Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect

by Anthony Alofsin

A dazzling dual portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright and early twentieth-century New York, revealing the city’s role in establishing the career of America’s most famous architect

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) took his first major trip to New York in 1909, fleeing a failed marriage and artistic stagnation. He returned a decade later, his personal life and architectural career again in crisis. Booming 1920s New York served as a refuge, but it also challenged him and resurrected his career. The city connected Wright with important clients and commissions that would harness his creative energy and define his role in modern architecture, even as the stock market crash took its toll on his benefactors.

Wright denounced New York as an “unlivable prison” even as he reveled in its culture. The city became an urban foil for Wright’s work in the desert and in the “organic architecture” he promoted as an alternative to American Art Deco and the International Style. New York became a major protagonist at the end of Wright’s life, as he spent his final years at the Plaza Hotel working on the Guggenheim Museum, the building that would cement his legacy.

Anthony Alofsin has broken new ground by mining the recently opened Wright archives held by Columbia University and the Museum of Modern Art. His foundational research provides a crucial and innovative understanding of Wright’s life, his career, and the conditions that enabled his success. The result is at once a stunning biography and a glittering portrait of early twentieth-century Manhattan.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Architecture, Biography Memoir

352 pages, ebook

Published May 21, 2019

Reviews

[Laura Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible read! Well researched and so interesting. Every facet of Wright's life is covered and the details of twentieth century New York are amazing! Wright and New York is filled with a stunning amount of wonderful, real photos. If you love architecture, history or are a New York buff-you are going to love every page of this book.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and highly readable exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ambivalent relationship with New York, and the influence it had on him and he had on the city. An enormously interesting and insightful account, meticulously researched, written in a lively, entertaining and accessible style, and with excellent illustrations. It covers the rest of Wright’s life and work as well, but New York City is at the heart of the book. Highly recommended.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A glimpse into a portion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal life and some of his work. Although the title specifies New York, the book isn’t strictly limited to the city. We learn a bit about his home in Wisconsin, his winters in Arizona, and travels to various other parts of the world. If you’re hoping to read about Falling Water you’ll have to look elsewhere because it only gets a single paragraph. There is a chapter about the Guggenheim museum but it doesn’t provide a lot of detail. For me it was a nice little sampler, enough to get a taste of the man and his work. He was a big talent with an even bigger ego. He couldn’t have been an easy man to work with.

[Karen Flatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting.

[2ndlifetravel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Lloyd Wright was an interesting character. This is an account of his life in New York and how he was rejected as an architect at the beginning of his career while he was having an affair with a woman from Russia. He fathered a baby while his "wife" was still an illegal immigrant.

[Jane Davlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to learn more about FLW. Have visited Taliesen West and it is very impressive. Complicated personality, but he seemed to land on his feet with personal effort and world-wide connections.

[Paul Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story about the life and work of Wright.