The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

With this volume, Storrer surpasses his previous catalog of Wright's work, The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (MIT Pr., 1978), by compiling detailed plans, photographs, and brief histories of every structure built by America's most widely known architect. The very handsome oversized book details the range of Wright's output from cottages in Montana to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Although the author denies its relevance, some color photography would have enhanced the text, and the lack of a bibliography is regrettable; also, Storrer continues his earlier use of zip codes as guides to locations, a device some users will find clumsy. Nevertheless, this volume is an essential purchase for serious architecture collections.
- Daniel J. Lombardo, Jones Lib., Amherst, Mass.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Wright expert Storrer has compiled the definitive Wright reference book. His splendid descriptive volume covers more than 450 buildings designed by master architect Wright between 1886 and 1959. Storrer documents each structure with plans, drawings, photographs, and commentary. Each presentation is both complete and concise, following each stage of Wright's aesthetic development, each leap of his imagination, and each instance of technical innovation. The surprisingly fluid text includes anecdotes about the circumstances leading up to important commissions and pithy discussions of the personalities and motivations of Wright's often unusual clients. Storrer is not only a scholar and writer, but a computer draftsman and photographer as well. He has painstakingly redrawn floor plans to accurately reflect the layout of the actual buildings, as opposed to Wright's preconstruction drawings, and taken most of the 965 photographs. Storrer carefully composed each shot to capture the play of light and shadow Wright orchestrated for both the interior and the exterior of his unique creations. While Storrer's "companion" is not as coffee-table pretty as some of the other Wright books out this past year, it is an invaluable, enjoyable, and authoritative resource. Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 508 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (January 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226776247
• ISBN-13: 978-0226776248
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 10.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,021,550 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the right one for you., December 2, 2001

By	Robin Benson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an expensive book but you need only buy it once and you will have readable plans and details of more than 470 Wright buildings. I love his work and have several books about the great man but I find that plans in other books are sometimes unreadable because of the reduction to fit on the page. William Storrer has redrawn them all and taken nearly all the black and white photos. These are to Wright's specification: exterior shots to be in a natural context and include foliage, interiors should be taken with natural light and from a seated position and as Storrer says, this last condition excludes most contemporary color photography of his work. Also included is a ZIP code index of the buildings if you want to visit and see the outside, lucky Illinois and Wisconsin have the most.

Brillliant though this book is I really wanted to see Wright's work in color and I can recommend 'The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright' by Thomas A Heinz, an inexpensive 448 page book with a color photo of every building.

Both authors are experts on Wright and if you have these two books (and a table to support their weight) you will hardly need to buy any other books on America's greatest architect, then again I liked Doreen Ehrlich's 'Frank Lloyd Wright Glass' and Carla Lind's 'The Wright Style: the interiors of Frank Lloyd Wright' and......!

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Record Of All FLW Works, February 12, 2005

By	R. Schreiber - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Covering the almost 80-year career from his Unity Chapel in Wisconsin in 1886 to the Lykes house built in Phoenix in 1966, seven years after his death, this book contains floorplans and textual descriptions for all FLW-designed structures as well as black-and-white pictures for almost all of them, except for a small handful which have been demolished and for which no pictures exist.
The clear, readable floorplans which are given for every structure is possibly the biggest selling point of this book.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frank Lloyd wright Companion Book by Storer, December 11, 2001

By	Jim Jette (Houston) - See all my reviews

I bought this book from Amazon.com based on the Star rating. I did not know if it was really valid. It is!

This book about Frank Lloyd Wright's designs give a conceptual overview to the evolution of his style. It is excellent for the novice, non architect (which I am). I have been able to visit three of his homes based on the directory in the back. It has also opened up other venues to help me arrive at a FLW inspired house that I am about to build. It is worth the cost if you are looking for the best single source of his work that I have been able to locate outside of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation