Architecture was an all-encompassing endeavor for Frank Lloyd Wright, and the creation of his persona an ongoing project synonymous with his work. His penchant for self-promotion was clear in his long relationship with certain publications: Wright’s first recognition by RECORD occurred in April 1904, which singled out architects in the West, including Louis Sullivan and the “very able” Wright for their “departure from traditional European forms.” No wonder the subsequent publication in RECORD of Russell Sturgis’s negative review of the architect’s Larkin Building (his first commercial structure) in April 1908 was a shattering moment in his developing career—but more about that later.
Following his departure from Adler & Sullivan in 1893, Wright had turned to domestic architecture with considerable success. Commissions, mostly in the greater Chicago area, inundated his office. When Ladies Home Journal published his scheme for “A Home in a Prairie Town” in 1901, he won more national attention. Soon word of Wright reached the Larkin Company in Buffalo through William Heath, who had joined the company in 1899. The businessman had learned of the modern pioneer through his brother-in-law, a contractor, then building Wright’s J. J. Walser house in Chicago in 1903. Because of Heath and Darwin Martin, prospective clients and Larkin executives, Wright was able to convince the mail-order soap company to let him design its new headquarters. The Larkin office commission offered powerful incentives to the architect: large in scale and lucrative, it promised exposure to untapped eastern U.S. markets.
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