Richard Longstreth - Böcker

Richard Longstreth provides a detailed picture of the early careers of four architects--Bernard Maybeck, Willis Polk, Ernest Coxhead, and A.C. Schweinfurth--who had a decisive impact on the course of design in the San Francisco Bay Area and who stand as significant contributors to American architecture.

The buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright are not immune to the social and environmental forces that affect all architecture. Because of the popular recognition and historical significance of his work, however, the stakes are unusually high when his buildings are modified in any way. Any additions or changes must meet the highest standards; how exactly this can be achieved is the debate that fuels this compelling new book. The essays collected here are authored by many of the top professionals in the fields of architecture and preservation. Some of the contributors worked directly on the buildings discussed and provide invaluable firsthand accounts of these projects. This is the most thorough discussion of modifying Wright’s works published to date and a fascinating commentary on preserving our architectural legacy.Contributors:Richard Longstreth on additions to historic buildings, de Teel Patterson Tiller on design in historic districts, Sidney K. Robinson on Taliesin, Anne Biebel and Mary Keiran Murphy on the Hillside School, Mark Hertzberg on the S. C. Johnson Administration Building, Dale Allen Gyure on Florida Southern College, Neil Levine on the Guggenheim Museum, Scott W. Perkins on the Price Tower, Tom Kubala on the First Unitarian Meeting House, Eric Jackson-Forsberg on the Darwin Martin House, Lynda S. Waggoner on Fallingwater, Patrick J. Mahoney on Graycliff, Thomas Templeton Taylor on the Westcott House.

Among the general public, Frank Lloyd Wright remains the best-known American architect of the twentieth century. And yet his larger-than-life profile in the popular realm contrasts sharply with his near invisibility in academic and professional circles. In Rethinking Frank Lloyd Wright, Neil Levine and Richard Longstreth have assembled a group of eminent scholars to address this most puzzling paradox of the great architect’s career.In a series of engaging and well-illustrated essays, the contributors draw on their wide-ranging understanding of modern architecture to reveal the ways in which Wright continues to play an instrumental role in domestic and international spheres, making the case for reevaluating his popular and professional reputations. Prompted by the transfer of the architect’s archive from its home at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, to the Avery Library at Columbia University and the Museum of Modern Art, this volume revisits Wright’s relevance for a contemporary audience.ContributorsBarry Bergdoll, Columbia University · Daniel Bluestone, Boston University · Jean-Louis Cohen, New York University · Cammie McAtee, independent scholar · Neil Levine, Harvard University · Dietrich Neumann, Brown University · Timothy M. Rohan, University of Massachusetts Amherst · Richard Longstreth, George Washington University · Jack Quinan, University at Buffalo · Alice Thomine-Berrada, École des Beaux-Arts

Preservation has traditionally focused on saving prominent buildings of historical or architectural significance. Preserving cultural landscapes-the combined fabric of the natural and man-made environments-is a relatively new and often misunderstood idea among preservationists, but it is of increasing importance. The essays collected in this volume-case studies that include the Little Tokyo neighborhood in Los Angeles, the Cross Bronx Expressway, and a rural island in Puget Sound-underscore how this approach can be fruitfully applied. Together, they make clear that a cultural landscape perspective can be an essential underpinning for all historic preservation projects.  Contributors: Susan Calafate Boyle, National Park Service; Susan Buggey, U of Montreal; Michael Caratzas, Landmarks Preservation Commission (NYC); Courtney P. Fint, West Virginia Historic Preservation Office; Heidi Hohmann, Iowa State U; Hillary Jenks, USC; Randall Mason, U Penn; Robert Z. Melnick, U of Oregon; Nora Mitchell, National Park Service; Julie Riesenweber, U of Kentucky; Nancy Rottle, U of Washington; Bonnie Stepenoff, Southeast Missouri State U. Richard Longstreth is professor of American civilization and director of the graduate program in historic preservation at George Washington University.