By Carl W. Condit 1973, Softcover, 452pp This thoroughly illustrated study traces the history of the world-famous Chicago school of architecture from its beginnings with the functional innovations of William Le Baron and others to their imaginative development by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. The book has a threefold purpose: first, to place the Chicago school in its historical setting, showing it as at once the culmination of a century's development in iron and later concrete construction and the chief pioneer in the evolution of modern architecture; second, to assess the achievements of the school in terms of the economic, social, and cultural growth of Chicago at the turn of the century; and, third, to show the ultimate meaning of the Chicago work for contemporary architecture. |