Xanadu Gallery is housed in San Francisco's only Frank Lloyd Wright building. Officially designed as the V.C Morris Gift Store, the building was designed in 1948, and incorporates the now legendary spiral ramp theme which Wright had already designed for the Guggenheim Museum, though that project wasn't finished until 1959, shortly after his death. The controversy around the Guggenheim stemmed partly from the spiral ramp, though in the smaller, more intimate scale of the V.C. Morris Gift Store it seems to have won over the public at once. This is by no means, however, its only distinctive feature.

The street entrance is an updated Romanesque arch, which according to Wright beckons the passerby in rather than vulgarly displaying its merchandise on the sidewalk. This is an interesting connotation considering that the building is situated on Maiden Lane, which while now known as one of San Francisco's most elegant shopping promenades, was a street of ill repute during the notorious heyday of the Barbary Coast. The brickwork itself, a rare enough sight in San Francisco architecture, is beautifully laid, and draws attention quietly rather than competing with the surrounding street. A delicate line of translucent panels with a raised geometric motif that is classic Wright lights the outside wall.

The arch gives way to a glass tunnel atrium, then on to the spiraling interior. The entire space seems to rotate beneath the luminous bubbles of the cast white plastic ceiling. The latter evokes the organic geometry of the Johnson Wax Building interior, and creates the effect of opalescent, filtered sunlight. The inside walls of sand colored, poured concrete flow around this dome of light, marked by occasioal lit portholes. Setting off all this luminous pallor is Wright's curving built-in cabinetry. Everywhere the attention to detail is perfect, from the grand modular display tables to the whimsical brass and lucite pedestals. The sum is a perfect synthesis of theatrical and organic splendor.

Upon its purchase of the V.C. Morris Building, Xanadu Gallery put the million dollar restoration in the capable hands of Aaron Green, who had worked with Wright on other projects such as the Marin Civic Center, and was meticulous in maintaining the building's original detail and integrity. The merger of this American masterpiece together with the gallery's collection of arts from around the world comprise a unique, total, and harmonious environment such as Mr. Wright so dedicatedly advocated. Xanadu Gallery is pleased to make this treasure available to the world's citizens.