Frank Lloyd Wright on the West Coast

by Mark Anthony Wilson, Joel Puliatti (Photographer)

Overview

Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings on the West Coast have not been thoroughly covered in print until now. Between 1909 and 1959, Wright designed a total of 38 structures up and down the West Coast, from Seattle to Southern California. These include well-known structures such as the Marin County Civic Center and Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, and many lesser-known gems such as the 1909 Stewart House near Santa Barbara.

With more than 200 photographs by veteran architectural photographer Joel Puliatti and 50 archival images (many of which have never been seen in print before), this comprehensive survey of Wright’s West Coast legacy features background information on the clients’ relationships with Wright, including insights gleaned from correspondence with the original owners and interviews with many of the current owners.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423634478
Publisher:	Smith, Gibbs Publisher
Publication date:	09/01/2014
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	10.90(w) x 12.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

MARK ANTHONY WILSON is an architectural historian who has been writing and teaching about architecture for more than thirty-five years. He holds a B.A. in history from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in history and media from California State University, East Bay. He has written four previous books about architecture, including Julia Morgan: Architect of Beauty (Gibbs Smith, 2007) and Bernard Maybeck: Architect of Elegance (Gibbs Smith, 2011). His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, and elsewhere. Mark lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Ann, and his daughter, Elena.

Read an Excerpt

Wright created his own word to describe his California residential architecture: “Romanza.” This term implied that his California residences were designed to blend in with their romantic settings in individual ways, taking into account the unique beauty of each site. These sites included the redwood- and live oak–covered hills in the San Francisco Bay Area, the scrub brush–crested dunes of Southern California deserts, the palm trees and lush flowers of the Hollywood Hills, the semitropical coastal vegetation of Santa Barbara, and the golden rolling hills of the Central Valley. In each of these sites, Wright used local building materials whenever feasible, in keeping with his emphasis on giving his architecture an organic quality, so that it seems to become a part of nature rather than trying to dominate it. These natural materials included pink Sonoma stone facing along exterior walls; polished redwood paneling in living rooms, dining rooms, and ceilings, as well as for framing doors and windows; stucco covering along exterior walls in Southern California; and yellow or red brick facing around entrances in Northern California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 8

Chapter 1 A Prairie Among the Palms: The Stewart House, Santa Barbara County, 1909 15

Chapter 2 A Mayan Temple in Hollywood: The Barnsdall (Hollyhock) House, Los Angeles, 1917–21 25

Chapter 3 Pre-Columbian Monuments in Concrete: Four Southern California Houses,1923–25 35

Chapter 4 From the Coast to the Desert: Other Southern California Houses 59

Chapter 5 A Unique Usonian: The Buehler House, Orinda, California, 1948–49 85

Chapter 6 From Carmel to the Central Valley: Other Northern California Houses 97

Chapter 7 A Gift to These Golden Hills: The Marin County Civic Center, 1957–69 145

Chapter 8 From Commerce to Religion: Other Public Buildings in California 167

Chapter 9 North by Northwest: Houses in Oregon and Washington 189

Appendix: List of Frank Lloyd Wright’s West Coast Buildings Open to the Public 216

Notes 217

Bibliography 220

Index 221

Editorial Reviews

This large pictorial is the most thorough coverage yet of the 38 west coast buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed over a span of half a century (1909-1959). These include both public buildings and private homes in Oregon, Washington, and California. Veteran architectural historian Mark Wilson (Bernard Maybeck; Julia Morgan) presides over a meticulously researched presentation that contains more than 200 photographs and 50 archival images.