Architectural Masterworks of Frank Lloyd Wright

"Chicago is universally recognized as the cradle of modern architecture. It is known worldwide for the development, beginning in the late 1800s, of the renowned ""Chicago School"" of commercial building. In the early 1900s, Chicago saw the birth of Wright's ""Prairie School"" of residential design, which gave rise to the modern, open-plan house we know today. Other world-renowned architects were also based in Chicago, such as Louis Sullivan, who designed the Chicago Stock Exchange, and Daniel Burnham, architect of the famous Rookery Building of the 1890s. The 1940s were to see the completion of Mies van der Rohe's revolutionary Illinois Institute of Technology and his astonishing Lake Shore Drive apartment buildings. Skidmore Owings & Merrill's landmark Inland Steel Building was finished in 1954, their John Hancock Center in 1970, and their Sears Tower in 1974. Philip Johnson and John Burgee's 190 South LaSalle Street office tower went up in 1987. The 200 illustrations in this volume all come from The Art Institute of Chicago's repository of 150,000 architectural drawings, vintage photographs, models, and building fragments, which comprise one of the most important such archives. These illustrations reveal interiors and details that give us a greater appreciation of Chicago in particular and architecture in general. With its definitive text, the book is a striking record of Chicago's great buildings and will be an important reference on the subject for years to come."

We will be spending two nights in Madison. This book, which was the companion to a museum exhibition, is a scholarly look at his work in Madison.

The struggle to realize Wright’s Monona Terrace is the story of artistic vision being stymied by local civic and political opposition. Wright’s concept was finally recast as a convention and meeting center 60 years later.

The Research Tower fascinated visitors to the adjoining landmark SC Johnson Administration Building because the Tower was not open for tours until a couple of years ago. Hertzberg was given rare access to the company archives for this richly illustrated history of the tower, which includes recollections from chemists who worked in the building before it closed 35 years ago. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Johnson Wax Buildings, by Jonathan Lipman Lipman extensively researched company archives for the first in-depth history and appraisal of the SC Johnson Administration Building, SC Johnson Research Tower, and Wingspread, concurrent with a national traveling museum exhibition.

Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting in Oak Park, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society.

Tafel was one of the original Taliesin Fellowship apprentices (1932-1941) and supervised construction of the SC Johnson Administration Building and of Wingspread, both in Racine, while in his mid-twenties. The book is filled with Tafel’s delightful anecdotes about Wright and Taliesin.

This book covers Wright’s built and unbuilt work in Racine. The dozen commissions represent almost every aspect of his work after 1900.

The book is a complete guide to the many homes Wright designed in his hometown of Oak Park and in the adjoining suburb of River Forest.

A slim volume of Wright quotations.

This is considered one of the best and most accurate of the many Wright biographies.

"Chicago: A Brief History" presents a comprehensive look at the city’s transformation from a fur trade outpost to America’s Second City. This compact digital compendium helps you track the diverse forces that shaped the city as we know it. You’ll explore the exciting history behind the city’s cultural, economic, and architectural mainstays. You’ll also gain valuable insight into groundbreaking Chicago events and major figures down through history, including: The Birth of a Major Trade City The Great Fire of 1871 Construction of the Sears Tower Chicago’s “Public Enemies” The University of Chicago ...and more.

Universally recognized as an architectural center, Chicago contains some of the world’s finest buildings by the most renowned architects of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe, and many more left their stamp on the city’s skyline and, as a result, influenced the practice of architecture across the globe. This book, published in association with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, features an in-depth analysis of forty-two seminal works of Chicago architecture. This accessible and engaging volume is the latest addition to the successful Universe Architecture Series. Both a guide for those visiting the city and a valuable reference for architecture enthusiasts, Chicago Architecture includes residential icons such as Mies van der Rohe’s 860–880 Lake Shore Drive, skyscraper prototypes such as Sullivan’s Schlesinger and Mayer Store (Carson Pirie Scott & Co.), and engineering masterpieces such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Sears Tower.

Wright’s own story, albeit with some embellishment. An important book to gain an understanding of the architect and the context for his work.

A collection of Wright’s writings about architecture.

"To see what's up in Chicago, come down to the river. Float along the Main Branch for views of Lake Point Tower and Marina City, up the North Branch to the condo-converted Montgomery Ward Catalog House, then down the South Branch to take in the soaring Sears Tower. This book, a companion to the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise, is your guide to the buildings that make downtown Chicago world famous for architecture and infrastructure. During the past two hundred years, engineers and architects designed twin engineering marvels, the Chicago skyline and the Chicago River. Dredged, straightened, its direction reversed, the river flowed a varied course through the city's history, as Chicagoans built factories, civic structures, waterside homes and parks, and the world's tallest steel-and-glass monuments to big business. The story of Chicago is the story of its river. A View from the River spotlights over fifty buildings, recounting an urban tale that continues to unfold."

Wright and his apprentices wrote weekly newspaper columns about life at Taliesin.

Much has been written about, and made of, Wright’s love for Mamah Borthwick (Cheney) and their work in Europe in 1909-1910. This meticulously-researched book is the best read about their life together and of the building of Taliesin. It supersedes other accounts, including one popular non-fiction account of the fire at Taliesin which has notable errors.

There are two particularly popular books, The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright by William Allin Storrer and the Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide by Tom Heinz. Storrer’s book has more complete information, albeit with some inaccuracies, but is hard to follow because he groups Wright’s work through his unique “S” numbering system (by types of buildings). Heinz’ book is very easy to use on a trip because he groups the buildings geographically. Participants on this trip can thus easily follow a thread from northern Illinois through southeastern Wisconsin, into Madison.