Frank Lloyd Wright

by Robert McCarter

Overview

A comprehensive monograph on Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the great masters of modern architecture

This comprehensive monograph on the renowned twentieth-century architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, explores both his major architectural designs and many of his minor projects in detail. Robert McCarter analyses Wright’s work chronologically, exploring each building’s spatial experience, material and tectonic character, and relationship to the landscape.

Now in a fully revised and updated new edition, this definitive account of the life and work of the modern master features an extensive selection of archival drawings, specially commissioned photographs, redrawn plans, and detailed drawings, as well as a complete list of Wright’s buildings and projects compiled by the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838668723
Publisher:	Phaidon Press
Publication date:	04/03/2025
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	9.70(w) x 12.20(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Robert McCarter is a practicing architect and has been Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis since 2007.

He has written for numerous international publications, and his books include: Louis I Kahn (2022/2005); Place Matters: The Architecture of W.G. Clark; Grafton Architects (2018); Marcel Breuer (2016); Steven Holl (2015); Alvar Aalto (2014); Carlo Scarpa (2013); and Understanding Architecture, coauthored with Juhani Pallasmaa (2012); and, all published by Phaidon Press.

He has also published The Work of MacKayLyons Sweetapple Architects: Economy as Ethic (2017); The Space Within: Interior Experience as the Origin of Architecture (2016); Herman Hertzberger (2015); and Aldo van Eyck (2015), among other books.

Table of Contents

Introduction:  Wright at the Defining Moment

 

1.  Unity and Nature's Geometry

 

2.  Chicago and the Tradition of Practice

 

3.  White City and New World Monumentality

 

4.  Prairie House and the Progressive Movement

 

5.  Europe and the Shining Brow

 

6.  Eastern Garden and Western Desert

 

7.  Fellowship and the Disappearing City

 

8.  Natural House and the Fountainhead

 

9.  Usonia Lost and Found

 

Epilogue:  Wright in the Rearview Mirror

 

References

 

Bibliography

 

Acknowledgements

 

Photographic Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

"One of the handsomest books yet on America's architect of the century."—The Sunday Times

"Robert McCarter's volume is a masterly achievement."—Times Literary Supplement

"As a presentation of Wright's complete career, it is difficult to imagine McCarter's book being bettered."—Architects Journal

"A sumptuous and revealing book... An intensely human and at times poetically interpreted description of Wright's work and life."—(World Architecture

From the Publisher

"This architectural biography of Wright seeks to define the ethical framework beneath a diverse body of work with a wide range of formal expression.  McCarter reveals America's preeminent modern architect as a humanist of democratic ideals whose highest concern was the space of inhabitation for both the individual and the community.  For these principles, and for his endless experimentation within building traditions, Wright remains an inspiration."

Terence Riley

"An elegantly written biography for Reaktion's 'Critical Lives' series. . . . Writing in succinct prose devoid of academic jargon, McCarter explains what made Wright’s architecture so revolutionary. . . . While acknowledging Wright’s greatness, McCarter has not written a hagiography. . . . McCarter’s book could have been half as long again; it’s that much of a pleasure to read."

ARTnews - Steven Litt