From tomorrow through Monday, when the 59th Annual Marin County Fair sets up a Wright Pavilion to celebrate "The Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright in Marin County," within the Marin Civic Center building, it will be like looking within the belly of the beast. From the SFGate
The Marin Civic Center, the last important constructed building and the only publicly-funded one by the famous architect, was his 770th project. It was constructed posthumously in 1962 by his San Francisco colleague, the late Aaron Green -- nearly three years after Wright died in 1959.

But, in one sense, an architect whose work remains as fresh today as the day he conceived it cannot be said to have died.

The Civic Center -- more showy and brightly colored than most of Wright's buildings, which are designed to be one with the landscape -- is a state and national landmark that still seems futuristic. As the exhibit will show, Wright lives on here as he does in iconic works from Illinois and Wisconsin to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and in his seminal masterpiece for which he is most widely known, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania. It was built for Edgar Kaufmann in the 1930s and revived Wright's reputation during a career marked that began in the 19th century and continued well into the 20th century. "It was Vera Schultz who came upon an article on Wright's work in House Beautiful magazine in the '50s," says Jim Farley, deputy director of the Marin Civic Center. "With her initiative, the citizens of Marin County went and got America's greatest architect to design a community center."

While longtime residents of Marin and the Bay Area are familiar with this history, many newcomers are not and it is Farley's goal to shine new light on this legacy. Included in the exhibit will be the Berger House in San Anselmo, the Civic Center and the post office adjacent to it. "Halfway through construction, work was stopped by coalitions who wanted the Civic Center to be a hospital," says Farley.

Luckily, that did not happen. Nor, sadly, did the fairgrounds and other buildings Wright designed for the site. According to Farley, structures by Wright's proteges from Taliesin -- a series of residency schools in different parts of the country he ran for apprentices -- were built instead.

Green was also a Taliesin alumnus. In one photo loaned to the exhibit by Green's San Francisco colleague Jan Novie, Green and Wright stand beside a helicopter on the grounds off the Claremont Resort in Oakland where they were designing a wedding pavilion. It was taken during Wright's last visit to the Bay Area. Historic photographs from the collection of photographer Lucille Dandelet, who documented the Marin Civic Center as it was being built will be in the temporary pavilion set up within the Exhibit Hall at the center. Wright's own drawings, memorabilia and film screenings as well as oral histories and models chronicling the construction and opening of the building will be part of the exhibit. Other works by Talisen fellows such as photographer Pedro Guerrero and sculptor Heloise Crista (whose 1956 bronze bust of Wright was possibly the last made while Wright was alive) will be on display.

In case you didn't know how Wright spoke , taped conversations with Wright will also be played. And if you really can't believe that Wright is gone, actor John Crowther (a dead-ringer) will play Wright during the fair, mouthing the architect's most controversial statements about architecture.

The act is "topical, timely and relevant... like being in the drafting room sitting at the feet of my grandfather," Eric Lloyd Wright, grandson of the famed architect, is said to have remarked.

Crowther's premiere and only Bay Area performance of "The Tragedies & Triumphs of Frank Lloyd Wright" is an ambitious theatrical presentation that really could bring Frank Lloyd Wright briefly back to life.
Fair opens tomorrow

The 59th annual Marin County Fair at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael will feature extensive exhibits on Frank Lloyd Wright alongside traditional attractions, competitions, entertainment, rides on the midway and nightly fireworks displays. The fair is open daily 11a.m.-11 p.m. Admission for adults is $12; seniors 65+, $10; children 4-12, $10; children under 4, free. Admission includes all exhibits, entertainment, nightly fireworks and carnival rides. Parking is $6 in all lots. The Marin County Fair is located at Civic Center Drive in San Rafael, off Highway 101. Visit the Web site at www.marinfair.org or call (415) 499-6800.

-- Z.S.

E-mail Zahid Sardar at zsardar@sfchronicle.com