Frank Lloyd Wright's Gammage Memorial Auditorium in Tempe Arizona

Eric and I were inspired by our visit to Taliesin West to visit other buildings designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

We drove to Arizona State University

in Tempe to visit the Gammage 

Memorial Auditorium.  

In 1957 ASU President Grady Gammage decided to have a distinctive auditorium built on the Tempe Campus.  He approached Frank Lloyd Wright for help with the project.  Wright had drawn up plans for an opera house in Bagdad, Iraq that would never be built.  Adjustments were made for the college project.  The architect died in 1959 without seeing his project completed.

There it is...

I can see why some people

think it looks like a

wedding cake.

Eric pulls into the parking lot
so I can take pictures.

 

The elevated bridge reminds me

of the ramp to the upper level

at Saratoga Performing Arts

Center in Saratoga Springs, NY.

I go up onto the bridge to get

a few pictures. 

The auditorium seats 3,017 people.

Scalloped accents framing

archways remind me of

Tales of the Arabian Nights.

A shot of the entry, straight on

The colors of the building

are perfect in this desert

setting.

The Gammage Memorial Auditorium opened its doors to the public on September 18, 1964.  It is the only public building in Arizona designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.