FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Frank Lloyd Wright was the greatest American architect of the 20th century. During a long life he designed many of the most striking and iconic buildings in the USA - structures such as Fallingwater, a house poised above a waterfall in rural Pennsylvania, the Unity Temple, the USA's first all-concrete public building, and New York's amazing, spiral-shaped Guggenheim Museum. One of the most remarkable innovators in the history of architecture, Wright produced some of the most revolutionary buildings - breathtaking prairie houses, the Johnson Wax company headquarters with its Pyrex glazing and stunning mushroom columns, his own canvas-roofed desert home and office. Wright was a technological innovator too, pioneering inventions such as double-glazing, sound-absorbing office furniture, and prefabricated office partitions. But Wright did not pursue the new for its own sake. All his work is underpinned by a belief system: that buildings should be at one with their environment, that their form should grow from the needs of the client, and that site, floor plan, structural materials, and the use of the building should be in harmony. Wright called this set of ideas organic architecture, and both the philosophy and the buildings it produced are as inspiring now as they were when Wright was alive and working. This book showcases fifty of Wright's most important projects. It covers buildings throughout his whole career, from the house he built for himself in Oak Park, Illinois in 1889 to the landmark structures of his final years like the Beth Sholom Synagogue and the Guggenheim Museum. The projects include a handful of influential buildings that are no longer standing, such as the masterly Larkin Company Building and the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, as a tribute to designs that still fascinate architects and others who follow the work of this inspiring American master. Brief opening and closing chapters outline the architect's life and describe his wide influence, which, with his emphasis on architecture and environment, is as relevant as ever today.