On Frank Lloyd Wright's Concrete Adobe: Irving Gill, Rudolph Schindler and the American SouthwestDuring the years 1919 into 1925 Frank Lloyd Wright worked on four houses and a kindergarten located in metropolitan Los Angeles using concrete blocks as the main building material. The construction system has been described by Wright and others as ’uniquely molded’, ’woven like a textile fabric’ and perceived as ground breaking, truly modern, unprecedented. Many have attempted to uphold these claims while some thought the house-designs borrowed from old exotic buildings. For the first time this book brings together Wright’s declarations, the support of upholders and inferences in order to determine their accuracy and correctness, or the possibility of feigned or fictional stories. It examines technical developments of concrete blocks by Wright and others before his experiences in Los Angeles began in 1919. It also studies the manner of Wright’s design process by an examination of relevant pictorial and textual documents. A unique, in-depth and critical analysis of the houses is set within historical, biographical and theoretical contexts. Consequently, the book explains the impact upon Wright of California contemporaries, architects Irving Gill and Rudolph Schindler, and their instrumentally profound role upon the course of modernism 1907-1923. In doing so, it allows a full appreciation of Wright’s, Gill’s and Schindler’s buildings beyond their experiential qualities. |
Contents
Frank Lloyd Wright Biography | |
The Buildings | |
The Taylors and the Griffins | |
Tiles and Blocks | |
Wrights Fiction | |
Historians Fiction | |
Irving Gill Regionalism and Concrete Adobe | |
Closure Schindler and Resurgence | |
Appendix | |
About the Author | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Alofsin Angeles Anthony Alofsin architect Arizona Australia Barnsdall house Barnsdall’s began brick building’s built Canberra Chicago City clients color concrete blocks construction editor Ennis house essay exterior floor plan FLW’s Frank Lloyd Wright Freeman house Gebhard George Gill’s Hines historian hollow Hollyhock House Hollywood Illinois illustrated Imperial Hotel Indian interior Irving Gill Japan Johnson JSAH Kings Road House knitlock landscape Louis Sullivan masonry material Mayan Melbourne Mexico Midway Gardens Millard house modern molds Morrill Olive Hill ornament patent Pfeiffer photographs Portland Cement precast concrete Press published Pueblo Purcell Rebori reinforced concrete reprint Richard Neutra roof San Diego Schindler Siry slab Smith Southern California Southwest Spring Green steel stone Storer house structural stucco Sweeney Sydney Taylors terra cotta textile block houses theoretical Tokyo Town Planning Tselos Unity Temple University visual walls Walter and Marion Walter Burley Griffin Wisconsin Wright Archive Wright Senior York