
Bruce Goff 1904–1982
Bruce Goff is regarded as one of the 20th century’s most iconoclastic architects. He was an early enactor of the Prairie School style but quickly developed a bombastic flair, unbound in its creativity—“designs for the continuous present” as he called them. Goff created outside the confines of history, taste and propriety to create some of the first truly postmodern structures.
Born in Alton, Kansas in 1904, Goff grew up in Denver and Tulsa. He showed artistic talent early on, drawing elaborate castles and cathedrals. At twelve years old, he was apprenticed to the Tulsa architectural firm Rush, Endacott and Rush. By the time he was a teenager, he was designing homes; his first “mature” project, at just twenty-two-years-old, was the towering Boston Avenue Methodist Church in 1926 in Tulsa. A few years previous, he began a correspondence with his idol, Frank Lloyd Wright, who dissuaded Goff from pursuing a formal education and instead encouraged him to develop a unique voice outside of the stifling atmosphere of academia.
Auction Results Bruce Goff

Bruce Goff
door from Price House, Bartlesville Oklahoma
estimate: $9,000–12,000
result: $9,200

Bruce Goff
door from the Bavinger House
estimate: $7,000–9,000
result: $8,750

Bruce Goff
coffee table from the McCullough house in Wichita Falls
estimate: $5,000–7,000
result: $5,000

Bruce Goff
lamp from the Bavinger House
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $4,688

In the Manner of Bruce Goff
house model
estimate: $300–500

Bruce Goff
fence ornament from Price House, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
estimate: $9,000–12,000

Bruce Goff
window from Shin'en Kan (The Price House), Bartlesville, Oklahoma
estimate: $8,000–10,000

Bruce Goff
door from Shin'en Kan (The Price House), Bartlesville, Oklahoma
estimate: $20,000–30,000

Bruce Goff
pair of stools from the Price House, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
estimate: $7,000–9,000