Down to Earth: An Insider's View of Frank Lloyd Wright's Tomek House

Rating:
Summary: Inexact, but sincere
Review: Non-scholarly approach, obscures facts and makes unsupported assumptions.
Adequate as first person, unacademic approach to history of FLW

Rating:
Summary: Making Wright right again.
Review: This is the personal story of the author's architectural discoveries and insights after buying a spacious old house that turned out to be one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most liveable Prairie houses. She evokes the amazing ever-shifting quality of light and reflections, how its architectural forms guide furniture placement, the functions (and dusting) of woodwork and its thorough patterning throughout, why an overhanging roof is great, the eternally surprising views, the role of landscaping, and even explains how one lives in a bedroom without curtains. She does not reveal as much construction detail exposed during the restoration process as I had hoped, like electrical upgrading, the use of steel in the cantilevers, or exactly why Wright's roofs always leak. She discusses adapting the kitchen, and shows how her Tomek House is the prototype for the famous Robie house, and friendlier to boot by being less insistently exaggerated. The many illustrations emphasize the outcomes rather than the process of restoration. Moran is not a professional writer, and the text wanders a little, but she truly gave me a feel for how wonderfully right it would be to live in a house by Wright, or one designed by his modular procedure. Yet one also needs an artistic streak of one's own, lots of energy (and money), and patience for all the avid visitors who treat you as an unpaid guide and caterer. For building a Wright house, see Jacobs' Building With Wright; for living with one today, get Moran.