SAN RAFAEL, California--You might remember it from the hit sci-fi film "Gattaca," or perhaps from George Lucas' 1971 thriller "THX 1138." Or if you're from or have visited the San Francisco Bay Area, then you might well have driven by it: Frank Lloyd Wright's last major design project--and his first-ever completed government building--the terrific Marin County Civic Center complex.
As part of his ongoing Road Trip at Home series, CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman visited the masterpiece recently and got a chance to see up close and personal what has to be one of the most original and beautiful civic buildings in the country.
Although Wright died in 1959, he had already completed his plans for the Civic Center, which had been approved a year earlier. Although Wright wasn't originally one of the architects considered for the massive project, he was championed by Vera Shultz, Marin County's first-ever female supervisor. And after a series of political complications, the project's 584-foot-long administration building was completed in 1962. The second major element of the complex, the Hall of Justice, was finished in 1969.
The project, like so many others of Wright's, emphasized organic architecture, that is, designs that took advantage of natural surroundings, rather than ignoring--or destroying--them. As such, the Civic Center blends beautifully into the surroundings here, nestling perfectly in between four small hills on the 140-acre property--formerly known as the Secttrini Ranch--that Marin County had purchased for $561,000. LINK
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