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Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
BOOKWright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Anthony Alofsin
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32238
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) took his first major trip to New York in 1909, fleeing a failed marriage and artistic stagnation. He returned a decade later, his personal life and architectural career again in crisis. Booming 1920s New York served as a refuge, but it also challenged him and resurrected his career. The city connected Wright with important clients and commissions that would harness his creative energy and define his role in modern architecture, even as the stock market crash took its toll on his benefactors.

Wright denounced New York as an “unlivable prison” even as he reveled in its culture. The city became an urban foil for Wright’s work in the desert and in the “organic architecture” he promoted as an alternative to American Art Deco and the International Style. New York became a major protagonist at the end of Wright’s life, as he spent his final years at the Plaza Hotel working on the Guggenheim Museum, the building that would cement his legacy.

Anthony Alofsin has broken new ground by mining the recently opened Wright archives held by Columbia University and the Museum of Modern Art. His foundational research provides a crucial and innovative understanding of Wright’s life, his career, and the conditions that enabled his success. The result is at once a stunning biography and a glittering portrait of early twentieth-century Manhattan.
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Print publication date May 2019 (in print)
Print ISBN 9780300238853
EISBN 9780300279818
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Illustrations 64
Print Status in print
Publisher (in print)
WorldCat
Google Books

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List of illustrations

  • Frank Lloyd Wright
  • Mamah Borthwick Cheney
  • Plaza Hotel
  • Queensborough Bridge opening
  • Hudson-Fulton Celebration
  • Reverend William Norman Guthrie
  • Jane, Nell, and Anna Lloyd-Jones
  • Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin tragedy
  • Miriam Noel at Taliesin
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  • Olgivanna Hinzenberg
  • Jamaica Avenue, Queens
  • Gordon Strong Automobile Objective, perspective drawing
  • Frank Lloyd Wright’s domestic troubles
  • Frank Lloyd Wright's arrest at Tonka Cottage
  • The Capitol Theater
  • Insurance Center Building, 120 Wall Street, New York
  • Maginel Wright Barney
  • 41–43 W. 12th Street, New York City
  • Portrait of Alexander Woollcott
  • Portrait of Lewis Mumford
  • Washington Square Arch
  • Hillside Home School, newspaper article
  • St. Mark's-in-the-Bouwerie, 131 East 10th Street, New York
  • Modern Cathedral, plan drawing
  • Modern Cathedral, elevation/section drawing
  • Modern Cathedral, second elevation/section drawing
  • Ocatillo desert camp, near Chandler, Arizona, under construction
  • Resort hotel ("San Marcos in the Desert"), Chandler, Arizona
  • Wright and Family leaving Ocatillo, near Chandler, Arizona
  • Horace Holley (right) with fellow Bahá’í Ali Kuli Khan
  • Hard Luck Town (East 9th Street and the East River, New York City)
  • St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, site plan, with multiple towers
  • St. Mark’s tower, section, two plans, interior view
  • St. Mark’s tower, perspective view
  • St. Mark’s tower, pedestal plan
  • St. Mark’s tower, cutaway perspective view of typical interior apartment
  • St. Mark’s towers, perspective view
  • St. Mark’s towers, aerial perspective view
  • St. Mark’s tower, perspective view
  • The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1893–1930 at the Art Institute of Chicago
  • The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1893–1930 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
  • Amsterdam installation of The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1893–1930
  • Exhibition entry to The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1893–1930
  • Alexander Woollcott (right), Olgivanna, and Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin
  • Henry-Russell Hitchcock
  • Helen and Douglas Haskell at Camp Treetops
  • Lewisohn Building
  • Textile-block house
  • Title page of Die Form
  • Ocatillo desert camp
  • Book One of his Autobiography
  • House on the Mesa model and plan drawing
  • 210 Madison Avenue, New York, view from the 4th floor
  • Presentation model of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum with Frank Lloyd Wright and Solomon R. Guggenheim
  • Taliesin East (the Wrights’ suite)
  • United Nations Building
  • Lever House
  • Frank Lloyd Wright with a model of Price Tower
  • Entrance to Sixty Years of Living Architecture exhibition, New York
  • Usonian model house, Sixty Years of Living Architecture exhibition
  • House Beautiful Magazine, cover
  • Perspective view of Sports pavilion for Belmont Race Track
  • Beth Shalom Synagogue
  • Price Tower
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Contents
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Contents
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32239
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Introduction
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
When you think about Frank Lloyd Wright, you think of him as the architect of the prairies and Chicago, but there’s another story—Wright and New York—that reveals a person and a life we’ve never known. Between 1925 and 1932 the city turned him around, moving him from personal and professional crisis to set the stage for his final decades as...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.1-7
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32240
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitecture--New York (State)--New York--History--20th centuryArchitects--United States--Biography

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1. Points of Departure
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
By his forty-second birthday, June 8, 1909, Frank Lloyd Wright could see his stunning professional accomplishments and a life in disarray. In sixteen years of independent practice, he had defined a new idiom of architecture that was at once modern and, from his perspective, uniquely American. For Wright this had taken the form of...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.8-27
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32241
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--Biography

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2. Fleeting Glances
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright returned to New York on October 6, 1910. He had traveled through Berlin and London and sailed from Southampton on the SS Bluecher. Mamah remained in Germany...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.28-48
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32242
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographyTaliesin (Spring Green, Wis.)Barnsdall, Aline, 1882-1946Prints, JaponeseTeikoku Hoteru

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3. Nadir
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Returning from New York in midwinter 1925, Wright and Olgivanna settled into Taliesin, fashioning their life together, awaiting the birth of their child, and rebuilding—again—Wright’s architectural practice. Progress came to a hard stop when a fire ravaged Taliesin on April 20. The conflagration destroyed the living room, bedrooms, kitchen, and...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.49-67
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32243
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographyTaliesin (Spring Green, Wis.)Urbanization--United States--20th centuryStrong, Gordon, 1869-1954

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4. Refuge
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
The New York City to which Wright returned in late 1926 was dramatically different from the metropolis he had encountered in 1909, but its evolution was not a mystery. The dramatic skyscrapers, the stock market, airplanes, jazz, the Harlem Renaissance, radio, and even organized...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.68-96
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32244
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographyArchitecture--New York (State)--New York--History--20th centurySkyscrapers--New York (State)--New YorkLe Corbusier, 1887-1965Art deco (Architecture)Mumford, Lewis, 1895-1990

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5. Urban Visions
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
From his church in New York, the Reverend William Norman Guthrie provided Wright with one of the most visionary projects of the architect’s career. St. Mark’s...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.97-109
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32245
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographySt. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (New York, N.Y.)Guthrie, William Norman, 1868-1944

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6. Desert Dialogue
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
The intermittent progress in Wright’s partnership with the Reverend Guthrie had been interrupted by challenges for both. Guthrie had his hands full resisting the angry and disapproving Bishop Manning. And Wright was ordered out of Taliesin in January 1928 when the Bank of...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.110-123
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32246
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographySonoran DesertMcArthur, Albert ChaseResorts--ArizonaChandler, Alexander J. (Alexander John), 1859-1950

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7. Spinning Tower
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
The city had been the locus for Wright’s organic vision of the Modern Cathedral, but the discussion receded while a second project with greater likelihood for realization emerged: a skyscraper on the grounds of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, a scheme intended both to revitalize the church and to generate an urban renewal of the entire Lower East Side...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.124-147
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32247
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographyGuthrie, William Norman, 1868-1944St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (New York, N.Y.)Skyscrapers--New York (State)--New YorkTaliesin (Spring Green, Wis.)

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8. Command Performance
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
When Wright stepped off the train in New York on November 4, 1929, the city’s political machine was firing on all cylinders. Tammany Hall buzzed with confidence over the next day’s municipal elections. Democratic mayor Jimmy Walker was expected to triumph in...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.148-162
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32248
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographySkyscrapers--New York (State)--New YorkSt. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (New York, N.Y.)Unfinished buildingsApartment buildings--United States--20th century

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9. Pivot Point
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
The project for St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery had resulted in acrimony and failure, but the designs brought Wright some real measure of success. Part of it was, again, timing. He was no longer at the mercy of divorce attorneys, bankruptcy judges, or the yellow press; his stature as a player on the modern architecture scene was rising. Soaring, he felt...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.163-183
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32249
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographyMumford, Lewis, 1895-1990Mendelsohn, Erich, 1887-1953Architecture, Modern--20th century--Exhibitions

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10. Wright as Writer
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Frank Lloyd Wright was the most prolific author on architecture in the twentieth century. “Self-cultivation” is the term Kenneth Frampton used to describe his purpose. “From this surely came his extensive vocabulary, his sense of rhythm, and his remarkable command of metaphor and simile that accorded his texts a rich, if ornate, precision.”...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.184-210
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32250
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographyArchitectural writing--United States--20th centuryArchitectural RecordArchitectural criticism--20th century

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11. Phoenix Rising
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
While his Autobiography was in its final edits, Wright continued his crusade as the prophet of American modern architecture. Sometimes he met with friction and resistance. The self-described “journeyman preacher” met just such...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.211-237
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32251
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, American--20th centuryArchitecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographyCentury of Progress International Exposition (1933-1934 : Chicago, Ill.)Hitchcock, Henry-Russell, 1903-1987Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 1902-1981City planning--United States--20th century

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12. Zenith
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Frank Lloyd Wright received a letter from Hilla Rebay on June 1, 1943, just days before his seventy-sixth birthday. “Could you ever come to New York and discuss with me a building for our collection of non-objective paintings?” “I feel that...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.238-265
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32252
Chapter subject tags:Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959Architecture, Modern--20th centuryArchitecture, American--20th centuryArchitects--United States--BiographySolomon R. Guggenheim MuseumSkyscrapers--New York (State)--New YorkArchitecture, Modern--20th century--ExhibitionsMumford, Lewis, 1895-1990Taliesin West (Scottsdale, Ariz.)

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Epilogue
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
House Beautiful honored the passing of the architect with another special issue, “Your Heritage from Frank Lloyd Wright.” Myriads awaited it eagerly, among them my parents, Eleanor and Frederick Alofsin. The 1959 issue on Wright, so thick and...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Related print edition pages: pp.266-267
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32253

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Chronology
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Chronology
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32254
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Abbreviations
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Abbreviations
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32255
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Sources
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
The origins of this book go back to my doctoral dissertation, “Frank Lloyd Wright, The Lessons of Europe” (1987). As the late Vincent Scully said about his own dissertation, “At that time, no one liked 19th Century architecture.” The same could have been said about scholarly interest in Wright in the mid-1980s. “My aim was to...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32256
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Acknowledgments
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
This book benefited from the kindness of friends. Michael V. Carlisle, my literary agent at InkWell Management, believed in the project from the outset. The MacDowell Colony offered refuge and support when I worked on the prospectus and initial chapters of this book. Pat Cloherty supplied her guest cottage in Garrison, New York, when I began writing its final...
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32257
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Illustration Credits
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Illustration Credits
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32258
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Index
Anthony Alofsin
Description: Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
Index
Author
Anthony Alofsin
PublisherYale University Press
Copyright© 2019 by Anthony Alofsin
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32259
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Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
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