John Waters is a trained architect.

He loves buildings and thinking about them and how they serve society, and he got the bug early.

My dad got a book called Architecture in Michigan when I was five years old, and I became

obsessed with this book.

I blame it on my becoming an architect. The book featured a highlight reel of architecture throughout the United States,

buildings designed by some of the greatest architects in American history.

Folks like Louis Sullivan, Frederick Law Olmsted, and especially Frank Lloyd Wright.

John's fascination for the work on Wright in particular grew so much that years later, when he was on a cross-country trip, he made it a point to make a pit stop to see one of Wright's most unique buildings.

In 1994, I was moving from Los Angeles to Chicago and all my worldly possessions in a U-Haul van.

And one of the things I needed to do as I crossed the country was stop in Bartlesville and C. Price Tower.

Bartlesville is a city of 40,000 in Oklahoma. And to be honest, his friend, who didn't really

care about architecture, wasn't really too thrilled. But John was insisted.

They needed to see the tower.

This was, you know, free Google Maps, free anything.

We're driving to Barbellisville and I was just like, look for a building that looks like it's

out of the Jetsons.

The Price Tower is a 19-story building with floors that extend outward from a central core.

The exterior is covered in copper and gold-tinted glass, giving it that futuristic look.

It wasn't hard to spot the building once the friends got into town.

Aside from its exterior being unique, it dwarfed all the other buildings around it.

John was in awe.

We were standing out front, taking pictures, and a woman pulls up, and she's lovely.

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