The Research Tower is Frank Lloyd Wright's fifteen story laboratory tower built for S. C. Johnson and Son beside his own earlier Administration Building in Racine, Wisconsin, completed in 1950. Like the Administration Building, it is cantilevered from a single reinforced concrete core, a taproot thirteen feet across sunk fifty four feet into the ground, with each research floor projecting from that core like branches from a trunk, the same dendriform structural language carried upward: the tower rises roughly 153 feet above grade. Built in Cherokee red brick and Pyrex glass tubing to match its neighbor, it housed S. C. Johnson's research laboratories and was the birthplace of products including Raid, Glade, OFF! and Pledge, until a 1982 fire code review closed it to daily laboratory use. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 jointly with the Administration Building, under the listing Administration Building and Research Tower, S.C. Johnson and Son, and today is open for public tours alongside it.
Facts
Year Created Architectural StyleStreamline Moderne, matching the adjoining Administration Building's rounded corners and continuous glass-tube banding. 1 Structural SystemCantilevered from a single reinforced concrete taproot core, thirteen feet in diameter and sunk fifty four feet into the ground, from which each floor slab projects and tapers like a branch, the same dendriform principle as the neighboring Administration Building. 1 Primary MaterialCherokee red brick and reinforced concrete, faced with Pyrex glass tubing to match the Administration Building. 1 Building TypeCorporate research laboratory tower 1 Commissioned ByS.C. Johnson and Son (the household-goods maker known as Johnson Wax) 1 Construction Height (metres) Storey Count Current UseClosed to daily laboratory use since a 1982 fire code review; open for public tours alongside the Administration Building since 2014. 1 Visitor AccessPublic tours available by reservation, alongside the Administration Building. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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