The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion

About this book

A Frank Lloyd Wright Companion brings together in one handsome oversized volume the essential details descriptions brief histories photographs and plans of everything built by Americas best-known architect. For the first time William Allin Storrer presents complete plans of all Wrights work as built along with a remarkably rich treasury of critical information and rare anecdotal material collected over many years of research. Surveying almost 450 buildings each of which he visited at least twice Storrer includes the full range of Wrights architecturefrom vacation cottages in Montana and Michigan to such monuments of modernism as the Johnsons Wax Building and the Guggenheim Museum. He also includes buildings completed after Wrights death in 1959. Organized to follow Wrights career from his first design the interior of the Helena Valley Chapel near Taliesin to his last built work the Lykes residence in Phoenix the entries feature: A text that summarizes what is important about the history of each building its commission design use and client its place in Wrights work and its stylistic and engineering innovations. 1000 photographs of interiors and exteriors most taken by the author. There are also elevations and historical images of buildings that are no longer standing. Floor plans of Wrights built work showing changes in his preliminary plans and each meticulously redrawn by the author. As a comprehensive single-volume reference unmatched in scope detail and authority the Companion will be an indispensable centerpiece of any Frank Lloyd Wright collection and any serious library of art and architecture. "William Allin Storrer a scholar who has written on Wright for a quarter-century has produced the first true and complete catalogue raisonn of Wrights work and it is stunning. . . . Mr. Storrer has given us more than a story; he has written an epic. This book more than any other makes the remarkable length and breadth of Wrights career clear. . . . His texts are straightforward and intelligent. . . . Storrer has taken the vast forest of Wrights built work and looked at it tree by tree labeling each and every one of those trees thoroughly and intriguingly. It is a testament to Mr. Storrers skill that this book comes off not merely as a catalogue but as an inspiring study of the whole Wright forest."Paul Goldberger New York Times Book Review "Storrer . . . knows more about Frank Lloyd Wright than anyone else and hes produced the ultimate encyclopedia with 965 photographs of 470 buildings and an insightful fact-filled text."Robert Campbell Boston Globe "By bringing the full range of Wrights work under one roof this definitive guide makes a major contribution to the literature on Wright."Blair Kamin Chicago Tribune Books "An excellent reference guide to everything built by Frank Lloyd Wright."Thomas D. Sullivan Washington Times "This book is an essential reference for all those interested in Wright. . . . It will be highly useful when reading the more theoretical books that are beginning to pour out from Wrights archives."Architecture Nz "Frank Lloyd Wright expert Storrer has compiled the definitive Wright reference book. . . . It is an invaluable enjoyable and authoritative resource."Donna Seaman Booklist