Frank Lloyd Wrights Larkin Building has become an icon of modern architecture. And the fact that it was demolished only forty-six years after its 1904 completion makes Jack Quinans study of the buildingwhich housed a Buffalo, New York, soap companyall the more valuable.
Quinans history draws on engineering documents, personal accounts of the building, and other papers he acquired from the family of Darwin D. Martin, a Larkin executive who proposed commissioning Wright to design the companys offices. With access to these rare sources, Quinan reveals how a young Wright landed the commission and traces the evolution of his cutting-edge plans. Quinan then takes Wright studies to a new level, examining the Larkin Building as a structure at the center of economic and personal relationships.
Illustrated with more than one hundred photographs, floor plans, maps, and diagrams, Frank Lloyd Wrights Larkin Building provides a concise but complete record of how the building was conceived, built, evaluated, and finally demolishedin what has been called a tragic loss for American architecture.
Quinans history draws on engineering documents, personal accounts of the building, and other papers he acquired from the family of Darwin D. Martin, a Larkin executive who proposed commissioning Wright to design the companys offices. With access to these rare sources, Quinan reveals how a young Wright landed the commission and traces the evolution of his cutting-edge plans. Quinan then takes Wright studies to a new level, examining the Larkin Building as a structure at the center of economic and personal relationships.
Illustrated with more than one hundred photographs, floor plans, maps, and diagrams, Frank Lloyd Wrights Larkin Building provides a concise but complete record of how the building was conceived, built, evaluated, and finally demolishedin what has been called a tragic loss for American architecture.
