New books on Frank Lloyd Wright must promise that there remain things to learn about his practice or ideas, or ways to reframe his role in architectural discourse. To that end, Anthony Alofsin and Paul V. Turner each describe a unique urban context—New York City and San Francisco, respectively—to revise chapters in Wright’s evolution and his historiographic profile. Alofsin presents New York City, the “capital of capital” and the dynamic home of the arts, journalism and publishing, and museums and other cultural institutions, as a “scene” that Wright cannily navigated in order to create his larger-than-life and antiurban persona. On the other shore, amid the topographically dramatic and suburbanizing region of the Bay Area, Turner presents a less vexing Wright, more collaborator than networker. By focusing more narrowly on the day-to-day work, personal friendships, and social and professional relationships tied to each specific setting, both historians add depth and texture...

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