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CHOICE Review

This is an excellent study of an important early building by Frank Lloyd Wright: the Larkin Office Building of 1904 in Buffalo, New York. The best recent scholarship on Wright's work consists of monographic studies of individual commissions, and this book is no exception. Based on previously unpublished documents (included in appendixes), on rare photographs (nicely reproduced), and a critical reevaluation of familiar material, Quinan provides the most complete and perceptive description available of the Larkin Building, which was razed during the 1950s. He places the building in the context of the history of the Larkin Company as well as that of Wright's career. This is a significant addition to the Wright literature because it fills a gap in our knowledge of his early nondomestic work. The ideal complement to this book is Jonathan Lipman's recent study of Wright's other important office building: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Johnson Wax Buildings (CH, Oct '86). Recommended for college, university, and public libraries.-D.P. Doordan, University of Illinois at Chicago

Booklist Review

Studies of the individual buildings of two American architects who are noted for both their designs and the social philosophy they promoted through their architecture. Quinan gives a complete history of Wright's 1904 Larkin Building, noting how critics have fluctuated in their assessments of the structure's design and engineering technology. The Larkin Building represented a thorough reconsideration of the modern workplace, and Wright's innovations have become justly influential. Through a judicious sifting of correspondence, drawings, and other documents, Quinan shows that the final building was produced through a detailed dialogue between client and architect in which not just aesthetics but economics and social theory played important roles. The events that led up to the demolition of the building in 1950 are also recorded, not only to emphasize the loss of an important architectural landmark, but also to provide a final chapter in the Larkin Company's history as a business enterprise. Well illustrated with a large number of drawings and black-and-white photographs. Notes; index. Weingarden considers the series of banks built in the Midwest early in the twentieth century and late in the career of architect Louis Sullivan. The book outlines Sullivan's cultural and architectural intentions as he attempted to introduce a democratic spirit to the modern temple of mammon. Giving a detailed reevalution of these eight rural banks, the author introduces what she sees as an innovative program that fused artistic and social values, just as Sullivan's designs blended ornament and structure into a single entity. An excellent series of illustrations includes a number of rare color photographs by Crombie Taylor. Bibliography; no index. JB.