Wright's vision was of a great workplace supported by tall slender columns. But the first 
obstacle he encountered was the building regulations which called for a minimum 
30-inch diameter concrete column. He said, "so thick you wouldn't be able to see across 
the room." First he would have to reinvent the column. 


THE DENDRIFORM COLUMN 

Tree trunk and its foliage are circular. Observing that the trees in a forest generate space 
and create the magical light entering through the spaces between inspired Wright's design 
for the great workspace. Wright called his new columns dendriform (from the Greek akin 
to branched tree). 

Wright had designed a mushroom column for the Richland Center Warehouse, Wisconsin, 
1915. Based on the standard engineer's design for supporting heavy loads the thick cap 
transfers large shear loads. His version was 24 inches square, with the stresses transferred 
by an angular 6-foot square capital decorated with a triangular motif. 

The 18-foot high concrete columns for the Capitol Building were 24 inches in diameter 
at the top tapering to 18 inches at the bottom. To isolate the upper floors from the 
vibration and noise of the printing presses below, Wright placed the columns into a small 
metal shoe, resting on an independent foundation, to minimize contact with the ground 
floor slab. He carried this detail over into his dendriform column. 

Wright reinvented the column. Through structural continuity he transformed the massive 
shear cap into the 18-foot, 6-inch petal that cantilevers out to become the roof itself. 
The old elements of post-beam-joist-plank structure were rendered obsolete. The new 
column was 21 feet high-31 feet in the lobby-tapering from 22-inch diameter at the 
top to a 9-inch bronze crowsfoot base. (Within was hidden a rainwater pipe.) The 
transition from horizontal roof to the vertical column is made through a 'calyx-capital,' a 
series of digital stepped rings from 'petal to stem.' 

Wright intuitively drew the conoid forms that exactly follows the line of the stresses from 
roof to base. The continuity of structural steel makes roof and column one: the roof 
becomes the point. Form follows function, transferring 400 square feet of roof load, 20,000 
pounds, down to a 9-inch diameter bronze "tiptoe" point. An area ratio of 800:1. A 
graphic example that the form itself is as structurally potent as its materials. 


INVENTION 

As alchemist Wright transmuted new technologies and materials to create his dendriform 
column: the steel form, high strength 7000 p.s.i. pumped concrete with vibrator, expanded 
steel mesh shaped to the form, high strength steel, spiral reinforcement. He made the 
upper third of the column hollow, its walls only 3 1/2 inches thick and continued them 
into the 2 1/2-inch thick petal with its supporting ribs. 


THE TEST 

Although Johnson had a good relationship with the local officials they were anxious to 
cover their backs in case of failure. Refusing to accept the engineering calculations alone, 
the building department demanded the new column be tested with a load of 24,000 
pounds-twice the full design load. 

The foundations were in when Wright built his test column which would be loaded with 
pig iron to see if it could sustain the regulation load. 

It was not only the column that was being tested, but Wright's vision, the fate of the 
project. 

Surrounded by a crowd of officials, reporters, clients, and Taliesin workers a crane 
dumped load after load of pig iron on the column. Wright stood by the column, 
unperturbed by the mounting tension around him, periodically tapping it with his cane. 
When the load finally reached the 24,000 pounds required, everyone sighed with relief. 
But Wright insisted they keep going and see how far it could go before the point of 
destruction. By late afternoon there was no more room to add any pig iron. At 60 tons, it 
was carrying five times the test requirements. Wright seeing he had made his point, 
ordered the supporting braces removed. The calyx of the column broke, but the column 
stem itself was still intact. He had proved his vision in practice, and created a new column 
for the twentieth century. In the evolution of the column from the first simple tree trunk to 
Karnak, the Parthenon, through the Gothic fan vaults of Kings College Chapel, Wright 
had made a quantum leap. Wright said, "Greek or Egyptian found a revelation of the 
inmost life and character of the lotus and acanthus in terms of lotus or acanthus life." All 
this great architectural inspiration came from the understanding of nature. 

Wright, by metamorphosing the ugly mushroom into the graceful dendriform, had 
achieved the delicate tall slender column he envisioned, like a dancer poised on a point, 
balanced by the connecting arms between the petals. The dendriform columns became 
generators of space. There are no supporting walls, the free standing columns support the 
whole structure: roof, mezzanine and suspended cornices. 
