Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #387669 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-01
• Original language: English, German, French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 596 pages

About the Author
Peter Gossel runs a practice for the design of museums and exhibitions. He is the editor of TASCHEN's monographs on Julius Shulman, R. M. Schindler, John Lautner and Richard Neutra, as well as the editor of the Basic Architecture series. Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer became Frank Lloyd Wright's apprentice at the Taliesin Fellowship in 1949. In 1957, he spent a year in Paris and attended the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris for five months. Pfeiffer returned to Taliesin in 1958 and continued his apprenticeship with Wright until his death in 1959. He remained at Taliesin and has done so to this day. He is director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives and a vice-president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Pfeiffer is the author and editor of numerous publications on Wright's life and work.

Customer Reviews

Should have been better
I highly anticipated this book but the reality of it is somewhat disappointing. Starting with the cover. Woodgrain? Wright would have hated it! But the content is what matters. On that score, it's a mixed bag. On the plus side, the generous dimensions of the book are appreciated. The book is well-illustrated with Wright's conceptual sketches, floor plans, elevations and perspectives. However, the photography is often less than mediocre. The best-known buildings are mostly represented with professional photographs and interesting vintage shots, including some construction photos. But far too many houses are shown with subpar and small photos by the likes of Thomas Heinz, etc. That is inexcusable when so many excellent images are available of ALL Wright buildings! Did the editors even do a search on Flickr and other websites for available images? When I spend $125.00 for a book, I expect top-notch photography throughout. A book of this kind, which claims to be definitive, should have been produced with a commitment to excellence.

A mixed bag
It is interesting that Taschen chose to work backward in this ambitious series, starting with FLW's most robust period of architecture, but not his best. The drawings are what really make this book. Scores of illustrations that came from the Taliesin studios, but most likely not in his own hand. The photos are a mixed bag as one reviewer noted. I think the publishers were aiming for a vintage feel but somehow this book doesn't quite make it. What you get is probably the most juicy monograph to date on Frank Lloyd Wright but one that could have been better edited.

I hear that working with Taliesin is a real bitch, and that may have had something to do with it. They maintain the original Wisconsin studio as a mecca to FLW. I visited it some years ago and was rather disappointed. The real creative period of Taliesin was much earlier when young architects like Neutra and Schindler passed through. By the end, it was pretty much confined to devotees of Wright dutifully carrying out his intructions and listening to his lectures. Still, some good work came out of the studio, notably the Guggenheim Museum, which is amply illustrated in this volume. But, many of his other exercises in circles were utter failures, notably the Marin County Civic Center, which was completed after his death.

One can only assume this series will get better as it reaches into the more fertile periods of Wright's imagination.

Magnificent!
There have been many books on America's greatest architect. I have not seen any that are so carefully and sumptuously produced as this. Because it is trilingual, the texts are necessarily concise. I wonder though (even as a former teacher of architectural history who likes to gab about it) whether a lot of text is necessary. One can just submerge oneself in the work! The price is most advantageous, even though one should commit to buying the other two in the set when they come out. The only competition is a lavish Japanese set now selling for more than four thousand dollars.

Don't deny yourself the pleasure of this book!