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Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright architecture designed by this great visionary.
175 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 11, 2009
When I was very young architecture was my leading likely career path. I loved to draw buildings and skyscrapers and floor plans. I even liked drawing city layouts and skylines. So in either the third or fourth grade, Wright was the subject of one of my first essay assignments. I can't remember which book I read to research the piece, but I'm sure it was geared to young readers and very heroic, because my report said nothing about Wright's inflated ego and arrogance or made much fuss about his cold abandonment of his wife and small children in order to follow his bliss. Not surprisingly after becoming interested in him, I started drawing low-slung "prairie houses" in something similar to Wright's style. With time, my drawing activities fell off, and those included the prolific and elaborate comic-strip adventures I would draw and write to amuse me and my best friend Jerry Clark. (I still have all of my comic strips in a briefcase. They still amuse me.) Math was not a strong point with me, either, so that put the ixnay on an architectural future.
But my fascination with Wright and his work never left me, and I've started the process of finally acquiring books with ample photos of his works. I grabbed this particular one as an "e-book" and am scrolling through the PDF right now. The text gives a straightforward account of his life, not especially scintillating in the telling, but good enough for someone becoming reacquainted with the basics. This is a Taschen book, so there's an inherent high-quality factor. Plenty of vintage and new pix of the structures and blueprints as well as portraits of the artist. The philosophy, innovative elements, and history, as well as where each building places in Wright's development are explained in short bits of prose aside original blueprints and/or artist's renderings and contemporary photos of same.
This "German and French Edition" is actually written in English with translations in German and French on following pages, so it's the same book as the other editions, apart from that insignificant difference.
Further in:
Well, this book is probably, in spirit, not much different than the one I read as a child. The treatment of Wright is glowing and uncritical and puts much stock in his mumbo-jumbo philosophizing about nature as the body of God and about light and art and environment and "the organic whole" and so on. It's mainly a picture book, so who cares? Whether the philosophy came first to lead to the art or came after to justify it hardly changes the fact that the man was a visionary, innovator and great artist in the functional realm.
Further in, more observations:
It's wild looking at pictures of these Gibson-girl-era women typing at their desks in Wright's Larkin Building (around 1905), where usually the setting would be an antiquated, overly ornate tomb of an office or something resembling a gloomy warehouse they instead are surrounded by this ultra-sleek and ultra-modern backdrop. The contrast from the usual is quite striking. Wright's buildings were like time-machines to the future; contemporary people working in future-space.
This, text-wise is not scintillating, but the presentation and the information are solid. This is a decent primer to Wright and his works. If you want a good bio, though, go elsewhere. If you're interested in his works from conception, execution and completion, then this is a very good source, and the text entries are pithy.
But my fascination with Wright and his work never left me, and I've started the process of finally acquiring books with ample photos of his works. I grabbed this particular one as an "e-book" and am scrolling through the PDF right now. The text gives a straightforward account of his life, not especially scintillating in the telling, but good enough for someone becoming reacquainted with the basics. This is a Taschen book, so there's an inherent high-quality factor. Plenty of vintage and new pix of the structures and blueprints as well as portraits of the artist. The philosophy, innovative elements, and history, as well as where each building places in Wright's development are explained in short bits of prose aside original blueprints and/or artist's renderings and contemporary photos of same.
This "German and French Edition" is actually written in English with translations in German and French on following pages, so it's the same book as the other editions, apart from that insignificant difference.
Further in:
Well, this book is probably, in spirit, not much different than the one I read as a child. The treatment of Wright is glowing and uncritical and puts much stock in his mumbo-jumbo philosophizing about nature as the body of God and about light and art and environment and "the organic whole" and so on. It's mainly a picture book, so who cares? Whether the philosophy came first to lead to the art or came after to justify it hardly changes the fact that the man was a visionary, innovator and great artist in the functional realm.
Further in, more observations:
It's wild looking at pictures of these Gibson-girl-era women typing at their desks in Wright's Larkin Building (around 1905), where usually the setting would be an antiquated, overly ornate tomb of an office or something resembling a gloomy warehouse they instead are surrounded by this ultra-sleek and ultra-modern backdrop. The contrast from the usual is quite striking. Wright's buildings were like time-machines to the future; contemporary people working in future-space.
This, text-wise is not scintillating, but the presentation and the information are solid. This is a decent primer to Wright and his works. If you want a good bio, though, go elsewhere. If you're interested in his works from conception, execution and completion, then this is a very good source, and the text entries are pithy.
September 2, 2025
A book that serves as an introduction to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, from this point of view, fulfills its function.
January 5, 2026
inspiring commentary, diagrams, and buildings. they must be cold and leaky in a Wisconsin winter
February 20, 2019
Excellent overview book on Wright’s architectural genius. Written in three languages—English, German, and French.
Show pictures and architectural drawings and sketches.
No extensive or detailed; you’ll need to read another book.
Show pictures and architectural drawings and sketches.
No extensive or detailed; you’ll need to read another book.
January 10, 2009
Very insteresting to see how the mind of a man and an creative architect creates fabulous structures.
August 26, 2010
Well documented and illustrated book on Frank Lloyd Wright in America.
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September 11, 2015720.92 P526 2003
September 29, 2016
not a good book if u want to get to know the philosophy of wright's design... it's a good book if your interested in architecture as a hobby not your job.
August 8, 2017
A general overview of Wright's work with few interesting facts. It also seems like the pictures chosen to be published do not really do the justice to the buildings themselves.
March 10, 2022
Nice selection of buildings. Kinda short, but you know that if you buy it in-store
July 22, 2021
good overview of Frank Lloyd Wright
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews