Rethinking Frank Lloyd Wright

Book excerpt: 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