A Taliesin Legacy: The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright's Apprentices (Architecture Series) [Hardcover]

Tobias S. Guggenheimer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471286427 | ISBN-13: 978-0471286424 | Publication Date: June 27, 1995 | Edition: 1

In this monumental book, the author unveils hundreds of photos and original interviews tracing the careers of thirty architects who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin. Among those interviewed are Fay Jones, Aaron Green, John Lautner, Anthony Putnam, Paolo Soleri, and Edgar Tafel.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In a time when publishers are eager to flood us with books about the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, there is still a dearth of information about the work of students who studied at Wright's Taliesin Fellowship in Wisconsin and Arizona. Guggenheimer (architecture, Pratt Inst.) has assembled an encyclopedia study of the projects planned and/or built by these students, who eagerly embraced Wright's ethic of organic design. While the author did his research and gathered his quotes from the architects in yeoman fashion, the result is flawed. Too many of the photographs of finished buildings look as if they were shot with old Instamatic cameras at dusk. Because scholars and interested lay readers need to know what Taliesin Fellowship designers have wrought, we will have to live with this shortcoming. Sadly, the greater failure here is well beyond the author's control?these disciples of Wright, hero worshippers all, offer building designs that scream with excesses of thrust and sweep and drama, as if making loud and bizarre structures rather than organic architecture will put them on the post-Wright map. Recommended for larger architecture collections.?David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., Ct.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

A Taliesin Legacy The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Apprentices Tobias S. Guggenheimer In the decades since the death of Frank Lloyd Wright the world has puzzled over the fate of the hundreds of young people who worked and trained at the Taliesin Fellowship, Wright’s revolutionary center for design education. Did Wright mold skilled architects capable of applying his philosophy in creative projects around the world? Or as some critics claimed, did Taliesin produce only hangers-on and imitators? Anyone with a passion for architecture has wondered about the answer to these questions. In this book, A Taliesin Legacy: The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Apprentices, the foremost authority on the work of the Taliesin apprentices, Tobias Guggenheimer, eloquently unveils the spectacular accomplishments of the disciples of the greatest architect in American history. With dramatic photographs and revealing interviews, this monumental book traces the careers of dozens of architects who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright at the Wisconsin and Arizona campuses of Taliesin. Guggenheimer includes such internationally famous architects as E. Fay Jones, John Lautner, and Paolo Solari and spotlights the work of those individuals who have received insufficient previous notice — architects whose work collectively represents the living heart of the environmentally forward looking "organic" movement. Guggenheimer’s scope is encyclopedic and portrays organic architecture from Europe, Asia, Africa, as well as the United States. Many of the hundreds of photographs originate in the personal archives of the apprentices and have never before been published. Readers will be mesmerized as the apprentices reveal the true story of Taliesin, Wright’s experiential alternative to university education, and describe how they absorbed Wright’s philosophy. In an unprecedented insight into daily life with Frank Lloyd Wright, apprentices describe the evolution of Taliesin as a respected institution during Wright’s life and how it remained vital after his death. You’ll learn about Wright’s teaching methods, the political hostility against the Fellowship, the international cross-fertilization engendered by Taliesin, and the growing relevance of organic architecture to contemporary concerns. A generous portfolio of drawings and photographs, many in full color, reveals how the apprentices form a significant arm of contemporary architecture. No where else is the legacy of Wright’s architectural principles chronicled so lavishly as here. This is truly the book enthusiasts of the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright have been waiting for.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 27, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471286427
• ISBN-13: 978-0471286424
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,198,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rekindling the Home fire, March 5, 2000

By 

Earl Ledden (Sandy Creek New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Taliesin Legacy: The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright's Apprentices (Architecture Series) (Hardcover)

Too bad FLW is not able to read this book. He would have seen where his apprentices have taken his work ,and, through their eyes, how he was remembered. We, the living, are more fortunate. Like any kid, what first attracted me to this book was the pictures,in COLOR no less! But it gets even better;this book brings to life the memory fo FLW by those who knew him best,and gives life to his architecture as it is practiced by his proteges. Now I can feel the presence of the man when I see his work. As an aside,it is time for a book for us empty-nested babyboomers who would like a bungalow sized home with FLW written all over it. We want style,simplicity,function,efficiency,ecology,and enviromental soundness in our space,without all the space;an update of Usonia,a sort of Wright Lite. I hope the apprentices of the apprentices are listening. Meanwhile,read this book!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It shows the great results of FLLW's teachings still going., November 7, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Taliesin Legacy: The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright's Apprentices (Architecture Series) (Hardcover)

The book shows the selected works of several of FLLW's most famous and not so famous apprentices works which have been done since the master passed away in 1959. A great book for the non believers who think the teachings or practices of Mr. Wright died in 1959 when he did. This book shows incredible results of just where organic architecture is today. Check out the works of Edgar Tafel, Cunningham, Milton Stricker, Bob Beharka, Eric Lloyd Wright, Lloyd Wright, John Lautner all of whom I'm fortunate to know and to have known. A great book to have as a part of your collection to show to your friends or those who don't think they are interested in Wright's work, it'll change them into believers fast. Also a great gift for budding architects to steer them in the right (Wright) direction. We can only hope that the work of many lessor known apprentices and fellows of Taliesin gets published soon as Volume #2.