Happy Mortuary

The call--long distance from a man named Nicholas P. Daphne--came through at midnight. Silver-maned Frank Lloyd Wright struggled out of bed to answer it, heard an unfamiliar voice at the other end of the wire saying: "I've got the finest site, in the heart of San Francisco, and I want the finest mortuary in the world. So I figure," the voice pursued, "I need the finest architect in the world."

That was just the sort of appeal a great architect found it hard to resist. Last week Wright turned up in Nicholas Daphne's San Francisco office and unrolled the brown wrapping paper from his plans for a $500,000 mortuary to end all mortuaries. Mr. Daphne, who owns three already, was well pleased. His site was a rocky knoll off upper Market Street, its only building a battered shed decorated with an old election poster. When Wright gets through with it the place will resemble a miniature World's Fair; a glamorous cousin of Southern California's lively Forest Lawn Memorial Park (TIME, Jan. 20).

Wright's plan calls for four mushroom-shaped chapels, to be named the White, Blue, Rose and Yellow Chapels respectively, each with a "Slumber Room" for bodies lying in state. Also planned: a pyramidal structure lopped off at the top to provide a landing field for helicopters, a tall-spired kiosk to serve as a flower booth, and a two-story office building where the bereaved will be consulted, tombstones sold, and living space provided for a four-man night shift.

Between sips of tea and bites of chocolate cake, Wright, who is 77, told reporters how he had gone from mortuary to mortuary "to get the feel of the trade. From what I saw, I began to wonder if I felt as good as I should--makes a man pause."

It was about time, Wright had decided, "to take the curse off this death racket. A place where you go to see the last of your earthly companions should be a happy place; it should leave you with the feeling that death is no curse, that all is not lost because of it. People will weep, of course, but give them a lift with beauty. Put living things around; flowers that grow, not bouquets that smell."

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