Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959, examines the momentous five-year period when one of the world's greatest architects and one of the world's greatest cities dynamically coexisted. Authors Jane Hession and Debra Pickrel bring each of these unequalled characters to life, exploring the fascinating contradiction between Wright's often-voiced disdain of New York and his pride and pleasure in living in one of the city's great landmarks: the Plaza Hotel. From his suite, or "Taliesin the Third," as it became known, Wright supervised construction of the Guggenheim, sparred with the New York press, and received many famous visitors such as Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
IN NEW YORK
THE PLAZA YEARS, 1954-1959
JANE KING HESSION and DEBRA PICKREL
Foreword by MIKE WALLACE
Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959 examines the momentous five-year period when one of the world's greatest architects and one of the world's greatest cities dynamically coexisted. Authors Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel bring each of these unequalled characters to life, exploring the fascinating contradiction between Wright's often-voiced disdain of New York and his pride and pleasure in living in a great Manhattan landmark: the Plaza Hotel. From his suite, or "Taliesin East," as it became known, Wright negotiated-with varying measures of creativity, cooperation, and combat-an astonishing array of exchanges with the city's architects, artists, journalists, editors, publishers, designers, celebrities, power brokers, and bureaucrats. Most significantly, he shepherded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1943-1959), his New York masterwork, to near completion from these sumptuous quarters. Explore the sophistication and vigor of Wright's final years, a time when he was an architect of legend and a bona fide celebrity, and New York was basking in postwar prosperity.
Jane King Hession, a native of Nyack, New York, received her M. Arch. from the University of Minnesota. An architectural writer and historian with interests in Frank Lloyd Wright and mid-century modernism, she is the coauthor of Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design. Hession resides in Alexandria, Virginia.
Debra Pickrel is a New York journalist who has written on architecture and design for Architectural Record, House Beautiful, Metropolis, and Preservation. She is also the author of A Day in Turtle Bay, a walking tour of her Manhattan neighborhood with a foreword by Walter Cronkite. A former board member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, Pickrel is a journalism graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received her M.A. in Historic Preservation from Goucher College. She is a native of Richmond, Virginia.
Mike Wallace is a correspondent emeritus for CBS. He began his career as a newsman in the 1940s, joining 60 Minutes when the program first aired in 1968. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Wallace is the recipient of twenty Emmy Awards, and is an inductee of the Television Academy Hall of Fame, among other accolades. His third book, Between You and Me, written with Gary Paul Gates, was published in 2005.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"This is the Old Diamond Jim Brady suite. It's the best part of NewYork." Frank LloydWright, The NewYorker, June 16, 1956
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hession and Pickrel are terrific storytellers,
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This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years 1954-1959 (Hardcover)
Hession and Pickrel have written a wonderful story about Frank Lloyd Wright AND New York City's Plaza Hotel and Guggenheim Museum-- well researched and terrific photography. It sits on my coffee table for others to enjoy (full disclosure - Ms. Pickrel is a really good family friend). Check out another great review of their book.AIArchitect -February 1, 2008 BOOK REVIEW Frank's Last Stand Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959, by Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel (Gibbs Smith, 2007) Reviewed by Garo Gumusyan, AIA Summary: Frank Lloyd Wright, the suave, romantic playboy, at 85 years old, has one last mission--to seduce that faithless woman of a certain age, New York City. She has been on his list for a long time. This time, though, he will do it his way. Everything is meticulously planned ... down to the Plaza Hotel's Suite # 223, which Wright will completely make over; for Christian Dior's previous "inferior desecration" of the room simply will not do. The time is the `50s, and New York City, the object of his desires, is getting a major make-over--International Style. And who are the ones busy reshaping the grand corporate headquarters that line Park Avenue? None other than the Mies van der Rohe-clones, for whom Wright has nothing but contempt! Two avenues west, ensconced in his Plaza suite, Wright, anointed the "greatest architect of all time" by House Beautiful, sits stewing, yearning, waiting, having yet to build a single structure in the burgeoning post-war Capital of the World. This is the dramatic setting for Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel's recent survey of Frank Lloyd Wright's time in New York between 1954 and 1959. As their story unfolds, Wright, the aging playboy, has one more trick left up his sleeve, the magnificent Guggenheim Museum, which would indelibly leave his mark on the city he loved to hate. Hession and Pickrel are terrific storytellers and they know their subject well. Along the way, we discover little gems such as when Marilyn Monroe comes to Suite # 223, without then-husband Arthur Miller, to privately discuss a house they were planning to build together in Connecticut. Wright, sensing his opportunity to be with the starlet alone, asks his secretary to take his own wife out shopping. Wright wasn't always so smooth for "when he ordered his favorite spirit, Old Bushmills, neat, the waiter usually incorrectly delivered his Irish whiskey in an ice filled glass. Wright would pick up a spoon ... lift the cubes out one by one, and proceed to flip them across the green carpeted floor, to the astonishment and pleasure of the other patrons." Insightful little stories like these illuminate this late yet significant period in the American master's life. This is a cleverly written book and delicious read. Which raises the question: A half a century has passed since his death, why hasn't there been another Wright? What does this say about the current American Architecture? Makes you reach for that Old Bushmills. Neat.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well illustrated book about FLW's last years,
By suetonius "seutonius" (Phoenix) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years 1954-1959 (Hardcover)
The legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright has had many books written about his long life. This book looks at that part of the last years of FLW's long life during which he supervised the construction of the Solomon R.Guggenheim museum in New York City. The Guggenheim project had been in the planning stages since the early 40's with Wright having an extensive correspondence with Solomon Guggenheim and his "non-objective" art advisor, Hilda Rebay. Rebay was the art dealer that first convinced Guggenheim to create as museum as a monument to his memory. "Frank Lloyd Wright: The Guggenheim Correspondence" is an entire book devoted to this correspondence; it also touches upon the period about which this book is written. This book looks at the period 1954 - 1959. Wright died April 9, 1959 in Scottsdale just a few months before the completion of the Guggenheim museum.The book is a 160 page quarto printed on glossy paper. It is illustrated with many photos I've never seen before of Wright in his Plaza suite, at the Guggenheim construction site, and at various other places in the New York area. The book uses a vert small font (6 or 8 point?) which makes it hard to read in poor light. I had to set the book aside to read it in a brightly lit room, it was too hard to read by a dim nightstand bulb. FLW spent money freely even when he didn't have it. In order to supervise work on the Guggenheim he chose a corner suite at the luxurious Plaza Hotel at the corner or Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue South, decorating it according his own tastes. He spent less than a week per month in New York during the years of construction but insisted on living in a grand style while there. The site of the museum itself on Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile was similarly chosen to impress; Guggenheim and Wright earlier rejected a site in Fort Tryon Park near the Cloisters as being too far away from the fashionable parts of Manhattan. There are fascinating sections that detail FLW's television appearances while in New York; he was interviewed by Mike Wallace, appeared on "What's My Line," and several other shows. Wright sought other design work while in New York. He designed a luxury Park Avenue car dealership interior as well as a home for that dealership's owner. A home in Staten Island (still in existence) built to his "Usonian" standard is the only Wright private residence in New York City. Wright found that his design ideas were at odds with the glass box office buildings of the International Style that were then in favor. There is a another interesting section that details several meetings with Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller to plan a dream house for some acreage they owned; the house was never built and their marriage was soon in dire straits. I have read several books about FLW in recent years and was pleased to find that this book contained information and photographs I hadn't seen elsewhere. This makes this book worthwhile and highly recommended despite its relatively narrow focus.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful book, great story,
By
This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years 1954-1959 (Hardcover)
I have read many books and articles about Frank Lloyd Wright and seen much of his work in person. His work no matter how familiar creates an excitement in its modernism and feel for space and is of course iconic. But, this book is more than just a book about Frank Lloyd Wright--it is a luxurious tour of New York in an era of glamour and excitment. It is about Wright in the context of that New York experience. Both New York and Wright compliment and inform the other making the book fascinating reading for both the history of the city as well as the story of the man. For those of us who grew up in New York and remember the days of lunch with gloves, dreams of growing up to go to the 21 Club it evokes memories of a time long gone but not forgotten. Wright become part of the city and even his huge ego and brilliance can't minimize the landscape he finds himself in. I read the book quickly--it was beautiful, engaging and a find. A perfect gift for those that either love architecture and Wright, New York City in its glory---or best case--for those who love both! Dr. Pat Gill Webber, New Hope PA/Tucson AZ
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First Sentence:
There were few finer views in New York at mid-century than the panorama from Frank Lloyd Wright's second-floor corner suite at the Plaza Hotel. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
modern architecture, glass box boys Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Frank Lloyd Wright, Guggenheim Museum, International Style, Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Price Tower, House Beautiful, Taliesin West, Plaza Hotel, Central Park, The Mike Wallace Interview, United States, Rockefeller Center, Seagram Building, Philip Johnson, While Wright, Wright's Plaza, Oak Park, Harry Guggenheim, International Exhibition, William Zeckendorf, Usonian Exhibition House, World War, Mike Todd Universal Theater Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
There were few finer views in New York at mid-century than the panorama from Frank Lloyd Wright's second-floor corner suite at the Plaza Hotel. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
modern architecture, glass box boys Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Frank Lloyd Wright, Guggenheim Museum, International Style, Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Price Tower, House Beautiful, Taliesin West, Plaza Hotel, Central Park, The Mike Wallace Interview, United States, Rockefeller Center, Seagram Building, Philip Johnson, While Wright, Wright's Plaza, Oak Park, Harry Guggenheim, International Exhibition, William Zeckendorf, Usonian Exhibition House, World War, Mike Todd Universal Theater Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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