Frank L. Wright and the Architects of Steinway Hall - by Stuart Cohen (Paperback)

About the Book

"In 1897, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Spencer, Dwight Perkins, and Myron Hunt, all young architects just starting out in practice, shared office space in Chicago. This book is both a history of that brief period and an attempt to assess the extent to which they collaborated on their architectural designs and on the creation of architectural theory that would impact a half century of architectural design. This study engages in a side-by-side comparison of projects they each designed while working in the loft of Chicago's Steinway Hall. Overlapping ideas, design similarities, and an analysis of their subsequent work, all suggest that these colleagues formed a creative "collaborative circle" of friends, who jointly developed the ideas underlying their work. This is a book about artistic collaboration at a time when discussions of art and architectural history are still largely dominated by the cult of the individual genius"--Front cover flap.

Book Synopsis

In 1897, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Spencer, Dwight Perkins, and Myron Hunt, all young architects just starting out in practice, shared office space in Chicago. This book is both a history of that brief period and an attempt to assess the extent to which they collaborated on their architectural designs and on the creation of architectural theory which would impact a half century of architectural design.

While there is little firsthand documentation of the time spent in their shared loft office in Steinway Hall, this study engages in a side by side comparison of projects they each designed while working there. Overlapping ideas, design similarities, and an analysis of their subsequent work, all suggest that these men formed a creative "collaborative circle" of friends, who jointly developed ideas later claimed as the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This is a book about artistic collaboration at a time when discussions of art and architectural history are still largely dominated by the belief that significant works are created by the lone artistic genius.

At the turn of the last century Spencer, Perkins, Hunt, and Wright were part of a community of architects who were all active members of the Chicago Architectural. Steinway Hall, an office building designed by Dwight Perkins, became a home to Chicago's architectural community with as many as fifty different architects renting space in that building at the turn of the last century. Based on Real Estate Directories from 1897 through 1910 the book includes a listing of the architects that worked and interacted there. Also included are brief biographies of Spencer, Perkins, and Hunt. Excepting Hunt, none of these men have been the subject of individual publications. While Frank Lloyd Wright's life and work have been extensively chronicled, this book reexamines the period between Wright's arrival in Chicago in 1887 and his move into the loft office in Steinway Hall in 1897.

Review Quotes

"Of the myriad books that continue to proliferate on Frank Lloyd Wright, this investigation comes from a refreshingly different angle. Instead of romanticizing Wright as a pioneer and "lone genius," Stuart Cohen, an architect and educator, places Wright as part of a coterie significant to the creation of Chicago's architecture culture in the early 20th century." --Architectural Record

"This book celebrates teamwork and collaboration over the individual, a refreshing take on a practice which is given to celebrating starchitects. Frank Lloyd Wright may have been a "genius," but he did not act alone. His professional peers, Cohen writes, were Dwight Perkins, Robert Spencer, and Myron Hunt, all of whom shared both design ideas and office space in the Steinway Hall of Chicago. And they had an occasional visitor to their Steinway Hall loft: Louis Sullivan, their mentor." --Traditional Building

"Stuart Cohen has provided the first important book since H. Allen Brooks' groundbreaking work, The Prairie School of 1972, devoted to the early work of the designers who collectively produced America's first modern architectural movement." --Paul Kruty, Professor Emeritus of Architectural History and Prairie School Scholar.

"In this long overdue extension of Michael Dennis's 1986 book Court & Garden: From the French Hôtel to the City of Modern Architecture, the thoughtful architect and educator turns his attention to town planning. The copious illustrations alone are worth the price and render this a must-have for any architect or urban designer's library." --ARCHITECT, The Journal of the American Institute of Architects

"Architect and historian Stuart Cohen here digs deeply into what they (the architects of Steinway Hall) were actually conceptualizing architecturally. He takes our understanding of American "modernism" at the turn of the twentieth century an important step further." -David Van Zanten, Professor Emeritus Northwestern University. Author of Sullivan's City and Designing Paris.

"Stuart Cohen's new book proves not only that Wright was tutored and influenced by his peers in Chicago's Steinway Hall, but that Robert Spencer, Dwight Perkins, and Myron Hunt provided some key ideas to the emerging architect during his formative years. There is nothing like it in the vast literature on America's most famous architect." -Mark Alan Hewitt FAIA, Author Draw in Order to See and The Architect and the American Country House.

"In this compelling study, part architectural history, part social history, and part investigation in group dynamics, Stuart Cohen shows Wright as part of a community of young architects...and explains how connected their careers were..." -Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer Prize winning Architectural Critic.

"The book 'Frank L. Wright and the Architects of Steinway Hall' brilliantly undermines the canonical narrative of the evolution of Modern Architecture in Chicago. His (Cohen's) meticulous analysis and thorough documentation posits an alternative theory of creativity founded not on individual acts of genius but on the collective cultural dialogue..." -Thomas H. Beeby FAIA, Former Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.