"It may be argued that Wright's Administration Building for Johnson Wax is not only the greatest piece of twentieth-century architecture realized in the United States, but also, possibly, the most profound work of art that America has ever produced." - Frampton

The S.C. Johnson Administration Building, an open-plan forest of tubular concrete and graceful ovoid desks, is the only Wright-designed corporate headquarters building that remains operational today. Upon its opening, it was praised as one of Wright's greatest buildings, with one journalist wishing it could be "put on wheels and shown to the nation," while the grandson of CEO Herbert Johnson recalled, "My grandfather appreciated the genius and the beauty of the creation, but was embarrassed by how much it cost."

Negotiating the design of the neighboring Johnson Research Tower was more difficult, with Johson at first writing: "To be frank, Frank, we simply will not consider a financial and construction nightmare like the office building." In the event, the construction nightmare was not like the office building: it was considerably worse. Wright designed few fire exits and objected to sprinklers on aesthetic grounds, and CEO Herbert Johnson paid excessive insurance premiums to purchase his architect this freedom from building code enforcement. Meanwhile, temperature regulation was difficult and scientists had to meet in the elevator for lack of conference rooms and hallways. To compensate for the danger of fire in the Research Tower, the Administration Building's roof leaked, and glass tubing fell from the ceiling now and then in what must have been a lively diversion from the regular work day. Besides, the Tower was pretty, and nothing in it was flammable except for the wooden desks, research chemicals, and human inhabitants. Eventually closed after various plans to retrofit the building to updated codes were found unsatisfactory, the Tower was reopened as a museum in 2014 so that the public might enjoy all its Pyrex and concrete splendor without enduring the practical aggravations of trying to work there. "It's still an architectural gem," maintained a later Johnson. "I'll leave it to the next generation to figure out what to do with the tower" (Hertzberg). Likely produced as a souvenir by the company, a lovely document of an important building.

Read more: Frampton & Lipman, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Johnson Wax Buildings; Hertzberg, Wright in Racine: The Architect's Vision for One American City; Sharoff, "A Corporate Paean to Frank Lloyd Wright," The New York Times.