The Houses of William Wurster: Frames for Living

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Caitlin Lempres Brostrom

Richard C. Peters

Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2011, English

Nonfiction, Architecture

9 x 11 inches, hardcover, 224 pages, 150 color and 150 black-and-white illustrations

ISBN: 9781616890285

Suggested Retail Price: $50.00

From the Publisher. Over the course of a career that spanned 45 years, William Wilson Wurster (1895–1973) designed hundreds of residences up and down the West Coast. Like Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, with whom Wurster maintained a close professional exchange, Wurster blends modernism with the vernacular. Wurster described these homes as "frames for living": spaces that could be fully transformed by the occupant to meet their needs and desires, well-designed canvases for homemaking. Authors Caitlin Lempres Brostrom, AIA, and Richard C. Peters, FAIA, draw upon extensive historical research as well as personal relationships with Wurster to tell the story of his career, including both residential and institutional building. The Houses of William Wurster features new and archival footage of 33 of the architect's best-known houses and includes a foreword by Donlyn Lyndon.

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Stanley Abercrombie

On Stanley Abercrombie’s Notable Books of 2011 list

A fine, clear, unpretentious presentation of 33 fine, clear, unpretentious houses.

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