Monthly Update
New OA+D Publication Announced: Crossing Boundaries With Frank Lloyd Wright
The Organic Architecture + Design Archives is excited to announce the newest publication on Frank Lloyd Wright from acclaimed author, Sidney K. Robinson.
Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s most noted architect, crossed boundaries as he thought and as he designed. He discussed subjects like democracy, machine, convention, alternatively as advocate and adversary, and his architecture crossed the line between inside and out with projections and recesses whose complex boundaries add depth to our experience of architecture and to our understanding of ideas.
Wright also crossed boundaries of tradition in search of a new architecture he called “organic architecture” that embodied a unique American culture based on nature rather than imported precedent. For him, nature was not just the outside world; it included his own mind that interpreted nature by means of abstraction not imitation. That interpretation was initiated when he saw his mentor Louis Sullivan draw his amazing ornament.
Crossing Boundaries with Frank Lloyd Wright: How Ornament Led to Architecture traces how Wright extrapolated the principles that structured Sullivan’s ornament to the design of a whole building. Author Sidney K. Robinson proposes that the graphic pattern Wright used in "An Autobiography" is a diagram of an architect crossing between building and nature, between asserting and questioning. Following this pattern, Wright came to see ornament from the perspective of architecture and architecture from the perspective of ornament. That is how ornament can lead to architecture.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sidney K. Robinson is an educator, author, and architect whose lifelong fascination with Frank Lloyd Wright began as a 10-year-old perusing his architect father’s Wendingen publication on Wright and by reading his Autobiography in high school. Interest in Wright led him to work for Alden Dow after graduating from Columbia University School of Architecture some four decades after Dow. Robinson returned to his hometown of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan for a doctorate in architectural history with a dissertation on Taliesin and Alden Dow’s Studio. Robinson taught at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture for more than 10 years until it ceased operations at Taliesin. He also taught design, history, and theory at Iowa State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago with visiting positions at the University of Michigan and Carleton College. Robinson has written books and articles on Wright, Dow, Bruce Goff (whose 1950 Ford House he has lived in for more than 35 years), the Picturesque, and historical preservation.
PRAISE FOR *CROSSING BOUNDARIES “In his penetrating analysis of how he crossed those boundaries, and of the results that followed, Sidney Robinson provides new insights that advance our understanding of Wright’s work and of his all- encompassing genius.” —David G. De Long, Professor Emeritus, Weitzman School of Design (U. of Pennsylvania)
This 9" x 6" hardcover with dust jacket is 224 pages with more than 75 color & BW photos and is written by Sidney K. Robinson with foreword by David G. De Long. You can order your copy of this exciting Wright publication HERE.
NOTE: This is a special publication and is not included as part of the Journal OA+D subscription. It must be purchased separately.
From The Archives
Throughout this anniversary year we've been featuring some of the hundreds of items OA+D is fortunate enough to have in its collections that are connected to Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel.
This month we showcase a rare real photograph of an Imperial Hotel business card for manager Tetsuzo Inumaru. It features his name and title printed on the back back and knotted string decorative detail, ca. 1923-40. Only example known.
It's rare that these everyday use items survived for a century—but their survival is a testament to the unique designs that compelled someone to save them in their collection. Luckily, they found their way into the OA+D Archives so that we could share them for everyone's enjoyment and study.
If you have materials that are related to the Imperial Hotel (or any other organic architectural or design items) that you're interested in donating to join other items like these, please let us know by contacting us at info@oadarchives.org.
OA+D NEWS & EVENTS
Celebrate 100 Years of Wright's Imperial Hotel
September 1st marks the 100th anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake that devastated Tokyo and brought worldwide fame to Frank Lloyd Wright and his newly opened Imperial Hotel. In honor of the event and the centennial of the Hotel, we're reminding subscribers (and those who ordered early copies) that the next issue of our flagship publication, The Journal of Organic Architecture + Design will soon be arriving in mailboxes!
Kathryn Smith — noted architectural historian and an expert on Wright's lost hotel — curates the publication by exploring "100 Objects For 100 Years," as selected from the vast amount of material held in the OA+D Archives collections.
This mega-sized issue will feature 120 pages showcasing these special 100 objects—some never-before-published—as well as text by Kathryn Smith that explores the Hotel in detail from its opening in 1923, during its decades of use, and ultimately its loss in 1967-68. If you're a fan of the Imperial Hotel and Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, this is an issue you will not want to miss. You can still PRE-ORDER this landmark issue HERE so you get a copy hot off the presses!
We're also reminding readers of our additional limited edition special publication, The Jewel of the Orient: The Imperial Hotel.
In summer 1923, before Frank Lloyd Wright’s completed Imperial Hotel officially opened to the public, the management published a comprehensive illustrated 32-page booklet describing the new building and extolling its virtues. It was, using contemporary language, a marketing tool aimed to attract hotel guests and people of influence. This remarkable publication, out of print for the better part of a century, describes Wright’s building in great detail including many photographs that “go behind the scenes” and are unique to this booklet. A rare collector’s item that is now available as a reprint for the first time in 100 years.
This commemorative publication with a new Introduction by Kathryn Smith has been produced by the Organic Architecture and Design Archives to mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, on September 1, 1923.
It will be printed in a limited edition of 500 copies with the purpose of furthering knowledge and preserving the past for future generations.
NOTE: As a special publication, this item is not included as part of the normal journal subscription plan, so be sure to PRE-ORDER your copy HERE. Since it's a limited print run, once this publication is gone, it's gone!