50 Favorite Rooms By Frank Lloyd Wright

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Summary: This book is available now!
Review: 50 Favorite Rooms by Frank Lloyd Wright is now in its third printing, with plenty of copies in stock! Ask Amazon.com to reorder from Smithmark Publishers.

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Summary: A beautiful record of classic Frank Lloyd Wright interiors.
Review: Having recently visited several Wright designed homes in Illinois and Southern California, I was very impressed with the exquisite photographs contained in Diane Maddex's book. The brief commentaries identifying the owners of the homes who engaged Wright, as well as the descriptions of Wright's basic concepts in fulfilling his designs, added additional interest.

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Summary: If you like Frank Lloyd Wright than you'll love this book.
Review: I think that this book is a great resource and will provide years of enjoyment.

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Summary: Seeing the Sublime from Behind Closed Doors
Review: Most of the 5,000 plus wonderful rooms designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are not open to the public. This book gives you a chance to go where you often cannot go in any other way to see 50 of the best.

Unlike most architects, Mr. Wright designed in such a way that "the rooms inside would dictate the architecture outside." Even inside, he designed all elements of the room, including floor and wall coverings, art glass in many cases, lighting fixtures, furniture, and where everything should be located. He also specified that those who used the rooms should be limited to bringing in only certain types of objects, and for certain locations. For example, ornamental china was allowed on one ledge of the dining room in Robie House.

I have had the chance to visit many Wright homes and buildings, yet this book greatly expanded my understanding of his work.

Mr. Wright was primarily a home architect, and "the living room was the heart of the home" for him. He would use built-in benches to encourage reading, fireplaces for conversation, windows with designs to inspire contemplation, tables for informal dining and card playing, and views of nature for living more organically.

Clearly, it would be hard to outdo a Wright living room, and most of the best examples of his work in this book are living rooms. I thought the best ones were in the home and studio in Oak Park, Dana-Thomas House, Robie House, May House, Little House, Fallingwater, Taliesin West, Wingspread, Cedar Rock, R.L. Wright House, and Rayward House.

I liked his dining rooms best in the home and studio in Oak Park, Dana-Thomas House, Robie House, May House, and Boynton House.

For nooks and crannies, I liked the Oak Park studio library, and the Storer House Terrace.

Of the public spaces, my favorites were the Unity Temple Sanctuary, Coonley Playhouse, the Guggenheim Museum atrium, and the Marin County Center skylit atrium under the barrel vault.

If you ever have a chance to see any of these, be sure you take advantage of it! Robie House is now being rebuilt in Hyde Park, Illinois, but is open for tours. Final restoration is expected to be done in 2007. The Oak Park home and studio are open every day. Taliesin West is open most days. Fallingwater has an extensive schedule of being open. Unity Temple, the Guggenheim, and Marin County Center are usually open.

After you examine these wonderful living spaces, think about how your life would be improved in such more natural surroundings. How can you make where you live closer to his ideal?

Look for the most natural way to be with others!

Rating:
Summary: Seeing the Sublime from Behind Closed Doors
Review: Most of the 5,000 plus wonderful rooms designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are not open to the public. This book gives you a chance to go where you often cannot go in any other way to see 50 of the best.

Unlike most architects, Mr. Wright designed in such a way that "the rooms inside would dictate the architecture outside." Even inside, he designed all elements of the room, including floor and wall coverings, art glass in many cases, lighting fixtures, furniture, and where everything should be located. He also specified that those who used the rooms should be limited to bringing in only certain types of objects, and for certain locations. For example, ornamental china was allowed on one ledge of the dining room in Robie House.

I have had the chance to visit many Wright homes and buildings, yet this book greatly expanded my understanding of his work.

Mr. Wright was primarily a home architect, and "the living room was the heart of the home" for him. He would use built-in benches to encourage reading, fireplaces for conversation, windows with designs to inspire contemplation, tables for informal dining and card playing, and views of nature for living more organically.

Clearly, it would be hard to outdo a Wright living room, and most of the best examples of his work in this book are living rooms. I thought the best ones were in the home and studio in Oak Park, Dana-Thomas House, Robie House, May House, Little House, Fallingwater, Taliesin West, Wingspread, Cedar Rock, R.L. Wright House, and Rayward House.

I liked his dining rooms best in the home and studio in Oak Park, Dana-Thomas House, Robie House, May House, and Boynton House.

For nooks and crannies, I liked the Oak Park studio library, and the Storer House Terrace.

Of the public spaces, my favorites were the Unity Temple Sanctuary, Coonley Playhouse, the Guggenheim Museum atrium, and the Marin County Center skylit atrium under the barrel vault.

If you ever have a chance to see any of these, be sure you take advantage of it! Robie House is now being rebuilt in Hyde Park, Illinois, but is open for tours. Final restoration is expected to be done in 2007. The Oak Park home and studio are open every day. Taliesin West is open most days. Fallingwater has an extensive schedule of being open. Unity Temple, the Guggenheim, and Marin County Center are usually open.

After you examine these wonderful living spaces, think about how your life would be improved in such more natural surroundings. How can you make where you live closer to his ideal?

Look for the most natural way to be with others!

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Summary: Skimpy and redundant
Review: Since, I admire(d) Frank Lloyd Wright and his work and I collect home interior design books (especially really funky early 1980s stuff), I bought "50 Favorite Rooms by Frank Lloyd Wright" as one of a trio of books on Wright's work. The other two in this series of three by the same author are "50 Favorite Furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright" and "50 Favorite Houses By Frank Lloyd Wright." Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed after reading all three; they lack substance and are quite tiresome in their redundancy. This threesome should have been consolidated into the one book "50 Favorite Houses by Frank Lloyd Wright," highlighting with smaller photographs the individual rooms and furnishings to embellish the photographs of each house. Instead, in what seems a pathetic effort to use perhaps the best-known 20th century American architect, the author fractures this information over the span of three books; thus, garnering three times the price that it should have been.

To further disappoint, the historical information could be highly interesting, but it's dreadfully sketchy, leaving one wondering a lot. Perhaps this author has yet another Wright book planned to answer her danglers in these three?

After one realizes that Frank Lloyd Wright, by his own admission and through his work, championed building singular and elite homes for primarily the wealthy elite (we in Colorado now disdainfully term it "prairie castle-ing") on very large lots (usually more than one acre per home), and having fathered an enormous number of children (at least six), it's difficult for me and I'm sure others to see how he is termed America's greatest 20th century architect. He had no vision...he wasn't basing his architecture in reality...everyone cannot produce six offspring and expect that those six offspring each produce six more and those six, six more and those six, six more, ad nauseum, and ALL of them live in their own separate elitist one-acre homes. Please.

Finally -- and this is perhaps the saddest disappointment of all -- the author repeatedly asserts, and uses some quotes attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright to vaguely support her assertions, that Frank Lloyd Wright was dedicated to building the perfect family home, as family and home ("the hearth") was the center of all for him. Ummmmmm....Frank Lloyd Wright, as the author points out multiple times, abandoned his first wife and SIX children for a mistress (with two children, of which the author doesn't bother to name if Wright fathered these two or not--dangler). When one realizes the quintessential hypocrisy in this, the creativity in what he did becomes almost meaningless.

I am compelled to dissuade buyers from this book and the companion other two books: They're okay for browsing and gleaning a bit, but definitely not worth owning at this price. I'll look instead for either a comprehensive book on the most famous American architects of the 20th century, which would include and compare Frank Lloyd Wright, or a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin in Scottsdale, Arizona; either should prove more enjoyable.


Rating:
Summary: Excellently arranged; quality overview of great room spaces
Review: The first thing that struck me about this book is how well put-together it is. In "50 Favorite Rooms by Frank Lloyd Wright," Diane Maddex (listed in the credits as "Project Director") has crafted a book that is clean, simple and elegant in its presentation of the architect's trademark design of personal living spaces.

If you've visited more than a few of Frank Lloyd Wright's creations, chances are they won't all be represented here. He completed hundreds of homes and buildings, which means that this book could have been entitled "250 Favorite Rooms ..." and it still would have been too thin. What you do find are superb photos which are amazingly successful in capturing the perspective and harmony of lines, space, furniture, ornamentation and even lighting. My favorite views are inside the homes, but the public spaces are interesting also. You don't have to be an architect to appreciate the mastery in Mr. Wright's designs.

The chapters are grouped by room type (e.g., living rooms, dining rooms), with each of the pictures taking up AT LEAST one full page, and supported by 20-30 lines of text describing key design aspects of the room. The photos are of the highest quality in terms of exposure, lighting and balance. In some cases, the vantage point allows for a look beyond the windows to the surrounding landscape or greenery. A nice touch, indeed. In short, if you're looking for the definitive image of a room, you'll find a bunch of them right here.

If Mr. Wright had designed a book, I think this is what he'd have come up with. I give this my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Excellently arranged; quality overview of great room spaces
Review: The first thing that struck me about this book is how well put-together it is. In "50 Favorite Rooms by Frank Lloyd Wright," Diane Maddex (listed in the credits as "Project Director") has crafted a book that is clean, simple and elegant in its presentation of the architect's trademark design of personal living spaces.

If you've visited more than a few of Frank Lloyd Wright's creations, chances are they won't all be represented here. He completed hundreds of homes and buildings, which means that this book could have been entitled "250 Favorite Rooms ..." and it still would have been too thin. What you do find are superb photos which are amazingly successful in capturing the perspective and harmony of lines, space, furniture, ornamentation and even lighting. My favorite views are inside the homes, but the public spaces are interesting also. You don't have to be an architect to appreciate the mastery in Mr. Wright's designs.

The chapters are grouped by room type (e.g., living rooms, dining rooms), with each of the pictures taking up AT LEAST one full page, and supported by 20-30 lines of text describing key design aspects of the room. The photos are of the highest quality in terms of exposure, lighting and balance. In some cases, the vantage point allows for a look beyond the windows to the surrounding landscape or greenery. A nice touch, indeed. In short, if you're looking for the definitive image of a room, you'll find a bunch of them right here.

If Mr. Wright had designed a book, I think this is what he'd have come up with. I give this my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: 50 Favorite Rooms Review
Review: This book is great either if you are wanting infornmation on Frank Lloyd Wright, his personal life or the works of art he created. It gives examples of his personal choices and styles. Each page includes a full page color picture of one of the rooms he designed.
It also is a good book if you are just looking for examples of interior design or aritechture. It has unique pieces and will give you great ideas!

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Summary: The Essence of Eternal Art and Architectural Mastery!
Review: This book touches me in many ways. First, it brings memories of childhood, with the illusions of art full in my mind. I have always loved art and buildings and when in Sr. High School, I had the opportunity to visit one of Mr. Wright's creations, I was in awe at the sight of it. It was in Falling Water, PA. When you have the opportunity to walk into one of these homes, not houses; it is like you feel the presence of the man who designed it, not just a building. Looking at the pages in this book is as close to walking in one of the luxurious rooms as a person can get without actually physically being there. Frank Lloyd Wright truly is an Eternal Artist. His book is lively and full of feeling, as well as detailed artwork that comes from the love of designing itself. I could go on for a long time about his works, but I will leave a little to the imagination now. If you haven't already seen or looked at one of his creations, I suggest that you at least buy one of the many wonderful books about them. You will be delightfully pleased for years to come.