Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses: Designs for Moderate Cost One-Family Homes [Paperback]

John Sergeant (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (March 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823071782
• ISBN-13: 978-0823071784
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #208,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A vital tribute to an architectural genius, December 8, 2000

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses: Designs for Moderate Cost One-Family Homes (Paperback)

"Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses" is well-presented introduction to an important phase in the career of this legendary architect. Author John Sergeant has combined an insightful text with detailed floor plans and photographs of the Usonian homes themselves. The result is a book that serves equally well for light browsing and intense study.

The book is not without flaws. Some of the floor plans are so tiny that they are difficult to analyze. And the floor plans have no captions labeling each individual room; the reader is left to decipher the plans on his/her own. But these drawbacks aside, this is an excellent work.

Sergeant has truly captured the innovative power of Wright's genius. Look at the clustered circles of the Jester house project, the interlocking hexagons of the Bazett house, or the bold "solar-hemicycle" of the second Jacobs house, and you will get a sense of Wright's remarkable vison. Virtually every page brings a stunning image or insight. If you are fascinated by Wright's work in home architecture, you will love this book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Affordable Wright houses, July 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses: Designs for Moderate Cost One-Family Homes (Paperback)

This is a great book for anyone who is considering an architect for a new home, or is a Wright fan. This book comprehensively discusses and illustrates a type of house design that is actually affordable in this day, unlike many of Wright's more famous Prairie designs (which preceded the buildings examined here). This is the only book on Usonians I know that deeply analyzes and lets you see how Wright's magic was worked, although that can become rather technical in nature. But if you are planning a home, and want it to be an exhilarating work of art, I think you need these details badly. About the only thing I didn't learn of Usonians here was the importance of the diagonal, or oblique, in developing Wright's floor plans, generating their "overlapping" spaces and spatial flow despite the rigid basic module.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Superb in Depth Study of FLW's Architectural Concepts, February 1, 2000

By 

Ron (North York, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses: Designs for Moderate Cost One-Family Homes (Paperback)

This book is a must have for anyone who is interested in Frank Lloyd Wright's 'organic' philosophy. It is one of the few books that actually discusses his building philosophy in depth. His 'Usonian' concepts are well illustrated although more up to date color photographs are probably required. This book also contains a quick biography of FLW as well as articles from the 'House and Homes' magazines written in 1958. In one of these articles are 32 extremely valuable Frank Lloyd Wright pointers on how to get the most from a small space. This book is a real gem.