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Colleagues,
New publication on Walter Burley Griffin. Ordering details
below.
Chris Quinn
Assistant Architecture and Art Librarian
Ricker Library/UIUC
608 E. Lorado Taft Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
217 333 0224 phone
____________________________________________________
The Walter Burley Griffin Society of America
is proud to announce the publication of...
WALTER
BURLEY GRIFFIN AND THE STINSON MEMORIAL LIBRARY:
MODERNISM
COMES TO MAIN STREET
By Paul Kruty
With a contribution by Paul E. Sprague
“To
create a new public architecture for America, Griffin turned for inspiration to
the origins of architecture, on the one hand, and contemporary technology and
practice on the other. His solution resulted in one of the most important
statements of contemporary architecture to emerge from the theories of Louis
Sullivan and the experiments of the Prairie School.”
Written by
Paul Kruty, with an analysis of the landscape plan by Paul E. Sprague, the book
is the first monograph on Griffin’s major public building in the United
States. Historian of the Prairie School H. Allen Brooks called the
Stinson Library “a brilliant design and a fitting climax to
Griffin’s American career,” while Sullivan/Wright scholar Paul
Sprague pronounced it “one of America’s greatest architectural
treasures.” Yet there has never been a detailed examination of this
extraordinary monument.
Drawing on
the priceless collection of letters and documents surviving at the library,
Prof. Kruty recounts the story of the commission, design, construction and
reception of the building. He then sets it in the contexts of
Griffin’s career, the public library in America, and the
architect’s intention to create a Modern representational public
architecture. Along the way, Kruty provides new details about
Griffin’s office staff in 1912-14, the contributions of Marion Mahony
Griffin to the design, and the role of the general contractor, Paul F. P.
Mueller—the person responsible for the actual construction of more of the
great buildings produced by Sullivan and the Prairie School than any other
individual, including, in addition to the Stinson Memorial Library, Adler &
Sullivan’s Schiller Building and such works by Frank Lloyd Wright
as the Larkin Building, Unity Temple, and Midway Gardens.
Walter Burley Griffin and
the Stinson Memorial Library sells for $25, plus p & h, with a
20% discount price for Griffin Society members. 68 pages, with 60 black
& white illustrations. ISBN: 0-9793588-1-7
Published by the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America. 1152 Center Drive,
St. Louis, MO 63117. [log in to unmask]
www.wbgriffinsociety.org
The full list of Society publications can
be found here.