Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan and the Skyscraper [Paperback]

Donald Hoffmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 1998

This profusely illustrated work offers abundant insights into the early development of the skyscraper and the influence of two master builders who played key roles in its evolution. Rare photos, floor plans, and renderings document such influential structures as Sullivan's Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Wright's Larkin building in Buffalo and many others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (January 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486402096
• ISBN-13: 978-0486402093
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,490,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Donald Hoffmann served as art and architecture critic of The Kansas City Star from 1965 to 1990. Born in Springfield, IL, in 1933, he was raised about two miles from Frank Lloyd Wright's house for Susan Lawrence Dana. He encountered Wright's house for Fred C. Robie when he entered the University of Chicago in 1949. After working for the City News Bureau of Chicago and the Illinois State Register in Springfield, he joined The Star in 1956. In the early 1960s he began independent studies of the architecture of John Wellborn Root and of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Customer Reviews

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good insight into their buildings, July 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan and the Skyscraper (Paperback)

In this book, noted architectural scholar Donald Hoffman outlines the contributions of these two men and others to the fledgling skyscraper movement. Among the topics examined are the profit motive behind skyscraper construction, the importance of light in skyscraper design, Sullivan's soaring idealism, the "anti-skyscraper," exemplified by Wright's Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and many more.

Accompanying the perceptive, carefully researched text are 100 excellent illustrations, including rare photographs, floor plans, and renderings that document such important structures as Sullivan's Wainwright Building in St. Louis, along with his Masonic Temple, Reliance Building, and Marshall Field Wholesale Store in Chicago; the A.T. Stewart store in New York; the San Francisco Call Project; Wright's Larkin Building in Buffalo, New York, as well as his dazzling but never-constructed National Life Insurance Company project, Chicago, and St. Mark's Tower project, New York.

Architecture enthusiasts will find this comprehensive, authoritative study filled not only with an abundance of insights into the early development of the skyscraper but also with the ideas and influence of two master builders who played key roles in one of the most revolutionary developments in modern architecture.