Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Houses [Hardcover]

Alan Hess (Author), Alan Weintraub (Photographer), Kathryn Smith (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 2006

With the advent of Prairie style architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright embarked on a journey that would forever change the course of architecture. During this extraordinarily prolific period, roughly the first quarter of the twentieth century, Wright built the first great modern American houses. He cast aside many of the conventions of the past, opening up interior spaces so that there might be a more subtle flow of rooms. The plans for Prairie style architecture were based on a tartan plaid of main spaces and secondary spaces, of public rooms and circulation spaces. Their decentralized asymmetry did not follow the Beaux Arts insistence on a primary, often dominating, focal point—a vestige of its roots as a symbolic architecture for divine-right royalty. Following Wright's philosophy, Prairie design was emphatically democratic and non-hierarchical. Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Houses comprehensively demonstrates this philosophy. Focusing on interiors and details, the book features more than 70 Prairie style houses and other buildings, still extant, in lavish, full-color photography.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Star attraction is the photos" -- 12/17/06 CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"There is no end to "Frank Lloyd Wright Prarie Houses" because you'll want to double back and keep going through..." -- 12/03/06 SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

"comprehensive look at Wright's designs for the modern American Home." -- Dec 06 HOME MIAMI

About the Author

Alan Weintraub is a widely published architectural photographer whose books include Frank Lloyd Wright The Houses, Bay Area Style, The Architecture of John Lautner, and Oscar Niemeyer Houses, among others.Alan Hess is an architect and architecture critic for the San Jose Mercury News, whose books include Frank Lloyd Wright The Houses, The Architecture of John Lautner, Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture, and Oscar Niemeyer Houses, among others. Kathryn Smith is an architecture historian, preservation consultant, author, and lecturer.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (November 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847828581
• ISBN-13: 978-0847828586
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 1.2 x 10.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #702,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unworthy sequel, December 1, 2006

By 

E. Jarolin (Wyoming, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Houses (Hardcover)

In the wake of the magnificent "Frank Lloyd Wright: The Houses", this followup volume disappoints on several levels. I expected some duplication with the earlier book. Certainly, extended coverage of the iconic works such as Dana, Robie and Coonley was warranted. As pointed out in my review of the previous book, many houses received coverage only via a thumbnail photo appendix. I anticipated these works would receive expanded coverage here, for the most part I was wrong. What we get instead is much duplication with "FLW:The Houses": of the 22 houses presented here 15 were in the previous volume. There is also reuse of many of the same photos, sometimes cropped slightly differently sometimes identical. Also disappointing is the size of the new volume. It is quite a bit smaller in format with the resultant lessening of impact by the still great photos.
To sum up, if I had to buy only one book it would be "FLW: The Houses". This holds true even if my major interest was the Prairie period alone. Will a followup Usonian era volume provide the same needless duplication?

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy sequel and incredible book in its own right, November 18, 2006

By 

A. McDonald (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Houses (Hardcover)

A sequel to the early collaboration of Alan Weintraub and Alan Hess on Frank Lloyd Wright houses, this work focuses on a series of houses the Wright office completed at the first decade of the century, dubbed "Prairie Style." The book contains some brief essays, prefaces, and then a series of phenomenal photographs of what are arguably the most influential group of houses of the twentieth century.

Ironically the impact of these Prairie houses was spread through the lithographs of the "Wasmuth Portfolio" - line drawings of these houses that captivated the European modernists when published in 1910. These line drawings are still the way this group of houses is often reproduced, taught, or shown in slides in art history class. This book stands as an immediate corrective to that.

These photographs are extraordinarily rich, and must be said to complement Wright's work quite well. They include luminous photographs of the interiors, beautiful examples of the exteriors, really these are the next best thing to a trip to Oak Park to see the work directly.

I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Wright, or architecture, and this book sure would make a perfect gift.

As a very minor complaint, compared to the previous book where the subject was Wright's entire career of houses, as this one focuses on the Prairie Style it would have been nice to have some comparisons to the Prairie work other architects were creating in Chicago. Also, the authors make no acknowledgement that Wright created these houses in the context of an architectural studio practice, and so the efforts of his talented contributers such as Marion Mahoney go unmentioned.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Book, September 12, 2009

By 

M. Diane Neuhaus (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Houses (Hardcover)

I hate buying books sight unseen because you never know what the pages will hold. This book was a pleasant surprise, especially since it was purchased as a gift. Beautiful large photos, interesting commentary, a great book for fostering ideas. The book arrived pristine, well-packed and quickly. Great seller!