Wright in Hollywood: Visions of a New Architecture [Hardcover]

Robert L. Sweeney (Author), David G. DeLong (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 18, 1994 | ISBN-10: 026219337X | ISBN-13: 978-0262193375 | Edition: annotated edition

The textile-block system was a fascinating experiment that Frank Lloyd Wright conducted from about 1922 to 1932 as part of his quest to find a new system of construction using a standardized building material based on the idea of twentieth-century machine technology. Robert Sweeney has meticulously researched the textile block system, providing a case-by-case account of each project, commenting on Wright's clients, collaborators, and contractors, and positioning Wright's experiment firmly within the larger historical context of concrete block technology. Sweeney traces the forms of several of the early concrete block projects to Wright's own earlier work, clarifies an array of important technical challenges the architect faced, and notes the numerous block shapes required for executionThe concrete block experiment was firmly rooted in the concept of architectural simplification that Wright established at the outset of his career. It was begun in Hollywood, where he was living at the time, but was part of a larger vision with global application. Wright pursued the concept with a sense of mission, designing approximately thirty projects through the decade. Sweeney shows, however that this technical evolution can be explained in just three designs: the canonical Millard house of February 1923; and in two unexecuted projects, the Community Playhouse, "Little Dipper," for Aline Barnsdall, and in designs for a resort hotel for the Arizona desert.Although Wright began with structure, Sweeney points out that he was primarily interested in form: technology of assembly was only a path to architectural creation. As the structural system matured - a process coinciding with the evolution of the minimalist International Style in Europe - the buildings became increasingly architectonic; forms were simplified, and the initial fascination with ornament all but disappeared.Robert L. Sweeney is Executive Director of the R. M. Shindler House in Los Angeles. His comprehensive annotated bibliography on Wright was published in 1978.

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About the Author

Robert Sweeney has meticulously researched the textile block system, providing a case-by-case account of each project, commenting on Wright's clients, collaborators, and contractors, and positioning Wright's experiment firmly within the larger historical context of concrete block technology.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; annotated edition edition (July 18, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 026219337X
• ISBN-13: 978-0262193375
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,279,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frank Lloyd Wright's "lost decade", April 19, 2009

By 

Paul B. Ohannesian (Vancouver, British Columbia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wright in Hollywood: Visions of a New Architecture (Hardcover)

"Wright in Hollywood" by Robert Sweeney is a thoroughly-researched and richly illustrated account of the 1920's work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Most accounts of Wright's career emphasize his earlier Prairie houses and/or his later period that began with the house on a waterfall, Fallingwater. However, between these two portions of Wright's life, during the period of construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, he made Los Angeles his base of operations for a few years. Beginning with the Barnsdall "Hollyhock" House, he designed several homes in Los Angeles, most of them in Hollywood. Except for Hollyhock House itself, these houses were built of his "textile [concrete] block" system which he progressively refined from house to house. As I grew up in Los Angeles and have visited and photographed all of these buildings, I had a special interest and I was not disappointed. Sweeney accounts for nearly thirty projects either built or planned but not built that utilized the textile block system, and he does it with a very readable style. I greatly enjoyed his book and it will form a permanent part of my Wright library.