Customer Reviews

The Charnley House: Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Making of Chicago's Gold Coast (Chicago Architecture and Urbanism)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While the subject was Louis Sullivan's Charnley House in Chicago's Gold Coast, too much of the book was spent on Chicago's Gold Coast and not enough on Sullivan's Charnley House ... a great disappointment.

The controversy over the true designer was amusing as so many of the details are obviously from Sullivan's experience, including nearly a duplicate of a part of his Auditorium Building, and his strong preference for arches, neither of which Frank Lloyd Wright had anything to do with. Yet a few details of relatively minor scope appear to be influenced by Wright. So, why would Wright, after Sullivan's death, first claim to have "done it" (the Charnley House), and later, after the Charnley House had become justifiably famous, would Wright now claim to have "designed it" (the Charnley House), when so little of that which is Wright is actually present in the Charnley House? Perhaps out of envy of Sullivan, or simply in retaliation for taking jobs on the side, sub rosa, which was forbidden in his contract with Adler & Sullivan, and which ultimately resulted in his being fired from Adler & Sullivan.

The photographs of the Charnley House are excellent. The drawings are only barely adequate. The exploration of the Gold Coast is superfluous to the examination of the Charnley House.