Update January 10, 7:15 p.m. EST: According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building conservancy, an attempt by the group to purchase the building has failed, and demolition is expected to proceed on the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Lockridge Medical

A late-period building by Frank Lloyd Wright in Whitefish, Montana, is expected to be demolished after a last-minute buyer didn’t come forward in time, according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.

The Lockridge Medical Center, a rare example of the architect’s work in Montana, has been under threat for years, but the pace of potential demolition accelerated in the new year.

According to an earlier release sent by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Montana Preservation Alliance confirmed with Whitefish attorney Ryan Purdy, the legal counsel for building owner, Mick Ruis, that asbestos abatement had begun in preparation for a full demolition. After local preservationists found out and sounded the alarm, the owner’s representative said he “has agreed to sell it to anyone who puts $1.7 million in his hand by the 10th of January.”

Curbed had reported earlier that Ruis had plans to tear down the structure to make way for a three-story commercial development, including retail space, offices, and four residential units on the top floor.

According to an earlier Curbed report on the Medical Center:

This later-period Wright work in the town of Whitefish was designed in 1958 and completed after the noted architect passed away in 1959. One of his final projects, the brick and cast-concrete office featured a massive brick fireplace, double clerestory windows, and 64-foot-long wall of floor-to-ceiling glass. Supposedly, according to a story in the Daily Inter Lake, the doctors who first used the office received an extremely high bid when they put out a request for architects, and decided that if it was going to cost that much, they might as well hire Frank Lloyd Wright. While some of the original features have been removed, subsequent additions have altered the building, and the landscaping Wright planned for the surrounding grounds has, in part, been turned into a parking lot, the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. This structure is one of three Wright buildings in Montana, including the Como Orchards Cottage, which is available for rent.

Update 2:56 p.m. EST

In response to a question about previous demolitions of Wright designs, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy provided this timeline of recent losses:

In 1972, the second Little House in Wayzata, Minnesota, just west of Minneapolis, was demolished. Several interior spaces were savaged and are on display in major art museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This was the most recent demolition of a viable, intact Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building. Since that time two significant losses of Wright’s work have occurred. In 2004, the heavily altered, but arguably restorable, W.S. Carr House, built in 1916 in Grand Beach, Michigan, was demolished. In 2013, Wright’s interior design for the 1954 Hoffman Auto Showroom at Park Avenue and 56th Street in New York City was lost, just as the process for its designation as a New York City Landmark was begun.

Update January 10, 7:15 p.m. EST:

According to a statement just released by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, their attempts to purchase and save the building have failed, and they expect it to be demolished. Here’s their account of efforts to save the structure: