The Prairie School Banks Of Frank Lloyd Wright Louis H Sullivan And Purcell And Elmslie

A reprint of the 1977 edition.

Shows the floor plans and designs for homes, banks, public buildings, and furniture created by Wright and other members of the Prairie School.

Louis Henry Sullivan traces his life and oeuvre. It addresses his most famous buildings - including the Auditorium Building in Chicago, the Wainwright Building in Saint Louis, the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, and the National Farmers Bank in Owatonna, Minnesota - and reveals many of his lesser-known projects to be underappreciated masterpieces. For the first time, Sullivan's work, which has often been misappropriated, is explored in its historical and theoretical context.

Purcell and Elmslie: Prairie Progressives explores the work of two important members of the organic architecture movement, and celebrates their tremendously important contributions to American architecture and the Prairie School. Wishing to return to simplicity and honesty, Purcell and Elmslie created homes and buildings that were consistent with a democratic society-simple forms, the natural use of textural materials and decoration, and buildings that accommodated the nature of a site. As did Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Purcell and Elmslie held the conviction that a building does not end with its simple structure, but reaches its final and logical culmination in the clothing-color, situation and natural environment, together with its decoration of glass, terra-cotta, and other textural materials. The firm of Purcell and Elmslie was tremendously successful in the sense that their small open-planned free-flowing houses could be shared by a great number of Americans of moderate means. Projects discussed in this book can be found throughout the Midwest, including Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, North Dakota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and more. The time has come to recognize the work of these progressive architects of the Midwest. Purcell and Elmslie: Prairie Progressives includes: Comprehensive biographies of George Grant Elmslie and William Gray Purcell The Work of the Firm The Domestic and Non-Domestic Work of Purcell, Feick and Elmslie Work after the Firm Broke Up The Late Work of Purcell and Elmslie A Catalog of Major Projects

This first-ever encyclopedia of the Midwest seeks to embrace this large and diverse area, to give it voice, and help define its distinctive character. Organized by topic, it encourages readers to reflect upon the region as a whole. Each section moves from the general to the specific, covering broad themes in longer introductory essays, filling in the details in the shorter entries that follow. There are portraits of each of the region's twelve states, followed by entries on society and culture, community and social life, economy and technology, and public life. The book offers a wealth of information about the region's surprising ethnic diversity -- a vast array of foods, languages, styles, religions, and customs -- plus well-informed essays on the region's history, culture and values, and conflicts. A site of ideas and innovations, reforms and revivals, and social and physical extremes, the Midwest emerges as a place of great complexity, signal importance, and continual fascination.