Singular Sensation

Kaden Tower

Friday at hospital pre-registration, I was told to bring my C-PAP along so it can be used while I'm in the recovery room.  I thought it behooved me to get a new facemask and tubing because I'd recently learned that those things don't last forever.  (Some people find this out when their machine is delivered; I, however, had the kind of salesperson who really means it when she says good-bye.  Never a word out of that company in four years.  I blithely breathed through the night, unaware that the facemask is supposed to be replaced every three months; and a filter that I'd never seen is supposed to be replaced every two weeks.  And then Friday a friend said that her husband's supplier always checks to be sure his machine is working correctly when he gets supplies. Huh.  Imagine that.

Friday I called the Sleep Disorders Center at Baptist Hospital East and asked how to go about getting replacements parts.  That same day I talked to a sales rep at Sleep Management, a small company with locations in Louisvile and Lexington; and today I went to their office to get the pieces I needed.  Ordinarily, they would have come to me, but I really, really wanted to see their offices, because they're in the Kaden Tower. 

Until last week, I'd always called it That Lacey Looking Building -- and you can see why.  I'd always wanted to see it up close but never had a reason to visit -- and so I took my camera along.

It looks like a paper art form -- quilling, is it?  Beautiful curves within curves, and even the shrubs are rounded to flatter the curves.

The building is known not only for its singular architecture but also as the home of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

The plaque below is in the lobby of Kaden Tower and describes the Frank Lloyd Wright connection. Wright's protege, William Wesley Peters, designed this building, constructed in 1969, in accordance with Wright's understandings of organic design.

I've read that various Louisvillians had conniptions while the building was under construction and then nearly fainted when it was painted the most tender of corally pinks.  It may look beige in these photos, but that's an illusion. Up close and personal, it's a beauty; and there's nothing shy, retiring, or beige about it.

I took 140 photos total of this scrumptious building and will post more of them in coming days.