Get Your Bookmarks Ready

As the holiday season approaches, there are two new Frank Lloyd Wright books that should be on any architecture lovers wish list. Read a review of each after the jump...

Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple: A Good Time Place
by Patrick Cannon with photography by James Caulfield

The third Wright-related book from Cannon and Caulfield, this is the first that deals exclusively with a single building as its subject. Of course, it makes perfect sense to choose Wright's Modern Masterpiece, Unity Temple, as that singular building to write about and photograph in such detail.

At the beginning of the book, Cannon does an excellent job of finding an approachable way of presenting the "back story" for Unity Temple, providing its historical context along with the requisite story of its creation and the inevitable contrast to other nearby Oak Park churches.

The true reason to add this book to your collection is the dazzling present-day photographic tour Cannon and Caulfield provide. Cannon provides the written context for James Caulfield's stunning images, which walk you through the light-filled spaces of both Unity Temple (the place of worship) and Unity House (the "good time place").

The book finishes off with a reprinting of the text from the original broadside, The New Edifice of Unity Church, which was printed as part of celebrating the groundbreaking of Wright's building. Even though I am extremely familiar with Unity Temple and own several books on it, I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully designed and photographed new book. I would highly recommend it to any lover of Wright's architecture.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Art Glass of the Martin House Complex
Edited by Eric Jackson-Forsberg with additional text by Theodore Lownie, Robert McCarter, Jack Quinan and introduction by Julie Sloan.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House is experiencing a renaissance of appreciation, preservation, restoration and academic study. In the last 10 years, much has taken place for the building that has brought it to the point where it is today in 2009, entering the last phase of a multi-million dollar complete restoration.

This new book celebrates one aspect of this amazing Prairie home, its almost 400 art glass windows. Over the years, almost three-quarters of these magnificent windows have be stripped from the house. Luckily, through the tireless efforts of many people connected to the Martin House Restoration Corporation, the art glass designs are now being restored and studied in their original place.

The pages of this book are filled with engaging information about the house, the origins of its different glass designs and how they are all intimately and integrally connected to their site. The corresponding images of the different windows are some of the most stunning and crisp images I have ever enjoyed. I plan on pouring over the designs that are so beautifully illustrated for many evenings to come.

One of my favorite parts of the book, aside from the images, was Eric Jackson-Forsberg's argument against the labeling of the most famous art glass design from the Martin House as depicting a "Tree of Life." It turns out that that the name "Tree of Life" was never used by Wright or anyone until the late 1960s as an erroneous description in some periodicals at that time. The misnomer took root and it has been propagated ever since. Mr. Jackson-Forsberg provides a really interesting explanation as to the true origin and meaning behind the glass design, but I'll let you read all about it for yourself.

I'm looking forward to visiting the D.D. Martin House soon to see these magnificent windows in person and appreciating the many other Wright-designed wonders that have thankfully been saved for generations to come.

For more information on these and other Frank Lloyd Wright-related books from Pomegranate, follow the link.

Images via Pomegranate