Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House
September 1, 2003
An oddly"spiritual" agglomeration of rectilinear glass, concrete and stone masses set on a waterfall in the Pennsylvania woods, Wright's Fallingwater house made America fall in love with modernist architecture, according to this engrossing study. Architectural historian Toker (Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait) approaches the building as a tense but fruitful collaboration between Wright's genius and the encouragement given it by his patron, Pittsburgh department store magnate E. J. Kaufmann, whom Toker credits with being"almost... the coarchitect" of the house. He gives a detailed, sometimes hour-by-hour account of Wright's planning process, the engineering hurdles surmounted in realizing his structurally daring design, the critical and public acclaim the house has elicited through the years and its impact on American culture in everything from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead to motifs in suburban tract housing. He sets the story against an erudite but accessible history of the rise of modernism and Wright's antagonism toward the German Bauhaus and International Style architects, whose austere, mechanistic stylings he denounced even as he was adapting and humanizing them to suit American tastes. Toker sometimes makes too much, with little but speculation to go on, of Kaufmann's contribution to the project, at one point comparing the relationship between Wright and Kaufmann to Christ's bond with St. Peter. But the trenchant analysis of Wright's character and creativity, the often lyrical evocations of his buildings, and the opinionated but insightful overview of the modernist intellectual milieu of the 1930s make the book a wonderful exploration of the psychological and social meaning of architecture. Photos.
Starred review from October 1, 2003
Toker (art and architecture, Univ. of Pittsburgh) has written the most comprehensive book available about Frank Lloyd Wright's most notable house. For enthusiastic Wright aficionados, this title will be easy to read and enjoyable, as it provides juicy details about Fallingwater, from George Washington's probable footsteps on the property to the 2002 repairs done to the home's cantilevered rooms and balconies. The title will also serve as a comprehensive indexed reference source. Toker's look at Fallingwater does not glorify the architect, the homeowner (E.J. Kaufmann), or the myth of Fallingwater's faultless beauty. Human insecurities and structural weaknesses are explored in detail. While there are prized pieces of new information in nearly every chapter of this book, Toker's investigation into the publicity and hype surrounding Fallingwater makes for some of the more fascinating reading here. This title is more comprehensive textually than any other on the subject, whereas other books provide more illustrations (e.g., Donald Hoffmann and Edgar Kaufmann Jr.'s Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater: The House and Its History). Recommended for public and academic libraries. (The 16-page color insert was not seen.)-Valerie Nye, New Mexico State Lib., Santa Fe
Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2003
Fallingwater, daringly cantilevered over a waterfall near Pittsburgh, may well be "the most famous private house in the world," as Toker asserts. Conceived and built in the years 1935-37, this stunning weekend retreat's high-profile owner (department-store tycoon Kaufmann) and celebrity architect (Wright) guaranteed it would never be a well-kept secret. Fallingwater has already been the subject of numerous books, but Toker adds important new scholarship in debunking or clarifying four myths: that E. J.'s son, Edgar Jr., was father to the project; that Wright drew the complete plans in a two-hour burst of creativity; that Wright demonstrated engineering genius in his design; and that the world "spontaneously acclaimed it as the crowning achievement of modern architecture." If these points seem like insider quibbles, Toker also provides histories of the site, the men (Wright was in desperate need of a comeback when he got the commission), the house's chaotic construction, and the manner in which it became a byword even to architecture neophytes. A must-read for Wright fans, it will also intrigue architecture buffs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)