Usonia, New York

Book excerpt: Usonia, New York is the story of a group of idealistic men and women who, following WWII, enlisted Frank Lloyd Wright to design and help them build a cooperative utopian community near Pleasantville, NY. Through both historic memorabilia and contemporary color photos, this book reveals the still-thriving community based on concepts Wright advocated in his Broadacre City proposals. Over the years, thousands of architects, scholars, planners, and students have visited the community, but no book has yet appeared on this remarkable site. Reisley, one of the original members of Usonia (and still a resident), has written the first full account to illuminate the events, problems, and passions of a democratic group of people developing a designed environment an hour from New York City and the ups and downs of working with America's most famous -and most famously volatile-architect.