Johnson Wax Headquarters, Corporate headquarters in Racine, United States.
The Johnson Wax Headquarters is an office building with curved red brick facades and a central work hall in Racine, Wisconsin. The structure combines organic shapes with industrial materials and features a large open interior beneath a translucent roof.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the main building between 1936 and 1939 in response to the economic uncertainty of those years. The architect added a research tower in 1950 to expand the complex.
The Great Workroom has no interior walls, and its dendriform columns widen into circular tops that form the ceiling. Wright designed the office furniture, made by Steelcase, and his three-legged chairs proved unstable; after the architect himself fell from one, four-legged versions replaced them. Much of that furniture is still in use.
The building sits south of downtown Racine near Lake Michigan and is easiest to reach by car. Guided tours allow visitors to access selected interior spaces, with availability varying by season.
The slender concrete columns in the main hall taper downward and widen at the top, resembling mushrooms or water lilies. Wright tested one column with 60 tons (54 metric tons) of weight, though the requirement was only 12 tons (11 metric tons).
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