THE GEIGER DATABASE


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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT COMMISSIONS

CONTRIBUTING SPECIALIZATIONS:
Structural Engineer

One of the most encompassing approaches by John Geiger to the study of Frank Lloyd Wright commissions was the creation of 10 data tables that provided places to record project coordinator, preliminary drawing coordinator, working drawings coordinator, specifications writer, structural engineer, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, landscape design, supervising apprentice during construction, and building contractor. Then, drawings for the commission were listed. While such level of detail was usually not available to Geiger, this search represents a refined model for the study of the design and building process that other researchers may want to carry forward. Only Wright commissions having information recorded for these categories of contribution are returned in this search, showing a total of 299 records.

Project Information

The Mile High Building, "The Illinois", project [Chicago, Illinois] (1956)

Note: The following information concerning this project represents original research and analysis by John Geiger, and is based in his long and detailed study of the Frank Lloyd Wright literature as well as personal contacts with members of the Taliesin Fellowship and architectural historians. In addition, he added his own categories of building type and compositional form, as well as other points of consideration that he deemed important to understanding of the design. As with any primary archival source material, the references and sources of attribution should be consulted where possible to affirm the data provided. Sometimes there is an indication of attribution for which there is no matching footnote recorded. Some understanding of the intended source may be discovered in remaining notes or frequently cited publications which appear in the comment field.

Name of client: Wright, Frank Lloyd.

Sobriquet or alternative place name: The Illinois.

Design Status (as of 2011): Unbuilt.

Occupancy form or use: COMMERCIAL/Office/office building.

Principal building materials: Not assigned.

Number of drawings for this project detailed in the database: 10.

Drawing Number and Description

5617.001     Section w/ pyramid of Cheops, Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower
5617.002     Perspective
5617.003     Floor plan at main level
5617.004     Floor plan
5617.005     Plan and elevation
5617.009     Floor plan st basement
5617.010     loor plans 100 floor, 330 floor and 500 floor
5617.030     Elevation
5617.031     Elevation
5617.032     Elevation

Individuals recorded as contributing to project:

Note: Not everyone who contributed to a project may be named; only those whose participation has been confirmed from a source appear above. Occasionally names presented as contributors to a project may seem chronologically anomalous. This usually occurs when an individual prepared drawings for publicity, exhibition, or publication long after the original date of a commission.

Davison, Allen Lape
Wright, Frank Lloyd
Structural engineering: Peters, William Wesley
Structural engineering: Polivka, Jaroslav J.

Project Drawing Date Range

Note: Dates for preliminary and working drawings, as well as the start and completion of construction, appear here only when present in the database. Through careful study of original, reproduced, or published Wright drawings, John Geiger developed an elaborate granulation for design process dates and their attributions. Such information is largely available only for Wright projects dating from the mid-1930s until 1959.

Date recorded by John Geiger for chronological sorting: 8/10/1956.

Notes and References

Comments by John Geiger and/or sources of attribution: (1) Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks and Futagawa, Yukio. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph 1951-1959 (Volume 8) (Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita, 1988), p. 268. Geiger 01/31/98. Quinan, Jack. "Engineering the Organic: The Partnership of Jaroslav J. Polivka and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Note: The information shown above is collected from a series of data table columns intended originally to record not only comments or notes, but also to cite sources of attribution for dates assigned to the various stages of drawing preparation in the design process. As with any primary archival source material, the references and sources of attribution shown here should be consulted where possible to affirm the data provided.

This commission is referenced and/or illustrated in the following publications:

Alofsin, Anthony. Frank Lloyd Wright: Europe and Beyond. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. [ISBN: 0-520-21116-2].
Cleary, Richard (editor). Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. New York: Skira/ Rizzoli. [ISBN: 978-0-8478-3262-0].
Drexler, Arthur. The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Horizon Press. [ISBN: 0-8180-0019-8].
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly: 2004, Vol. 15, No. 3. Phoenix, Arizona: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly: 2008, Vol. 19, No. 4. Phoenix, Arizona: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Kaufmann, Jr., Edgar. Frank Lloyd Wright: Drawings for a Living Architecture. New York: Horizon Press.
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings: Masterworks from the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives. New York: Harry H. Abrams Inc.. [ISBN: 0-8108-1773-4].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph 1951-1959 (Volume 8). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-519-2].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph Preliminary Studies, 1933-1959 (Volume 11). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-522-2].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph, In His Renderings 1887-1959 (Volume 12). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-523-0].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete Works 1943-1959 (Volume 3). Cologne, Germany: Taschen. [ISBN: 978-8228-5770-0].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Treasures of Taliesin: Seventy-Six Unbuilt Designs. Southern Illinois University Press. [ISBN: 0-8093-1235-2].
Riley, Terence and Reed, Peter (editors). Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. [ISBN: 0-87070-642-X].