frank lloyd wright's price tower in oklahoma, is sold to new owners

Frank Lloyd Wright’s skyscraper sold to McFarlin Building LLC

Frank Lloyd Wright’s singular skyscraper, the iconic Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is officially sold to McFarlin Building LLC. The sale closed on May 5, 2025, just one day before the property and its associated collection were due to be auctioned as part of a bankruptcy proceeding. With no competing qualified bids received, McFarlin secured the landmark for $1.4 million. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, which holds a preservation easement on the site, expresses optimism about the tower’s future, citing the new owners’ respect for its architectural significance and their plans for careful revitalization.

Price Tower | image by John H. Waters, AIA

copper panels front the 19-story Price Tower

Designed in 1952 and completed in 1956, the 19-story Price Tower stands as Frank Lloyd Wright’s only built skyscraper. It was commissioned by Harold C. Price Sr. to house his oil pipeline business alongside apartments and rental offices, hybrid that embodied Wright’s vision of organic architecture. Inspired by his unrealized 1928 project, St. Mark’s in the Bowery, the tower is notable for its radical structure. Floors cantilever out from a central core, eschewing the steel-frame orthodoxy of postwar high-rises. Its copper-panel facade, geometric interiors, and asymmetrical form mark it as a true original in the American landscape.

The recent journey of the tower to new ownership has been anything but smooth. Once the pride of mid-century Bartlesville, Price Tower had fallen into disrepair under previous owners Copper Tree Inc. and Green Copper Holdings LLC, who filed for bankruptcy in early 2025 with just $216 in the bank. A series of legal disputes, utility shutoffs, and unauthorized collection sales triggered national concern among preservationists. McFarlin’s bid, initially delayed by court proceedings, ultimately prevailed, with The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy stepping in throughout to defend their easement and advocate for a sustainable resolution.

Price Tower, Dewey Avenue, Bartlesville, OK | image © Flickr via Warren LeMay

a National Historic Landmark secures a new future

Despite its struggles, the tower remains a National Historic Landmark and a touchstone of modern architecture. Its preservation easement, granted to the Conservancy in 2011, protects not only its exterior but also select interiors and collection items. John Snyder and Macy Snyder-Amatucci of McFarlin, the new owners, have a track record of creative adaptive reuse and are already working with the Conservancy to stabilize and restore the building.

Wright once called the tower ‘An assertion of the American sense of itself. This upraised hand on the prairie is a symbol of American independence.’ As McFarlin Building LLC steps in with fresh resources and a long-term plan, the Price Tower may once again rise as a beacon.

exterior of Price Tower, March 2025 | image by John H. Waters, AIA