Building could be saved for $1.7M
The sign for the Frank Lloyd Wright Building has been removed from its spot along Central Avenue and Wednesday morning was laying near the building. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
A reprieve still may be possible for the Frank Lloyd Wright Building downtown after the historic building recently came under threat of demolition.
The owner of the building has “agreed to sell the building to anyone who puts $1.7 million in his hand by Jan. 10,” the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy announced Friday.
Montana Preservation Society Executive Director Chere Jiusto told the Daily Inter Lake early this week she talked with Whitefish attorney Ryan Purdy, the legal counsel for the building’s owner Mick Ruis, and Purdy confirmed the asbestos abatement taking place at the building is in preparation for the demolition of the building.
If demolition goes forward, it would be the first viable Frank Lloyd Wright building lost in more than 40 years.
“This comes as a great shock to us,” said Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Conservancy, a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of all Wright-designed buildings, in a prepared statement. “Fruitful discussions were still taking place to bring about a successful resolution to this case, which the Conservancy and our local partners have been working on for more than a year.”
Plans to redevelop the commercial property on Central Avenue where the building is located first came forward in late 2016. Columbia Falls developer Ruis paid $1.6 million to purchase the Whitefish building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building was designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1958 as a medical clinic. Wright died in 1959 before the 5,000-square-foot building, which became the Lockridge Medical Clinic, was finished. First State Bank moved into the building in 1964 and it was divided into professional offices in 1980. Sharon Morrison and Sean Frampton purchased the building in 2002, but sold it at the end of 2016.
The conservancy said in a press release on its website that it has worked closely with the Montana Preservation Alliance, local officials and a local businessman to explore multiple strategies to preserve the building.
“This news really felt like a gut punch considering the progress that our local partners had made in finding a preservation-minded buyer,” said Gordon in a statement. “There was no indication that the developer planned to demolish the building while these efforts were underway.”
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Aug. 14, 2012. It is one of three remaining Wright buildings in Montana — the other two are cottages in the Bitterroot Valley that were part of Wright’s first planned community in 1909.