Architecture Publications
Title
Waiting for the Site to Show Up. Henry Luce Makes Frank Lloyd Wright America’s Greatest Architect
Campus Units
Architecture
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
2017
Journal or Book Title
Histories of Postwar Architecture
Abstract
Henry Luce, owner of “Life”, “Time”, “Fortune” and “Architectural Forum”, recognized Frank Lloyd Wright’s immense charisma and talent and featured both the architect and his work in all four of his renowned popular press journals in January 1938 – though clearly he did so for his own ends. Luce believed fervently in America. In 1937, the German architects Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius migrated to the USA to assume leadership of two of its nest schools of architecture. Luce countered this promotion of European architecture by featuring Wright in his four journals. Despite Wright’s immense unpopularity at the time, Luce put him on the cover of “Time” and prominently presented him and his work in “Life”, “Fortune”, and “Architectural Forum”. That Luce’s ideals were not the same as those of Wright mattered little. With Luce’s endorsement, Wright became the most popular American architect in history, a position he retains to this day. But how very odd that decidedly arti cial mediation could so effectively disseminate and popularize an architecture whose essence was authenticity.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Copyright Owner
Daniel Naegele
Copyright Date
2017
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Naegele, Daniel, "Waiting for the Site to Show Up. Henry Luce Makes Frank Lloyd Wright America’s Greatest Architect" (2017). Architecture Publications. 87.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/arch_pubs/87
Comments
This article is from Histories of Postwar Architecture 0 (2017). Posted with permission.