and its Vice-president, and a moderator here at the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Wright Chat forum,
is responsible for the new interpretive features at the site of the former Larkin Company Administration Building.
Illustrated below are the recently-installed signage and improvements to be found there.
The glass structure is the phantom fence pier, built on the original foundations and part of the stone base. The inset is located on the City sidewalk (outside the fence; Larkin had another sidewalk inside the fence).
In colored concrete it graphically depicts the width of the Atrium. Another inset locates the original entrance to the admin building.
This panel is adjacent to the phantom fence pier and explains that the excavated area adjacent to the pier was the garden and sidewalk level of the administration building. Grade has been raise about 16 inches over the years.
The original Larkin fence base was a retaining wall that bridged the difference in height between the public sidewalk and the building grounds. Wright wanted the grade as low as possible to admit more light to the ground level of
the building. Seneca Street slopes up to accommodate the rail crossing and bridge that spans the tracks.
This is the final panel for this round of improvements. Note that the stainless steel stair connects the public sidewalk to a relatively new parking area, where a rail roundabout was originally located.
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