In 1932 nineteen-year-old John H. Howe arrived at Taliesin as a charter member of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship. There he would remain for the next thirty-two years, earning a reputation as “the pencil in Wright’s hand” before establishing his own architectural practice in Minnesota. 
This is the first book to tell Howe’s story and also the first full account of his place in the history of modern architecture—as chief draftsman and valued interpreter of Wright’s designs and as a prolific architect in his own right. Illustrated throughout with Howe’s sublime drawings, this biography is a testament to the underappreciated architect’s extraordinary design and rendering skills.
Influenced by Wright’s principles of organic architecture, Howe operated under the conviction that “the land is the beginning of architecture.” Architectural historians Jane King Hession and Tim Quigley show how this belief worked especially well for Howe in Minnesota, where his buildings appear to have grown naturally and organically from the landscape. Also remarkable are the visionary architectural schemes Howe created while serving time in prison during World War II as a conscientious objector—futuristic visions that anticipated Eero Saarinen’s later designs for airports and Victor Gruen’s for America’s first indoor shopping mall. 
An enlightening look at an exemplary life in architecture, this book finally brings the accomplishment—and significance—of John H. Howe to the fore and at the same time illuminates a fascinating chapter in American architectural history.

John H. Howe, Architect: From Taliesin Apprentice to Master of Organic Design

History

Quigley, Tim

Hession, Jane King

Americas

Univ. of Minnesota Press

An in-depth account of the life and career of Minnesota’s first modern architect 
Elizabeth “Lisl” Scheu Close (1912–2011) left an indelible mark on Minnesota’s built landscape during her six decades as an architect. In 1938, with her husband, Winston Close, she founded the state’s first architecture firm dedicated to modernism. In addition to designing the first International Style house in Minneapolis, the firm also created more than 250 handsome and efficiently planned modern residences. One of few women who were practicing architects in the mid-twentieth century, she blazed a trail for future generations of women in the profession. 
As Jane King Hession shows, the trajectory of Lisl’s architectural career was shaped by the political, economic, and aesthetic upheavals of the twentieth century. Raised in a renowned modern house in Vienna, Austria, Lisl was exposed to revolutionary ideas in art and architecture at a young age. Forced to emigrate to the United States as the Nazis rose to power in Europe, she completed her architectural education at MIT. During the Depression, she struggled to find work and encountered challenges as a young woman in the field. In her pursuit of and devotion to a singular and successful career as a modern architect, she proved herself to be talented, determined, and adept at negotiating obstacles. 
Through documentation of Lisl’s projects, this personal and professional biography also explores multiple aspects of modern architecture, including the innovative use of new materials and technologies, the design of prefabricated houses, and the relationship between residential design and changing American lifestyles.

Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Ralph Rapson is the most influential Minnesota architect of the twentieth century. Architect, artist, furniture designer, and teacher, he has played a leading role in the development and practice of modern architecture and design, both nationally and internationally. Beginning in the late 1930s, at Cranbrook under Eliel Saarinen, Rapson became famous for his rapid, exquisite renderings and his creative reexamination of traditional furniture and housing forms. He also began a career-long involvement in architectural competitions and experimental programs that helped shape the future of modernism in America. In postwar Europe, his designs for nine U.S. embassy projects established a new international model for the American embassy abroad. 
In 1954 Rapson assumed leadership of the University of Minnesota’s School of Architecture, beginning a thirty-year tenure that would transform not only the school itself but the standing of the design profession within the state. 
Over sixty years and against the tides and assaults of architectural fads and fashion, Ralph Rapson has maintained a consistency and commitment to the basic and best principles of modern architecture, unswervingly and without distraction. He has never lost sight of the larger questions of architecture—its potential for community betterment and enrichment of the human experience.

Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design

Biographies & Memoirs

Rapson, Rip

Wright, Bruce N.

Arts & Literature

Afton Historical Society Pr

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