A Frank Lloyd Wright building in Oklahoma, the architect’s only realized vision for a skyscraper, has been sold to a company that says it will restore the tower for use as a hotel and residences.
The sale of Price Tower, which has been endangered by financial problems, comes after a period of uncertainty when it appeared that the building might be sold through a bankruptcy court proceeding or through an auction. The tower is instead now the property of McFarlin Building LLC, a Tulsa-based company that has restored historic buildings in Oklahoma and Texas. The company agreed to pay $1.4 million last year before disagreements with the owners, a subsidiary of the Copper Tree Group, temporarily tabled that transaction.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, which looks to protect Wright’s legacy, has been intensely tracking the 19-floor Price Tower in Bartlesville, Okla., because of the building’s rarity in the Wright portfolio. The conservancy said it was pleased with the transaction.
“We’ve appreciated getting to know the McFarlin team over the last several months, and our conversations have been very positive,” Eric Rogers, the communications manager for the conservancy, said in a statement. “We are reassured by their respect for Price Tower’s historic significance and their commitment to honoring our preservation easement.”
Price Tower opened in 1956 as offices for the H.C. Price Company. Though Wright designed other tall structures, Price Tower is considered his only skyscraper because it stands higher than the others and was built to fulfill Wright’s formal vision for a skyscraper as a vertical street that combined offices, residences and retail businesses.
The tower was briefly occupied by Phillips Petroleum, the oil company that has long called Bartlesville home, but struggled to find an anchor tenant after Phillips merged with Conoco and moved the headquarters to Houston in 2002.
Copper Tree Group’s subsidiary took over the tower in 2023 for $10 and an agreement to take on an existing $600,000 debt. The company, led by Cynthia Blanchard, said it had wanted to use the tower as a hub for tech entrepreneurship and new restaurant concepts, with the vision of Bartlesville as a “Silicon Ranch” for start-ups.
But that plan did not materialize, and last summer Ms. Blanchard put the building up for sale and sold off some of its original Wright-designed furnishings.
The conservancy, which holds a preservation easement on the tower, responded by filing liens against the property. Copper Tree Group and Ms. Blanchard say the easement is no longer in effect, and the group sued the conservancy in October for interfering with the proposed sale of the building; that lawsuit is ongoing.
McFarlin’s initial effort to buy the building fell through over a disagreement on restoring furnishings to the building, and McFarlin sued to enforce its contract. A judge ruled in January to approve the sale, but companies within Ms. Blanchard’s Copper Tree Group filed for bankruptcy, creating an automatic stay.
The bankruptcy auction, though, failed to attract other bidders, and McFarlin ended up with the building.
“We are grateful that the federal bankruptcy court protection provided an opportunity for resolution through a structured process,” Ms. Blanchard wrote in an email. “The Federal Bankruptcy Trustee was instrumental to the finality of a complex and highly charged situation. Copper Tree, Inc./Green Copper Holdings LLC Group fought to preserve and protect the Price Tower under extraordinarily challenging conditions, and we sincerely hope its future will be one of integrity and stewardship.”
Macy Snyder-Amatucci, who works with her father John Snyder at McFarlin and is the president of Brickhugger, the restoration company that is the principal owner of McFarlin, said that work on the building, which has sat unused since its closure last year, would start soon.
“We promise to pour the same heart, passion, and commitment to detail into the restoration of Price Tower as Frank Lloyd Wright did in all of his designs,” Ms. Snyder-Amatucci wrote in an email. “His legacy is one of vision and excellence, and we are honored to carry that forward with integrity and care.”
The conservancy said it was able to account for easement-protected items in the building during a visit in March and was “continuing to explore avenues” to retrieve items that were previously sold.
Maria Swindell Gus, the tourism director for Bartlesville, said that the sale was a relief and that she had already seen workers on the grounds of Price Tower picking weeds and mowing grass.
“Bartlesville has always had moments where things have looked a little bleak, and we always end up coming out ahead,” she said. “I hope this is one of those times. We can’t wait to welcome more people to see her.”
