Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House: The Illustrated Story of an Architectural Masterpiece

by Donald Hoffmann

Book Overview

Frank Lloyd Wright firmly believed that "life could be formed anew if new form could be brought to its setting, architecture." His revolt against customary architectural design was shared by rugged individualist Fred C. Robie, who chose Wright to build his dream house in 1908 -- a structure that was eventually named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In this painstakingly researched and illuminating account of the design and construction of the Robie...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486245829
• ISBN13: 9780486245829
• Release Date: July 1984
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 9.3" x 10.7"

Customer Reviews

Robie House

I bought this book after visiting the Robie House in Chicago. The book is outstanding with lots of old photos of the house in the construction stage. Also a good narrative about the history of the house. Highly recommend to Frank Lloyd Wright buffs.

"...the ecstasy of power in ordering space..."

This book is an excellent study, in marvelous detailand analysis, of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiecesof architecture. Too often the words "artist" and"genius" only dimly suggest the true nature of theperson or work being discussed; but this book withits keen and accurate delineations about Robie,the client and his desires, Wright, the architect/artist/genius and his desires, and the work of artitself -- the Robie House -- help one to fullyunderstand the harmonious combination of elementswhich can come together in producing a masterpiece. The author of this work is Donald Hoffmann, andhe has himself produced a work of magnificencein this full presentation of the design and executionof a "dream house." Hoffmann gives full and interestingaccounts of Robie and of Wright as their two psychescome together to promote an "idealized" artwork whichpleases both client and architect. The book also has wonderful footnotes filledwith insightful comments and quotes. Here isan example of one: Louis H. Sullivan at the end of his life wrote quite beautifully that Wright was gifted with "an apprehension of the material,so delicate as to border on the mystic, and yet remain coordinate with those facts we call real life." (p. 31) The text itself is filled with suggestive andprovocative commentary: Wright's ideal was the comprehensive and unified work of art, the *Gesamtkunstwerk. German culture fascinated him. He spoke of Bach and Beethoven as the two greatest architects, and he confessed his love for the old Germany of Goethe, Schiller, even Nietzsche. (p. 14) Wright stood almost alone in his intuition of the prairie. * * * Everything about the site suggested a long, low, stream-lined, ship-like house: the prairie, the nearby lake, the new sense of speed, * * * and the shape of the lot , three times as long as it was wide. (p. 17) Radical and masculine, the Robie house would be built in a part of Chicago characteristically stern and urbane. (p. 13)------------- The book is filled with "160 carefully selectedillustrations" --which include architecturaldrawings and many photos, both of the house,of Robie and his family, of Wright, and of someof Wright's other previous houses leading up tothe Robie House. Hoffmann also did excellentresearch by gaining access to completetaped transcripts by Robie, and interviews withRobie's son, and others. There is something very compelling and involvingto my sense perceptions about Wright's long, sleek,tiered approach to architecture, as well as thevarious designs of lamps and chairs and lightswhich he included in the house. But on seeing thephotos of the dining room...and the rigid butbeautiful "Gothic" like chairs, as well as thephotos of the "stuff" that the Robie familycluttered the Spartan rooms with in theirattempts to "customize" it to their livingdesires...the house seems incredibly beautiful,but not incredibly utilitarian: idealized, abstract,geometric beauty and organic harmony with thebeauty and structure

Batter my heart, Frank Lloyd Wright

Dieses Buch, wie sein Thema, wird wie ein Ziegelsteinouthouse aufgebaut. Unassailable Forschung. Gute Arbeit, Don.