Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium
Tempe, AZ 1959
This final public space of Wright’s design is a circular, 3,000-seat center for the performing arts with a concert hall, proscenium theater, classrooms and offices. It was based on Wright’s non-realized plan for the Baghdad Opera House, one of a series of structures planned by the architect but never realized in Iraq. An arcade of 50 columns wraps the facade, supporting the outer edge of the thin-shell concrete roof. Wright didn’t live to see the building completed in 1964. William Wesley Peters of Taliesin Architects was responsible for the engineering and much of the interior design of the building.
For more information:
asugammage.com