Product Description

John Lautner is recognized as one of the foremost architects who practiced at the height of the modern movement. In The Architecture of John Lautner, stunning photography and insightful text illuminate the work of this modern master. This revised and condensed reprint of the Rizzoli title of the same name outlines all of Lautner's residential projects and details his career from his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright to his status as one of the preeminent practitioners of mid-century modernism. The book includes extensive photographs of Lautner's spacious residential interiors that have never appeared in other publications.

Lautner's highly personal designs for homes are known for their poignant originality as well as their ties to Frank Lloyd Wright's theories of organic architecture. As a student of Wright's, Lautner continued his tradition but branched out–many of his designs, such as the Chemosphere and the Monsanto House, have become icons of southern Californian architecture in their own right.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #243324 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-16
• Released on: 2003-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
"John Lautner, one of the recognized geniuses of California modernism." --Bob Colacello, Vanity Fair
-- Review

Review

About the Author
Alan Hess is an architect, architecture critic of the San Jose Mercury News, and the author of American Residential Architecture on the Edge. He is recognized as an expert on California architecture and publishes on the subject extensively.

Alan Weintraub is a widely published architectural photographer. He works regularly with international architecture and design magazines.

Customer Reviews

A F.L. Wright Disciple Gets His Full Measure of Recognition
In the few months since I purchased this beautifully illustrated and impecabbly written monograph, John Lautner seems to have become Hollywood's favorite posthumous architect. This month's Vanity Fair features a screenwriter and his wife showcasing their restored Lautner masterwork while virtually every fashion spread in the same issue has one emaciated model or another posing, pouting and preening against a Lautner structure. This wonderful book travels Lautner's career arc from Wright disciple employing the tools and traits of the Master to the emergence of his own distinctive blend of wood, steel, concrete and location that, ultimately, bears little resemblance to his roots at Taliesin. As the text makes clear, Lautner shared Wright's prickly self-absorption and relentless self-philosophizing. However, as the book wanders from one beautifully executed commission to the next, you end up endorsing his sense of self. Like the best of Wright, each structure seems to organically emerge from its site to envelop the owners in a beautifully scaled and very human dwelling. A worthy tribute to John Lautner's artistry and vision.

design that transcends decades
it is amazing to see how the designs of the mid 1900's seem so contemporary even to the present day. this book captures the designs via beautiful photography and commentary.
even the layman will be amazed to find that many of the buildings have been used in the media for many years. whether in movies or magazines they have been associated with the most contemporary designs of our time.
highlights this architects mastery of a typical material palette of concrete, wood, and steel.

Lautner Illuminated
This picture book of Lautner's work provides a new perspective to the innovative work of the architect. Although many of the buildings are captured in other publications, the images are different than anything out there. Reproduction quality is excellent, as well as composition.

Only way to improve this one is with a virtual tour. It would also be nice if the industry acknowledged this superior architecture - this is art, not just structure, and its truly American architecture. Current architectural trends are decidedly un-American; from Mediterranean, Spanish revivalism to Victorian - its all big time popular, but pure facade when compared to directly to American, European, and Asian modernism.

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