Overview
Despite Frank Lloyd Wright's global renown, more than one hundred of his buildings-one of every five built-have been destroyed. Gone are his majestic Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the playful Midway Gardens in Chicago. Buffalo has lost the innovative Larkin Administration Building. Gone, too, are notable residences such as the palatial Little House in Minnesota and the stables in Mississippi he designed for his mentor, Louis Sullivan. Apartment buildings, houses large and small, retail spaces, resort colonies, garages, garden structures, and monumental high-profile commissions-all have been lost to future generations."How could it happen?" asks author Carla Lind in Lost Wrights. She then proceeds to show exactly how and why each of these buildings is no longer here. Illustrated with fascinating and often rare photographs, descriptions are arranged by building type from houses to apartments, recreation to business. Originally published in 1996 but out of print for several years, this is a revised and expanded edition.
Synopsis
Despite Frank Lloyd Wright's global renown, more than one hundred of his buildings-one of every five built-have been destroyed. Gone are his majestic Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the playful Midway Gardens in Chicago. Buffalo has lost the innovative Larkin Administration Building. Gone, too, are notable residences such as the palatial Little House in Minnesota and the stables in Mississippi he designed for his mentor, Louis Sullivan. Apartment buildings, houses large and small, retail spaces, resort colonies, garages, garden structures, and monumental high-profile commissions-all have been lost to future generations.
"How could it happen?" asks author Carla Lind in Lost Wrights. She then proceeds to show exactly how and why each of these buildings is no longer here. Illustrated with fascinating and often rare photographs, descriptions are arranged by building type from houses to apartments, recreation to business. Originally published in 1996 but out of print for several years, this is a revised and expanded edition.
Library Journal
Nearly 100 of the more than 500 buildings Wright built no longer exist because of fire, demolition, or purposeful neglect. This book illustrates many of them. Wright scholar Lind (Frank Lloyd Wright's First Houses, Pomegranate, 1996) has done a masterly job of researching and recording in detailed narrative and photographs (some rare and unusual) these vanished works. Beyond the value of these descriptions and images to both interested lay readers and scholars, the book leaves the reader with an immense feeling of masterpieces lost-a feeling compounded by the list of Wrightian buildings for which there are no known photographs or detailed descriptions. This clarion call for greater awareness of the shameful destruction of an important chapter in Americana belongs in collections interested in Wright's architecture or in historic preservation.-Glenn Masuchika, Chaminade Univ. Lib., Honolulu