FLW: Communicating Through Words and Buildings

John Waters will focus his talk on two important written works by Frank Lloyd Wright, and their connections with his built work. The works are “The Art and Craft of the Machine,” presented to the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society in 1901, and “Genius and the Mobocracy,” published in 1949. In the first, Wright laid out a way of thinking about progress and, in doing so, began to define himself and his expectations for his career. In the second work, he reviewed his achievements in the context of the career and legacy of his mentor, his lieber meister, Louis H. Sullivan. In the nearly half century between these works, along with Westcott House in Springfield, Wright created some of the most recognizable examples of American architecture, including Robie House, Unity Temple, and Fallingwater. 

John Waters is a registered architect based in Chicago. He is the Preservation Programs Manager at the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and associate director of the Victorian Society in America’s Chicago Summer School. His independent projects have included consulting with Taliesin Preservation at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and research on architects H.H. Richardson, Walter Burley Griffin, Marion Mahony Griffin, and Bruce Goff.

Location: John Legend Theater at The Dome, 700 South Limestone Street, Springfield, Ohio 45505. Please use the entrance on Clifton Avenue.