Architecture's Odd Couple

Architecture's Odd Couple
Author: Hugh Howard
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2016-05-24
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1620403765

In architectural terms, the twentieth century can be largely summed up with two names: Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson. Wright (1867–1959) began it with his romantic prairie style; Johnson (1906–2005) brought down the curtain with his spare postmodernist experiments. Between them, they built some of the most admired and discussed buildings in American history. Differing radically in their views on architecture, Wright and Johnson shared a restless creativity, enormous charisma, and an outspokenness that made each man irresistible to the media. Often publicly at odds, they were the twentieth century's flint and steel; their repeated encounters consistently set off sparks. Yet as acclaimed historian Hugh Howard shows, their rivalry was also a fruitful artistic conversation, one that yielded new directions for both men. It was not despite but rather because of their contentious--and not always admiring--relationship that they were able so powerfully to influence history. In Architecture's Odd Couple, Howard deftly traces the historical threads connecting the two men and offers readers a distinct perspective on the era they so enlivened with their designs. Featuring many of the structures that defined modern space--from Fallingwater to the Guggenheim, from the Glass House to the Seagram Building--this book presents an arresting portrait of modern architecture's odd couple and how they shaped the American landscape by shaping each other.

The Urbanism of Frank Lloyd Wright

The Urbanism of Frank Lloyd Wright
Author: Neil Levine
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2016
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0691167532

This is the first book devoted to Frank Lloyd Wright's designs for remaking the modern city. Stunningly comprehensive, The Urbanism of Frank Lloyd Wright presents a radically new interpretation of the architect’s work and offers new and important perspectives on the history of modernism. Neil Levine places Wright’s projects, produced over more than fifty years, within their historical, cultural, and physical contexts, while relating them to the theory and practice of urbanism as it evolved over the twentieth century. Levine overturns the conventional view of Wright as an architect who deplored the city and whose urban vision was limited to a utopian plan for a network of agrarian communities he called Broadacre City. Rather, Levine reveals Wright’s larger, more varied, interesting, and complex urbanism, demonstrated across the span of his lengthy career. Beginning with Wright’s plans from the late 1890s through the early 1910s for reforming residential urban neighborhoods, mainly in Chicago, and continuing through projects from the 1920s through the 1950s for commercial, mixed-use, civic, and cultural centers for Chicago, Madison, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Baghdad, Levine demonstrates Wright’s place among the leading contributors to the creation of the modern city. Wright’s often spectacular designs are shown to be those of an innovative precursor and creative participant in the world of ideas that shaped the modern metropolis. Lavishly illustrated with drawings, plans, maps, and photographs, this book features the first extensive new photography of materials from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives. The Urbanism of Frank Lloyd Wright will serve as one of the most important books on the architect for years to come.

This American House

This American House
Author: Jason Loper
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2021
Genre: American System-Built Homes
ISBN: 9781087500614

Long before designing his signature Usonian houses, Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned an earlier series of affordable models for the middle class: The American System-Built Homes. He developed seven floorplans of varying size and layout, standardized so that materials could be precut at the factory to reduce costs. Only a few years after the project began, the United States entered World War I, and all home construction was stalled due to lumber shortages. Wright then turned his attention to other projects, and with fewer than twenty built, the American System-Built Homes were all but forgotten.In 2011, Jason Loper and Michael Schreiber purchased the only American System-Built Home constructed in Iowa, the Meier House, which set them on a course of refurbishing and researching their new residence. In This American House, Loper and Schreiber trace the history of the Meier House through its previous owners, and shed light on this underexplored period of Wright's oeuvre. With a preface by John H. Waters, the Preservation Programs Manager of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, This American House addresses what it means to be the stewards of a piece of history.

The Origins of Modern Architecture

The Origins of Modern Architecture
Author: Eric Uhlfelder
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
Total Pages: 330
Release: 1998
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

These 22 articles, published from 1891 to 1914 in the distinguished magazine "Architectural Record, " offer a fascinating look at the birth of the skyscraper, Frank Lloyd Wright's innovations, and much more. Over 250 black-and-white illustrations.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House

Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House
Author: Donald Hoffmann
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2012-07-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0486140261

Painstakingly researched and illuminating account of the making of the Fred C. Robie home. Revealing family documents, excerpts from a 1958 interview with Fred Robie, and 160 black-and-white illustrations.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Forgotten House

Frank Lloyd Wright's Forgotten House
Author: Nicholas D. Hayes
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0299331806

Frank Lloyd Wright's foray into affordable housing--the American System-Built Homes--is frequently overlooked. When Nicholas and Angela Hayes became stewards of one of them, they began to unearth evidence that revealed a one-hundred-year-old fiasco fueled by competing ambitions and conflicting visions that eventually gave way to Wright's most creative period.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Meaning of Materials

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Meaning of Materials
Author: Terry L. Patterson
Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1994
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

In his richly illustrated Frank Lloyd Wright and the Meaning of Materials, Patterson takes an unprecedented look at more than 240 of Wright's buildings and projects - the justly celebrated triumphs as well as lesser-known, but no less telling, structures. In the book's core chapters, each devoted to a specific material, he objectively analyzes Wright's handling of wood, stone, brick, concrete block, metals, concrete, and glass. Methodically, he examines whether the form, workability, strength, and durability of each material - its essence - has been emphasized, subdued, or misrepresented in these tangible architectural "expressions". Throughout, Patterson uniquely juxtaposes the reality of Wright's "overall material sensitivity" with nearly 200 of Wright's own pronouncements on the subject. For the first time, architects, designers, and art historians see - in the truest sense - whether Wright's final achievements are consonant with his ambitious aims. Importantly, readers are encouraged to reach their own conclusions, which may differ from Patterson's own deeply felt judgments.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright
Author: Frank Lloyd Wright
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2009
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780393732610

The most influential, provocative, and enduring writings of the American master are gathered in this anthology.