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Note: This is the latest piece in our series on the fate of Frank Lloyd Wright’s only skyscraper, Price Tower. You can view the other articles in the series here and here.
“We don’t flip buildings, we bring them back to life.” – Macy Snyder-Amatucci, Brickhuggers, LLC
After several years of disputes and controversy regarding the building’s future and ownership, on May 5, 2025, Frank Lloyd Wright’s only skyscraper, Price Tower, was sold to McFarlin Building’s Brickhuggers, LLC, for what can only be called the bargain basement price of $1.4 million.
The copper-clad sentinel overlooking Bartlesville, Oklahoma’s downtown will see new life as the Price Tower Hotel & Residences after its planned two-year adaptive reuse/renovation project is complete.
A Passion for Preservation & Building Community
The father-daughter duo behind the project, John Snyder and Macy Snyder-Amatucci are passionate preservationists and Wright fans who are willing to put in the elbow grease to bring Price Tower back to its former glory. They have partnered with local rancher, Dale Forrest, who brought the project to their attention.
“I think about that building when I go to sleep at night. It’s so cool. It’s truly one-of-a-kind,” Snyder told Architectural Digest in a recent feature about the duo’s efforts.
“Frank Lloyd Wright was definitely someone who didn’t conform. I always had a passion for his work – I am somebody who respects uniqueness and respects people that have the guts to be different in a world that you know isn’t always accepting of that,” Snyder-Amatucci told the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise.
What is the Plan for Price Tower?
The Price Tower renovation is budgeted for $10 million over a two-year period. The plan explicitly states the landmark building will not be fundamentally altered, but will be adapted as a mixed-use space featuring a boutique hotel and apartments, which actually is more in line with Wright’s original vision for the building. He designed it in 1928 as a New York apartment building, repurposing the design in 1952 as a mixed commercial and residential skyscraper for Harold C. Price, Sr., and erecting it in Bartlesville.
Wright famously referred to Price Tower as “the tree that escaped the crowded forest,” and the cantilevered trunk and branch design is just one part of its bespoke natural design, where copper plays an enormous role, both inside and out.
The team has its work cut out for it. When they took possession, the power had been cut to the building and two feet of water was standing in the basement, which precluded the new owners from restoring power to pump it out. So, John Snyder donned his boots, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work, helping to clear the foundation of water while the electrical system was assessed to determine the extent of repairs necessary to turn the lights back on.
Turning the lights on is just one of thousands of tiny baby steps that must be taken to bring the building up to code so it can then undergo its transformation – into the livable dwelling structure it was initially designed to become. Any adaptive reuse project, especially adaptive reuse of historical buildings, requires careful reality capture, planning, concrete cutting and coring clearances for MEP updates and the moving of walls and windows, before imagination can become reality so that tenants and hotel guests can move in.
This is far from the first time Brickhuggers has rescued and revived a landmark building. They have successfully renovated more than two dozen aging landmarks. Their most famous historical building rescue to date was their flagship – Tulsa Oklahoma’s Mayo Hotel – which was orphaned for more than 30 years through six additional owners before Brickhuggers brought it back from the dead in 2009 with a $42 million renovation that “jumpstarted the revitalization of Downtown Tulsa.”
Their idea with Price Tower and Bartlesville is similar. Snyder-Amatucci, Snyder, and Forrest envision the iconic skyscraper as an architectural tourism destination for Wright fans, while creating a space the town can use as well. Brickhuggers’ plans also include the potential to reopen the rooftop bar that will restore the building’s top floor, restore the outdoor patio, and install a restaurant.
“We operate everything we build,” Snyder-Amatucci shared with the local Bartlesville paper. “We’re not doing these projects to flip them and sell them for a quick buck – we stay.”
What Part Does the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Play in the Plan?
Staying with a Frank Lloyd Wright building is as much about preservation and curation as renovation and maintenance because the architect designed holistically; creating interiors that matched his vision, which often included walls, floors, furnishings, and other items, elevating the spaces to works of art. Many enthusiastic owners of Wright buildings have sunk millions into restoring his vision while integrating modern necessities. Quite a few work directly with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy to remain faithful to his designs and materials.
Learn about fashion designer Marc Jacobs’ recently completed renovations to one of Wright’s Usonian homes, the Max Hoffman House in Rye, New York, here.
In the case of Price Tower, and other iconic Wright structures, the Conservancy has a say in what can and can’t be done – by law via a transferrable title easement covering all the museum-quality interior design spaces and pieces – a sticking point that the building’s previous owners, Green Copper Holdings, sought to circumvent.
Green Copper was accused in court of selling off a number of architectural elements and pieces that Wright designed for Price Tower, including a one-of-a-kind rolling directory board and the Shin’enKan gate, in violation of the Conservancy’s easement. In January of 2025, the judge overseeing the lawsuit brought by McFarlin Building, LLC to force Green Copper to comply with the building’s sale, ruled that any conservancy-protected items Green Copper had sold must either be returned or the proceeds from their sale remitted to the court.
Brickhuggers and McFarlin Building are working directly with the Conservancy to locate all the items that were sold, particularly the gate, to fully restore the first-floor museum inside Price Tower. The Conservancy heralded the new owners in an official statement on their website, saying, “The Conservancy stands ready to offer support as they stabilize, restore, and revitalize the building.”
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