#752 Wright's Imperial Hotel

Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo famously survived an earthquake when brand new and welcomed customers for more than fifty years but it couldn't survive a developer's bulldozer in the 1960s when a new high rise hotel took its place.

Wright's Imperial Hotel on its original site in Tokyo

But not all was lost. The hotel entrance and lobby were spared, then disassembled and moved over 200 miles to be restored and reassembled on the grounds of Meiji-Mura, an outdoor museum with 59 other rescued structures.

As part of the reconstruction, some of the weathered original Oya stone was replaced with newly quarried Oya stone to match the original.

On the day of our Meiji-Mura visit, light flooded the multi-story lobby.

The Imperial Hotel is among Wright's more ornamented and visually complex work.

But the stained glass (Wright's "light screens") is relatively simple.

The one-person window seat follows the rectilinear theme.

But if you look closely you'll find curved elements in the design as well.

Thank you, Frank Lloyd Wright. Thank you, Meiji-Mura.  Well done!

Yours in Japan's "Architectural Disneyland,"
Kelly