08. San Marcos Water Gardens

San Marcos Water Gardens

Another Wright project, the San Marcos Water Gardens, was to be located in the center of Chandler.  The Water Gardens were to be a resort based on the Ocatilla camp.  A series of cabins with concrete walls and roofs of wood and canvas stood on the banks of a minor system of canals reminiscent of Chandler’s irrigation network.  A larger building would house a dining room, kitchen, and lounges for guests of the Water Gardens.  Dr. Chandler wrote to Wright explaining his disapproval of the canvas roofs, to which Wright responded “The fact is that only by the use of the canvas can we get that translucence inside that seems to belong to Arizona sunshine…There is nothing that could give this effect but canvas or some similar fabric.”  Both images are courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

Plan for San Marcos Water Gardens