Read complete books and articles on: Frank Lloyd Wright

Wright, Frank Lloyd - 1867–1959, American architect, b. Richland Center, Wis. Wright is widely considered the greatest American architect. After studying civil engineering at the Univ. of Wisconsin, he worked for seven years in the office of Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan in Chicago.

The Prairie Style

Wright's first independent commission was the Winslow residence (1893) in River

The Prairie Style

Wright's first independent commission was the Winslow residence (1893) in River Forest, Ill. Establishing himself in Oak Park, Ill., he built a series of residences with low horizontal lines and strongly projecting eaves that echoed the rhythms of the surrounding landscape; it was termed his prairie style. The most famous examples are located in Chicago and its suburbs; they include the Willitts house (1900?–1902), Highland Park; the Coonley house (1908), Riverside; and the Robie house (1909), Chicago.

Innovative Techniques and Styles

From the beginning Wright practiced radical innovation both as to structure and aesthetics, and many of his methods have since become internationally current. At a time when poured reinforced concrete and steel cantilevers were generally confined to commercial structures, Wright did pioneer work in integrating machine methods and materials into a true architectural expression. He was the first architect in the United States to produce open planning in houses, in a break from the traditional closed volume, and to achieve a fluidity of interior space by his frequent elimination of confining walls between rooms. For the Millard house (1923) at Pasadena, Calif., he worked out a new method, known as textile-block slab construction, consisting of double walls of precast concrete blocks tied together with steel reinforcing rods set into both the vertical and the horizontal joints.

Important Works

The Larkin Office Building (1904; destroyed 1950), Buffalo, and Oak Park Unity Temple (1908), near Chicago, were early monumental works that exerted wide influence. Among other notable works are the Imperial Hotel (1916–22, destroyed 1967), Tokyo, Japan, which withstood the effects of the 1923 earthquake; the Midway Gardens (1914; destroyed 1923), Chicago; and Wright's own residence "Taliesin" (1911; twice burned and rebuilt) at Spring Green, Wis. Among his later projects were "Taliesin West" (1936–59), Scottsdale, Ariz. (which has continued since his death as a school of architecture); the Johnson administration building (1936–39; research tower, 1950), Racine Wis.; and the house for Edgar Kaufmann, "Fallingwater" (1936–37), Bear Run, Pa., which is dramatically cantilevered over a waterfall.

After World War II, Wright continued a large and ever-inventive practice until his death. He created dynamic interior spaces with spiral ramps for the V. C. Morris Gift Shop (1948–49), San Francisco, and for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1946–59), New York City. Other notable later buildings include a Unitarian church (1947), Madison, Wis.; the Price Tower (1955), Bartlesville, Okla.; and Beth Sholom Synagogue (1959), Elkins Park, Pa. He left numerous unrealized projects, including one for a mile-high skyscraper ("The Illinois") for Chicago and an ambitious design for a civic center in Madison, Wis. The latter was later reconceived as the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center and opened in 1997.

Writings and Bibliography

Wright's architectural philosophy was expressed in his lectures and writings. Among them are On Architecture (1941); When Democracy Builds (1945); Genius and the Mobocracy (1949, enl. ed. 1971), an evaluation of his master Louis H. Sullivan; The Future of Architecture (1953); An American Architecture (1955); and A Testament (1957). His influence can be seen throughout Europe. Volumes illustrative of his works were published in France and Germany as early as 1910. In 1995 about 5,000 of his architectural drawings were published in CD-ROM form as Frank Lloyd Wright: Presentation and Conceptual Drawings.

See also his autobiography (enl. ed. 1977); biographies by his daughter, Iovanna Lloyd Wright (1962) and his wife, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright (rev. ed. 1970), and R. C. Twombly (1973); studies by H. R. Hitchcock (1942, repr. 1973); V. Scully (1960), P. Blake (rev. ed. 1964), H. A. Brooks (1972), D. L. Johnson (1990), M. Secrest (1992), and D. Hoffmann (1995); W. A. Storrer, a catalog of his buildings (1974, repr. 1978) and The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion (1994); bibliography by R. L. Sweeney (1978).

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12 of the Best Books and Articles on: Frank Lloyd Wright

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Frank Lloyd Wright » Read Now
by Vincent Scully Jr. 125 pgs.

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...FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT THE MASTERS OF WORLD ARCHITECTURE...CORBUSIER by Francoise Choay FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT by Vincent Scully, Jr...one drink? What bread does one eat? FRANK...
2.

Frank Lloyd Wright: The Masterworks » Read Now
by David Larkin, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer. 314 pgs.

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Thirty-eight of Wright's architectural designs, ranging from his early work in the 1890s to his daring creations of the 1940s, show each building's evolution from conceptual sketch, plan, or drawings to finished masterwork. Over 300 illustrations, 275 in color.
3.

Frank Lloyd Wright in the Realm of Ideas » Read Now
by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Gerald Nordland. 194 pgs.

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...whatever was being done. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Sixty Years of Living Architecture , 1951 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IN THE REALM OF IDEAS EDITED...CARBONDALE AND EDWARDSVILLE Frank...
4.

Studies and Executed Buildings » Read Now
by Frank Lloyd Wright. 228 pgs.

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Frank Lloyd Wright's Wasmuth folios, one of the most important publications on modern architecture in the 20th century, is available once again from Rizzoli. First published in Germany in 1910, these 100 plates of Wright's early work had enormous influence on the architects of the time and will...
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Frank Lloyd Wright's Wasmuth folios, one of the most important publications on modern architecture in the 20th century, is available once again from Rizzoli. First published in Germany in 1910, these 100 plates of Wright's early work had enormous influence on the architects of the time and will provide a valuable resource to historians and architects today. This facsimile edition includes the original selection of presentation and working drawings form the Oak Park period, the years perhaps most crucial to Wright's development. Also faithfully reproduced are the architect's own introduction and his comments on each project. A new foreword discusses the recently discovered historic background of these folios and Wright's intention to proffer them as a primer for a new democratic American architecture.
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5.

The Wright Space: Pattern and Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright's Houses » Read Now
by Grant Hildebrand. 192 pgs.

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6.

Architectural Excursions: Frank Lloyd Wright, Holland and Europe » Read Now
by Donald Langmead, Donald Leslie Johnson. 254 pgs.

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Soon after 1900 in both North America and Europe the evolution from the tradition of Mediterranean and Gallic architectural styles to modernism began. This phenomenon was due, in part, to American industrial architecture and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright's buildings and architectural...
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Soon after 1900 in both North America and Europe the evolution from the tradition of Mediterranean and Gallic architectural styles to modernism began. This phenomenon was due, in part, to American industrial architecture and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright's buildings and architectural treatises of 1898-1908, with the additional help of Dutch propaganda on his behalf, significantly influenced European practitioners and theorists. European architecture within and outside of Holland reflects an adaptation of Wright's theories along with the structural determinism of American industrial buildings. With new evidence and fresh analysis culled from Dutch and American archives, personal correspondence, and professional material, this study examines the weight of Wright's works and words and those of the Dutchmen H.P. Berlage, Theo van Doesburg, Jan Wils, J.J.P. Oud, William Dudok, and Hendrik Theodor Wijdeveld.
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7.

Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier » Read Now
by Robert Fishman. 332 pgs.

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8.

Angels of Reality: Emersonian Unfoldings in Wright, Stevens, and Ives » Read Now
by David Michael Hertz. 360 pgs.

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In this exciting new book, David Michael Hertz demonstrates how three major artists - Frank Lloyd Wright, Wallace Stevens, and Charles Ives - were influenced by Emerson's nineteenth-century transcendentalism. By focusing on the relative statements of the artists themselves, Hertz shows that...
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In this exciting new book, David Michael Hertz demonstrates how three major artists - Frank Lloyd Wright, Wallace Stevens, and Charles Ives - were influenced by Emerson's nineteenth-century transcendentalism. By focusing on the relative statements of the artists themselves, Hertz shows that Emerson's belief that all things are in flux, including matter and spirit, had direct bearing on the form and content of their works. Hertz writes the book as a meditation on the condition of the artist in America, including biographical and historical information as well as his own interpretations of the three artists' works. In Part 1 he examines the emerging creative mind of the architect, poet, and composer, citing Emerson as the central figure who, through his essays, influenced each of them. By tracing their development as powerful and original thinkers, Hertz examines the processes that enabled them to become unique. In Part 2 he connects Emerson, Wright, Stevens, and Ives through a shared ideology, evident both in their critical statements and in their creative work. He shows how all three artists had specific documented knowledge of Emerson's major works. Their pragmatism, their preoccupation with the primacy of the senses, their predilection for analogy and loose metaphor, their dedication to individuality and self-reliance, and their eclecticism and conception of originality were shared traits and beliefs gleaned from Emerson. Hertz is the first writer to bring these four major American figures together in a single work. He makes it clear that Emersonianism reaches far into twentieth-century American culture and into the realms of art and music as well as literature. This book willinterest not only Emerson, Wright, Stevens, and Ives scholars but other individuals involved in the arts, the humanities, and interdisciplinary studies as well.
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9.

The Intellectual Versus the City: From Thomas Jefferson to Frank Lloyd Wright » Read Now
by Morton, Lucia White. 276 pgs.

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...City: From Thomas Jefferson to Frank Lloyd Wright . By Morton and Lucia White...From THOMAS JEFFERSON To FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT PUBLICATIONS OF THE JOINT...From THOMAS...
10.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Johnson Wax Buildings » Read Now
by Jonathan Lipman, Frank Lloyd Wright. 192 pgs.

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11.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Japanese Architecture: A Study in Inspiration, in Journal of Design History » Read Now
by Kevin Nute. 17 pgs.

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...Kevin Nute Frank Lloyd Wright and Japanese Architecture...relationship between the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and the traditional architecture...authors recently published...
12.

Roots of Contemporary American Architecture: A Series of Thirty-Seven Essays Dating from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present. Contains an Introductory Essay and Biographies of the Twenty-Nine Writers Whose Work Appears Herein ("The Example of Frank Lloyd Wright" begins on p. 396) » Read Now
by Lewis Mumford. 454 pgs.

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...Nature as Architect, by Frank Lloyd Wright 132 Environment...and Craft of the Machine, by Frank Lloyd Wright 169 Craftsmen...The Example of Frank Lloyd Wright, by Walter...