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Frank Lloyd Wright: Complete Works, Vol. 2, 1917-1942
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) is widely considered the greatest American architect of all time; his work ushered in the modern era and remains highly influential today—half a century after his death. TASCHEN’s three-volume monograph covers all his designs (numbering approximately 1,100), realized and unrealized. Made in collaboration with the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives in Taliesin, Arizona, this collection leaves no stone unturned in examining and paying tribute to Wright’s astonishing life and work. Whereas the first volume covers the early Chicago years, this second volume deals with works after World War I, beginning with the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and covering Wright’s quest to design affordable houses with systematic construction methods and the Usonian concept house, with the forest-sited villa Fallingwater being the dramatic climax. The years spent working in Japan were followed by personal turmoil. In late 1922, Wright divorced from first wife Catherine, and the following year married Miriam Noel. Yet barely six months later she left, and he initiated a bitter divorce. Shortly after, Wright met his third wife, Olgivanna. During this difficult period a second fire at Taliesin strained his already parlous finances; the bank foreclosed, leaving him without home or studio. With nowhere to practice, he started writing magazine articles and his autobiography (published in 1932 to great acclaim). From 1917 through the Depression, up until 1942, though he designed continually, Wright saw many projects go unrealized, but nevertheless had the chance to build on new concepts and in new regions. His block building system led to idiosyncratic works like the famous Ennis house in Los Angeles, and in 1936 he completed the Herbert Jacobs house, using his new “Usonian” techniques, designed to be affordable for the middle-American family. The same year he moved to Arizona where, at the age of 71, Wright embraced his rugged new life in the desert, and with his students started building the Taliesin West complex. After receiving a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, he returned to see his Johnson Administration Building opened to great fanfare, nationwide publicity, and lines around the block waiting to tour inside. Despite adversity, Wright emerged from this era with reputation restored and vitality renewed—as manifested in Fallingwater and the Johnson building—while his Usonian homes began to alter the way Americans lived.
- GenresArchitecture
485 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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December 18, 2024
As I often do with books like these, I looked at every page but read almost nothing except an occasional caption and a bit of the final page about Wright's drawings. (My wife who scoffed at me when I placed the three books on our dining room table, actually paged through also but read much more of the text than I did.)
The three books are an amazingly complete collection of Mr. Wright's work. They are also overwhelming in their page after page of drawings and photos and text (at least half of which is in German) as well as their size and weight. They are each 16" by 12.5" and 2 inches thick. They each weigh almost 14 pounds. (The circulation people at my library were also a bit overwhelmed by them and I only expected a single volume; carrying all three out to my car was a challenge.)
Wright's designs are in chronological order. Each is identified by some classification number without significance to me, the name of the person or company for whom he was designing, occasionally a name for the building, the location where the building was intended to be built, the date, and finally the word "Project" if the plan was never acted upon and no building erected. (It is stunning how many of his designs never came to fruition.) In the earlier books the fate of a building was also mentioned, as many of them burned down or were demolished.
If you know Wright's work and unique, signature style you'll find little here that is new other than the amazing breadth of his endeavors, the sheer volume of his prolific production. Again and again there are "Projects" which might have drawings pictorially representing his vision for the building and usually some blueprint-like schematics for the layouts. I didn't bother to look closely at most of these unless they were the elaborate, sprawling and sweeping illustrations of places of worship, community centers, amusement centers, city centers, even skyscapers. (A few are even depictions of a night view of a lit-up building.) But the actual designs that did get built usually have photographs of the finished building, often a home. The more elaborate the home, usually due to its size and scope and the natural landscape upon which it sits, the more photos.
I often preferred the drawings, in a soft palette of water colors with plants hanging from every outside ledge or balcony, which made the building look romantic. The early photos are in black and white and were a disappointing manifestation of the imagined house, and always looked smaller. But real is real.
In these books you'll see lots of wide, low homes with extensive overhanging eaves. Lots of horizontal lines and angled roofs sometimes with spiky peaks. Some of the more elaborate designs have circular porches that look like landed spaceships from the 50's or like something from a Frank Frazetta illustration.
The inside photos of the later homes are in color and have a similar vibe: always a fireplace, a rug, lots of wood and stone and brick, with natural light pouring in, often from windows up high on the wall, and some subdued lighting reflecting off the ceiling. There are usually a few plants and always a bunch of books on shelves.
If you are mildly curious about Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural work, you might find more concise books with more pictures. But if you are a serious fan or completist, check these out. They are from Taschen publishing and are beautiful combinations of art and infomation.
The three books are an amazingly complete collection of Mr. Wright's work. They are also overwhelming in their page after page of drawings and photos and text (at least half of which is in German) as well as their size and weight. They are each 16" by 12.5" and 2 inches thick. They each weigh almost 14 pounds. (The circulation people at my library were also a bit overwhelmed by them and I only expected a single volume; carrying all three out to my car was a challenge.)
Wright's designs are in chronological order. Each is identified by some classification number without significance to me, the name of the person or company for whom he was designing, occasionally a name for the building, the location where the building was intended to be built, the date, and finally the word "Project" if the plan was never acted upon and no building erected. (It is stunning how many of his designs never came to fruition.) In the earlier books the fate of a building was also mentioned, as many of them burned down or were demolished.
If you know Wright's work and unique, signature style you'll find little here that is new other than the amazing breadth of his endeavors, the sheer volume of his prolific production. Again and again there are "Projects" which might have drawings pictorially representing his vision for the building and usually some blueprint-like schematics for the layouts. I didn't bother to look closely at most of these unless they were the elaborate, sprawling and sweeping illustrations of places of worship, community centers, amusement centers, city centers, even skyscapers. (A few are even depictions of a night view of a lit-up building.) But the actual designs that did get built usually have photographs of the finished building, often a home. The more elaborate the home, usually due to its size and scope and the natural landscape upon which it sits, the more photos.
I often preferred the drawings, in a soft palette of water colors with plants hanging from every outside ledge or balcony, which made the building look romantic. The early photos are in black and white and were a disappointing manifestation of the imagined house, and always looked smaller. But real is real.
In these books you'll see lots of wide, low homes with extensive overhanging eaves. Lots of horizontal lines and angled roofs sometimes with spiky peaks. Some of the more elaborate designs have circular porches that look like landed spaceships from the 50's or like something from a Frank Frazetta illustration.
The inside photos of the later homes are in color and have a similar vibe: always a fireplace, a rug, lots of wood and stone and brick, with natural light pouring in, often from windows up high on the wall, and some subdued lighting reflecting off the ceiling. There are usually a few plants and always a bunch of books on shelves.
If you are mildly curious about Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural work, you might find more concise books with more pictures. But if you are a serious fan or completist, check these out. They are from Taschen publishing and are beautiful combinations of art and infomation.
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