Customer Reviews

Country and Suburban Homes of the Prairie School Period (Dover Architecture)

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

 

 

For the student of the Prairie school and early modernism, this book is an invaluable reference for original floor plans and photographs. The book includes works by many architects, but it is not limited to only the Prairie school. I believe it gives a good cross section of the popular architecture of the early 20th century. There are examples of Colonial revival homes for example in addition to the bungalows and landmark Prairie monsions.

The Prairie School, says the bacover blurb on this book, "was rooted in the turn-of-the-century 'back-to-nature' movement and was animated by a spirit of organic architecture, [meaning] buildings that harmonized with...the landscape." By 1913, when the book was originally published (as Modern American Homes), the style was well-established and its grammar clearly worked out. These houses, apartment buildings, and even a couple of public structures (a small-town library, a small schoolhouse) range from shingle-style to Tudoresque and all seem to have risen out of the ground they sit on. Each is depicted with one to four BW photographs, a brief description (often including the cost of the house to build, which will be an eye-opener to people accustomed to the ever-spiralling prices of a day without a gold-backed currency), and a floor plan; you may want a good magnifier to make out details (a common fault of Dover publications, and the reason I give this one four stars). Pen-and-ink elevations and cross-sections are included for some of the examples. House-lookers, social historians, and designers should all find the book interesting and useful.