Customer Reviews

The Visions of Frank Lloyd Wright

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

 

 

Heinz has certainly done it again, written a book, a great, big book with great photos of every one of the buildings and has expanded on this by including a short biographical chapter and more photos and information on Stained Glass and Furniture.

This 450 page book is the first to show all the buildings in color. The text is casual and refresingly non-academic. It talks about the people behind the buildings more than the buildings. How often have you read about the red brick and the six second floor windows, things that you can easily see in the illustration? This biographical information on the clients of Wright is fascinating and holds your attention as do the compelling photos.

I don't know how they can get the price of this book down so low with the great quality of the reproductions but I hope there are more of Heinz's books like this one. On the otherhand, how can there be much more. I read that Heinz has 80,000 photos so I guess we have not seen them all, yet. This one is great and I hope Heinz keeps at it.

Maybe the most complete book on Frank Lloyd Wright but despite the numerous photos, the quality is equal to the price. Some pictures like Guggenheim Museum are quite poor. Despite this it's a good book especially for the price.

Just got this book - actually the 2002 B&N edition but seems about identical to the edition here. Marvelous photos - considerably better quality than those in Heinz' far more expensive book with all the Wright building locations in detail. Yes, wish EVERY Wright building were here, but close. Have found a few errors in index, etc. but pretty darned good. I'd like to have seen that auto showroom in Manhattan, for example. Well, Heinz doesn't claim to have included everything in this one. Some sort of listing by nation and then state, at least, would have been helpful. Yes, some buildings are referred to with no photo, and then at least one, the Rosenbaum house in Alabama, is in the "Decorative Arts" section but not the main color section (as far as I've found so far).
One silly error: Anderton Court Shops, p. 340 is surely in reverse, as is so clear with the shops' signs backwards! Wonder how that got by.... Will have to check if that Fallingwater photo was corrected for this edition.
All in all a marvelous book with exquisite photos and very well written with stimulating text (for this sort of book - not aiming at the true FLW scholar but just fine for the serious afficianado, which I sure am!).
Incidentally, the first house I ever lived in was on the street in Rochester where the Boynton house is situated - so I have a slightly personal connection with the genius, I've always felt. Great photos of the house here but I'm not so happy the exterior one shows the rear (and doesn't identify it as such, either).
Ken Goldberg, Cleveland, OH

This is a nice big photographic tribute to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright by Thomas A. Heinz, who is one of the leading Wright observers and commentators. The collection of photographs is gorgeous and the biographical information is up to the minute in accuracy and detail.

At over an inch think and with well over 400 pages, this is a good basic resource for "seeing" all of Wright even if you cannot hop on a plane, train or automobile for the up close and personal experience. Wright has to be shown in color--indeed, the Europeans who were influenced by the black and white photos of his work in the early 20th century might have gone in a whole other (better) direction had they had Heinz's photos--which are a mere sampling of his vast and varied personal collection of everything Frank Lloyd Wright. Heinz knows the people and their stores and shares them in a way that is engaging and effective.

It would be a shame not to mention the excellent step Heinz makes in this book, by correcting the many mistaken notions other writers have perpetuated about Oak Park Studio employee Isabel Roberts. Unlike almost every other Wright biographer and Prairie School architectural historian (who call her the secretary or bookkeeper), Heinz presents a valid summary of Isabel Roberts' work while in Wright's employ, saying, "She was an architect in her own right and her talent and position in Wright's Oak Park office has been largely ignored and underestimated." (Pages 120-141) We hope Mr. Heinz will do a book devoted specifically to Isabel Roberts and her contributions to architecture both in the Oak Park years, and thereafter with William Drummond and in Central Florida as partner of Ida Annah Ryan. Until then, Wright scholars would be wise to consult research done by John Dalles presented in his article, "The Pathbreaking Legacy of Ryan and Roberts", in "Reflections", the journal of the Historical Society of Central Florida, Summer 2009; pages 8 and 9.

This book definitely lived up to my expectations! The photography is lovely. And the buildings that I most wanted to see are included. It is big and heavy. But it is perfect for sitting on the couch and spending time.

Several photos are reversed in the paperback edition sold here. Very sloppy if you asked me (but it is cheap.) Otherwise some nice photos.

I recently went to NYC and decided to visit the Guggenheim Museum. Upon arriving from the subway, I had the unfortunate experience of seeing the entire Museum enclosed in scaffolding. However, I went in anyway and on the way out stopped by the gift shop and looked thru the FLW collection of books and discovered this book for less than $14. I thought the book was mispriced. How could such a beautiful book be so inexpensive in NYC? I had to have it.

This book is great for architects or non-architects. It goes thru his entire career without the winded explanations of each of his works. Each surviving work is photographed in color and identified by its original owner with a short highlight of what Wright accomplished. I enjoyed reading this book.
My greatest surprise was finding out that part of the Imperial Hotel was reconstructed else ware in Japan before it was demolished. Heinz took "color" photographs of it!

Photograph of Fallingwater (page 46) is reversed left-right.

BEST single-source reference book...
Of course,excellent photography !

Many rave reviews of books by Mr. Heinz seem to be "ringers", perhaps written by the publisher or Mr. Heinz himself. How can you tell a "ringer"? Just by clicking on the reviewers name (like "Dave Anderson" below) and discover that the only review he has written in seven years is for Mr. Heinz's book! Coincidence? Another favorite is to plant one from "a reader". Be wise, people!