Customer Reviews

Frank Lloyd Wright in Pop-up

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book of Pop-ups, side by side with the building photographs and original plans and drawings, show all the beauty and majesty of Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous buildings. It's done with grace, and beauty, and style befitting the nature and purpose of the book. The pop-ups are elegant, simple, and yet breathtaking.

Like most pop-up books, it is fragile, paper engineering being what it is. I have yet to see a pop-up book that isn't as fragile as a flower. You should keep this book out of the reach of children. But, it should make a beautiful coffee table item for thoughtful adults, but again, it's destined to be a wonderful collectors item, so only take it out for special occasions.

I read Dominic's review and completely disagree. As a pop-up book collector, I expect pop-ups to be only as complex or realistically depicted as makes sense to its art and that of the story. The pop-ups cleverly give you the illusion of standing back and viewing the structures from a great distance as opposed to viewing a 3 dimentional, detailed miniature.

It works beautifully.

I have collected pop-up books for 35 years and must disagree with Dominic. Yes, the book is fragile, nearly all large pop-up books are (most books this size will develop splits in the gutters if you are not extremely careful). I feel the pop-ups are in keeping with Wright's work. I especially enjoyed the accompanying text and plans. I'm very happy to include this in my collection.

When I first saw the book listing and read about the "latest in pop-up engineering" I had high hopes for this book. However, that hope quickly turns into disgust the minute I opened it. The book is poorly designed. The pop-up buildings are designed with some cheap software that fills trees with cheesy moire patterns, buildings with tastelss line arts and washed out colors. The binding of the book is so poor that it began to fall apart before I opened it. The paper engineering part is also mediocre. Most buildings don't actually pop-up. Instead it's just got some poorly die-cut panels that "float" in front of flatly printed images. With the recent dramatic improvement to pop-up books such as Harry Potter's Howart Carassel and the pop-up book of phobia, this book is mundane and boring. Publishing such a ill-conceived and executed book on Frank Lloyd Wright is an insult to our country's architectural history.

I enjoyed this book very much. The quality and detail in the pop-up images are excellent. The book is very informative including plans and drawings of various structures. It is an excellent addition/start for an architectural library or any library

Received this book as a gift from my mother and I have had it on my coffee table ever since. In addition to providing a wonderful history and overview of Frank Lloyd Wright's work, it has charmed guests immensely. For that reason I have to vote this book THE BEST COFFEE TABLE BOOK EVER.

I think Dominic has panned the book needlessly. It is not that bad. It is a large book and yes the popups are not the best but they are not bad either. It is definitely a book to have in ones collection. Couple of the pops are large and deserving of attention.

This book is a true joy. It makes me laugh everytime I open it. This book is not the best example of pop-ups or the best review of FLW's work but it is an excellent example of joy, humor and delight in it's subject, FLW and American Architecture.

Despite the earlier, very negative review by Dominic, I agree with George&M's positive review, and found this book quite enjoyable, interesting, and readable.

First of all, Dominic is wrong when he says the pop ups don't actually "pop up." The model of the Johnson Wax building actually rises up a good six inches, maybe more off the paper, hardly anything close to what he describes. Most don't go that far, but are still very enjoyable to watch how they work as you open up the book, and to look at.

And as for the fragile binding and poor book quality he cites, well, welcome to the real world of commercial publishing of art and architecture books, which has been going downhill for probably the last 20 years, as publishers struggle to maintain profitability in the face of an American public that cares little for art and architectural education. Dominic also doesn't discuss the written text, which, for a book that looks like it's designed more to entertain rather than to educate, is well done, with detailed histories of the six buildings in the book, and comments by Wright himself about how he designed the project.

Even if you don't buy it, if you're a fan of Wright's, you should at least seek it out for the sheer fun of watching the paper pop-ups of Wright's buildings. The book discusses six of Wright's most notable buildings, such as the Johnson Wax building, Fallingwater, and the Mayan style house in L.A. (unfortunately I don't recall the name of the owners). The choices of buildings are a good selection to represent the full diversity of Wright's work, which ranged from personal residences to major corporate complexes. Overall, this is an interesting and fun and informative book on Wright that should be of interest to any Wright afficionados or fans of pop-up books (the most fun books after all--check out the Kama Sutra one I saw once some time. :-)).

I have enjoyed this book since receiving it. It's a fun coffee table book and the pop-ups are wonderful. It is a fragile book, arriving with the spine damaged in shipping. All the pop-ups were fine so I didn't exchange it.

I bought this gift for my boyfriend who loves Wright's work. The pop-ups are really amazing. They captured several of the Frank Lloyd Wright structures perfectly. The book also has a lot of good information about the architect.