The Last Wright

The derelict Park Inn Hotel in downtown Mason City, IA, is not the last Frank Lloyd Wright building left standing, but it is the last of five hotels designed by the famous architect and is being restored by the local nonprofit Wright on the Park Foundation. As described in this documentary by filmmakers Lucille Carra and Garry McGee, the restoration is both a tribute to the genius of Wright (1867-1959), and an effort to revive Mason City by placing it more prominently on the map of international heritage tourism. Designed in 1910, the building was severely altered in subsequent years—its rooms were converted into apartments, and it was considered a “bottom-of-the-line place to live” before it was abandoned and taken over by the city, which tried unsuccessfully to sell it on eBay for $10 million. Incorporating archival footage and period music, the film compares the Park Inn with other Wright structures (including the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo), but it loses focus with too much peripheral information, including accounts of John Dillinger robbing a downtown bank in the 1930s, the 1962 local film premiere of The Music Man (written by hometown boy Meredith Willson), and the period during the 1970s when the town was known as Porn City. Optional. Aud: C, P. (F. Zoretich)