FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT:
AN ARCHITECTURE FOR DEMOCRACY
THE MARIN COUNTY CIVIC CENTER
A NARATIVE BY THE ASSOCIATED ARCHITECT
Aaron G. Green with Donald P. DeNevi

Aaron G. Green with Donald P. DeNevi:FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: AN ARCHITECTURE FOR DEMOCRACY, THE MARIN COUNTY CIVIC CENTER; A NARATIVE BY THE ASSOCIATED ARCHITECT. San Francisco: Grendon Publishing,1990. First edition. Presentation copy signed by the author Aaron G. Green, who was Wright's West Coast Representative and the Associated Architect on the Marin County Civic Center. A fine hardcover book in a fine dust jacket.

10 x 10.25 hardcover book with 142 pages and 91 illustration, including 20 in color. First-person account of how the Frank Lloyd Wright's Civic Center became a reality.

The concept of the public lending library is about as democratic an institutional design as exists and, like Frank Lloyd Wright and his work, is uniquely American in origin. A cornerstone of Wright's philosophy was the belief in the power of buildings to transform community and to forward the ideals of democracy. Public libraries and the work of Wright are jointly civic-minded. The Marin County Public Library is located on the fourth floor of the Marin County Civic Center (MCCC) a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1950s.

Contrary to Philip Johnson's comment that Wright was "the best architect of the 19th century," Wright is arguably the most influential architect of the 20th century and undeniably modern in the substance and vision of his work. Wright is best known for the 1908 Robie Residence, the Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater, which is generally accepted as the most recognized and respected architectural structure in the United States. But the MCCC is notable for being the only major civic building that Wright was commissioned to design. And though he died (at 91) while the work was still in progress, the building reflects his ideas, courage and vision as much as any of his work.

A summary of the background of the MCCC cannot be given without representing the saga in Marin County in the late 1930s, when the Golden Gate Bridge opened. Formerly a bastion of provincialism, as well as an idyllic vacation home and resort community, Marin experienced an influx of urban influence after the bridge opened in 1937. Politics and public planning prior to that time were largely controlled by a tightly knit group of good ol' boy cronies who, when tax dollars were allocated to the development of the MCCC, did what they could to unfairly discredit Wright as a Communist. The battle for the civic center building came to symbolize a battle for good government. A major figurehead and hero in this story is Vera Schultz, the first woman to be elected to the Mill Valley City Council and, later, the first woman elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors. Her leadership and courage helped ensure the completion of this controversial project.

out of stock