By 1908, Frank Lloyd Wright was considered the most innovative architect in Chicago. He traveled to Mason City, Iowa, to design a unique business block- a bank and an adjoining hotel, facing a park. Soon, scandal and tragedy would ruin his career, but the Park Inn would remain, one of his last Prairie style structures. This unique film traces the life, death, and possible rebirth of a Midwest downtown through the prism of the Park Inn.
From 1926 to the present, the Park Inn witnessed alterations and downgrading, while Mason City dealt with an economic downturn in the 1960s and a decaying reputation in the 1970s. While the city struggled to fund renovations of the Frank Lloyd Wright hotel in the 1990s in an effort at heritage tourism, it also attempted an economic revival with a $20 million tribute to the musical comedy "The Music Man," which was set there. As a last resort, the city decided to place the Park Inn on Ebay. Which vision of Mason City will prevail? Through a blend of rare archival footage, period music and a comparative look at stunning Wright masterpieces in the Midwest and Japan, The Last Wright raises issues of the sustainability of landmark structures and offers a provocative, ironic tapestry of a century in an American city.
(Closed Captioned)

"An emotionally powerful argument about sustainability."
- The Washington Post


Visually stunning, smartly filmic."
- WLUW-FM, Chicago


“..an informative and entertaining visual and audio blend of cinematography, rare archival footage and photographs… and a fresh look at…other stunning Wright masterpieces as well.”
Wright in Wisconsin

"Recommended."
EMRO

Montreal Festival of Films on Art, 2009

Best Documentary Award, Iowa Motion Picture Assoc., 2008

Environmental Film Festival, Washington, D.C., 2008

Nominee: 2010 Regional Midwest Emmy Award for writing (documentary)