, designed when he was 90 years old and completed three years after his death.

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December 17th, 2023

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