Thomas, George E. ; Venturi, Robert and Price, William L.; William L. Price: Arts and Crafts to Modern Design TRAYMORE
NEW YORK, PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL, 2000 , HARD BACK
Overall Condition is: GOOD
small 2inch tear at head of spine, unmarked, clean text and Dj, tight binding Architectural historian George E. Thomas purchased the papers of the early twentieth century Philadelphia-based architect William L. Price at auction in 1968 intending only to give them a safe home. A visit to Traymore, on of Price's grand hotels in Atlantic City, NJ, in 1971, a year before it was demolished, led to look into Price's work more closely. His conclusion, presented in William L. Price: Arts and Craft to Modern Design (April 25; $60.00; 362 pp; black & white photos, drawings and color plates throughout), is that Price is indeed, as architect George Howe once put forth, of the three pioneers of American architecture, along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. William L. Price is the first book devoted to this forgotten hero of American architecture and design, documenting the architect's complete works, including over 350 hotels, houses, and pieces of furniture. In many ways, Price, a disciple of Frank Furness who practiced in Philadelphia from 1883 to 1916, was the Eastern counterpart to Frank Lloyd Wright. And after 1909 (when Wright was exiled to Europe) Price was the best-known modern American architect. In the early twentieth century, Price's buildings spanned the eastern half of the nation, from Atlantic City to Chicago and Newport to Florida. His firm established the architectural character of two of the nation's great resorts. Atlantic City and Miami, and his architecture served as the basis for much of the Art Deco style in America ten years before the 1926 French exhibit that gave it that name. The career of William Price offers the opportunity to revisit architecture in the progressive center of the United States in the early twentieth century. Price took the lessons of Frank Furness about making an architecture of the contemporary world that applies them to the twentieth century and its technology, making the leap from Arts and Crafts to Modern Design. Although all of Price's major buildings have been demolished, including the Art Deco Traymore Hotel and the Chicago Freight Terminal, his Arts and Crafts utopian community in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania, and his Garden City community in Arden, Deleware, survive to attest to the vigor of his ideas and the leadership he exerted. Price left a legacy of exquisite houses, railroad stations, and commercial structures that were wildly emulated and recall the best works of Frank Lloyd Wright and Greene & Greene. In addition, Price was an accomplished writer and furniture designer whose work was regularly featured in Gustav Stickley's The Craftsman. Price's role in shaping American architecture is uncovered in this lavishly illustrated volume, bringing to light this unknown American master. George E. Thomas teaches urban studies and historic preservation at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the authors of Frank Furness: The Complete Works also published by Princeton Architectural Press.
REF#:060953