Frank Lloyd Wright's Coonley House Estate

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Coonley House Estate: An Unabridged Documentary

Dean Eastman

This book is a story of the creation of the Coonley House complex, its evolution over a century, and its recent restoration. Based on his comments in his Autobiography this house is often regarded as Wright’s finest Prairie house and is considered to be one of the terminal masterpieces of his Prairie period.

The book includes a chapter which describes the lives of Queene Ferry Coonley and Avery Coonley and their client-architect relationship formed during and after the building of the Coonley House. An extensive chapter describes Wright’s design of the Coonley House complex, which evolved through a series of site plans and building alterations, and includes Wright’s and Jensen’s landscape plans.

Five chapters describe extensive exterior and interior tours of the complex in the Coonley era (1907-1917), mid-century period (1940s and 1950s), and the current era (2000-2014) with historic images and colored images in the current era. The soft-bound book has 334 pages (8.5x11 inches) and about 325 images with half in color. The paper is high quality (100#) and the color images bring back the beauty of the Coonley era.

Author bio

Dean Eastman is the current owner as well as the researcher, restoration architect, and project manager for the restoration of the Coonley House and Coach House (Stable) and their grounds. He is the author, photographer, and self-publisher of this book.

Dr. Eastman is currently a Professor of Physics (emeritus) at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) and an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Selected photos