During the 1920s, architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed several projects that, for various reasons, were never realized. The Gordon Strong Automobile Objective was designed for Gordon Strong (1869-1954), a Chicago businessman of considerable wealth. During travels in 1902, Strong became captivated by Sugarloaf Mountain, a solitary outcrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains with the feel of wilderness in the midst of a cultivated landscape, and he began to acquire land that comprised both the mountain itself and its undeveloped setting.

During the summer of 1924, Strong met with Wright to discuss possible schemes for its development, and by September of that year had fixed upon an ambitious program. As he explained to Wright, he wanted to erect "a structure on the summit of Sugar Loaf Mountain" that would "serve as an objective for short motor trips," primarily from Washington and Baltimore, both nearby.

The Strong project celebrated mobility in a way no other design had, for while there was ample precedent for spiral structures, none had been conceived in just this way, nor been so fully integrated with its setting. Neither had roadways been so dramatically recognized. Strong rejected the design, feeling it inappropriate, and built a more conventional park instead. Wright, apparently captivated by the spiral, continued to develop its potential in several later projects, of which the Guggenheim Museum (1942-59) is the best known.