Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unbuilt Skyscrapers Visualized Through New 3D Renderings

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unbuilt Skyscrapers, visualized by architect David Romero in a recent issue of The Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly, showcases three of Wright’s unbuilt designs through detailed 3D renderings. Despite his critiques of skyscrapers, Wright explored unique forms in tall buildings. The National Life Insurance Building in Chicago proposed a 25-story glass structure with copper panels, diverging from the era’s historic styles. In Washington, D.C., his Crystal City concept for a mixed-use development was halted due to zoning disputes, leaving towers between 140 and 260 feet unrealized. The Illinois in Chicago, a 528-story vision, aimed to be a “city in the sky” but lacked a site and funding. Romero’s imagery, using advanced 3D techniques, brings these unrealized designs to life with photorealistic clarity. Through his visualizations, these projects are reimagined as Wright might have envisioned them, combining the architect’s pioneering ideas with modern digital art. These renderings reflect Wright’s ongoing fascination with pushing the boundaries of architectural design and serve as a testament to what might have transformed the urban skyline.

Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiasts now have a chance to see his unbuilt skyscrapers brought to life, thanks to Spanish architect David Romero’s computer-generated 3D imagery. Using advanced 3D representation techniques, Romero creates detailed, photorealistic renderings that resemble contemporary photography. The latest issue of The Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly, a print publication for members of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, showcases three of Wright’s remarkable, unbuilt skyscraper designs. This edition includes the stories behind each project along with Romero’s new renderings.

Although Wright often criticized skyscrapers, he remained intrigued by the potential of taller structures in new forms. He once remarked, “Towers have always been erected by humankind—it seems to gratify humanity’s ambition somehow, and they are beautiful and picturesque.”

Here are the key projects highlighted in the Quarterly:

National Life Insurance Building Chicago

Chicago, recognized as the birthplace of the skyscraper, experienced a construction boom in the 1920s, prompting Wright to propose his National Life Insurance Building. Commissioned by the company’s president, Albert M. Johnson, the project offered Wright a $20,000 flat fee. His design featured a 25-story glass structure on North Michigan Avenue, composed of four identical wings clad in refined copper panels.

Unlike other major office buildings of the time that featured historic revival details, the renderings of the National Life Insurance Building depict a structure that was remarkably modern for its era, utilizing light materials as a curtain wall to enhance daylight and natural ventilation—principles valued by Chicago School architects for decades.

Though not as widely known as his 1956 “Mile High” project, the National Life Insurance Building would have significantly altered Chicago’s skyline. The design also served as a tribute to his mentor, Louis Sullivan, known for his commitment to innovative architecture. Wright could have drawn on Sullivan’s example to further explore the possibilities of steel-frame construction.

Crystal City Washington D.C.

In late 1940, Wright was commissioned to design a new development in what would eventually become Washington, D.C.’s Kalorama neighborhood. The project, called Crystal City, envisioned a mixed-use development well ahead of its time. However, conflicts with the city’s zoning authorities ultimately led to it becoming one of Wright’s notable unbuilt projects.

The project was led by a group of local developers headed by Roy S. Thurman, who selected a semi-forested area known as the Dean Tract as the site. Even before Wright was involved, Thurman’s initial plans for the project included a hotel, apartments, a shopping center, garages, a theater, and an auditorium.

Unfortunately, Thurman did not inform Wright about D.C.’s strict height and use restrictions. The Dean Tract was zoned for residential use, with a city-wide height limit of 90 feet for residential buildings and only 110 feet for commercial buildings.

Unaware of the zoning restrictions, Wright proceeded with a design that accommodated the diverse uses Thurman had envisioned, with building heights ranging from 140 to 260 feet. His plan featured a series of towers connected in a U shape, with “entrance towers” at the ends and the central towers reaching heights of 16 to 18 stories.

Meanwhile, Thurman largely kept Wright unaware of the conflicts surrounding the project until the National Capital Park and Planning Commission (NCPPC) eventually voted unanimously against it, effectively bringing the project to a standstill.

The Illinois Chicago

In 1956, Wright announced his ambitious project, The Illinois, a 528-story skyscraper that would stand a mile high—four times the height of the tallest building of that era. Wright boldly claimed, “The Empire State Building would be a mouse by comparison.”

With over 18 million square feet—three times the floor area of the Pentagon—the Illinois was envisioned to house more than 100,000 people, prompting Wright to call it “a city in the sky.” Four major highways, rail lines, and a heliport would provide access to the building, which would also feature docking space for over 100 aircraft and parking for more than 15,000 cars.

Moving people to the top of the building would require 76 elevators, each featuring five-story-high cabs that could deliver passengers to five floors at once. Wright envisioned these elevators as atomic-powered and capable of traveling at a mile per minute—three times the speed of the fastest elevators today.

Wright’s preliminary design for Illinois was inspired by trees with deep taproots, featuring a central antenna-like structure from which four wing-like buttresses with cantilevered floors would extend. This “taproot” was a 15-story deep substructure, resembling an inverted Eiffel Tower, from which the building’s concrete-and-steel core would emerge.

Surrounding the core, following Wright’s principle of “construction from within outward rather than from outside inward,” the structure would consist of a steel frame, ideal for skyscrapers, with concrete floors. Aware that steel towers typically sway in the wind, Wright believed that his tower, anchored deep into the ground, would resist such oscillation.

However, Wright never had the opportunity to put his theory to the test. Despite its groundbreaking concept, the Illinois lacked a site, a client, and a budget. A later curator of materials on the Illinois noted that the initial press conference was merely “an incredible attention-getting thing.”

If Illinois had ever been constructed as Wright envisioned, serving as the centerpiece of his Broadacre City—which integrated urban, suburban, and rural zones—it would have been so immense that no additional towers would have been required nearby.

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