Customer Reviews

West, Volume 3, Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide

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this book is now available and the Publisher/Distributor, John Wiley & Sons, has it in their warehouse. It covers the Western US as well as Japan, Central America and South Asia. It is the first in the series to use color in the maps which makes them much more readable. The binding has been altered from the first two volumes but should shill lie flat when opened. The GPS numbers are entered in full. The Alphabetical index at the back locates all of the buildings for the first three volumes. There is a problem with the last volume, #4, East. The publisher is hesitating to bring it out. If you are interested in seeing the series complete, please write to the publisher, John Wiley & Son, in New York and request that it be published. These books bring a tremendous amount of new information on the buildings but expecially on the people who comisioned them, the clients. There are many new findings on buildings that have been demolished as well as those that were mereely planned. These make goot reading and make the humt for each pilgrimage site much easier and effecient. Each site is rated. The rating indicates how much effort one should expend to get to the site. A low rating does not mean the building is not a good one but that if you travel to see it, you may not be able to because it is inreachable or unseeable. Each community should take pride in having a world class design in it.

The reader from California must have the wrong book. There is no photo of a decorative detail of the Hollyhock House. I checked on the cities and found that some are noted differently than other texts but are accurate. One example is the Sturges House (page 49) listed in Los Angeles, most others list it in Brentwood. After the OJ trial, everyone now knows Brentwood is actually a neighborhood of Los Angeles. The photo of the Millard House (page 61) is printed backwards but the house is symmetrical and is still recognizable.

The book reveals a great deal of new, previously unpublished material that adds a great deal to our understanding of Wright's work such as the sections on San Francisco and Los Angeles that give locations and information of the clients or sites for buildings that are demolished to those only proposed. It helps to make the work more real and exciting.

The California reader must keep in mind that the purpose of this book is to assist all the Pilgrims making their way to every one of Wright's work. For that it is one of the greatest books available as Wright's work needs to be seen in person to be appreciated.

I am sure we are all eagerly awaiting the last of the series, The East!

Has 2 critical and unique features for each site -- GPS address (in addition to street address) and the accessibility for public viewing. Before this book, I've wasting much travel time trying to find sites and then finding them completely hidden from view.