University Of Chicago Press; New Ed edition
May 2006
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building has become an icon of modern
architecture. And the fact that it was demolished only forty-six years after its
1904 completion makes Jack Quinan’s study of the building—which housed a
Buffalo, New York, soap company—all the more valuable. Quinan’s history draws on
engineering documents, personal accounts of the building, and other papers he
acquired from the family of Darwin D. Martin, a Larkin executive who proposed
commissioning Wright to design the company’s offices. With access to these rare
sources, Quinan reveals how a young Wright landed the commission and traces the
evolution of his cutting-edge plans. Quinan then takes Wright studies to a new
level, examining the Larkin Building as a structure at the center of economic
and personal relationships. Illustrated with more than one hundred photographs,
floor plans, maps, and diagrams, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building
provides a concise but complete record of how the building was conceived, built,
evaluated, and finally demolished in what has been called a tragic loss for
American architecture.
204 p., 23x20 cm
EAN 9780226699080
