TLS signed “FLLW,” one page, 10 x 7.75, Taliesin letterhead, July 26, 1957. Letter to Desmond Smith, hand-annotated with some punctuation and a few words struck through or underlined. In full: "Major Jenney built the first 'tall' building. (The Home Insurance Building Chicago) with cast iron columns super-imposed. The Rookery (across the street) was built much later with the Nineteenth Century bridge engineer's steel post-and-girder-construction. This Nineteenth Century mode of structure still persists in the work of all the so-called skyscraper architects. At first filled-in panels of masonry for walls—now the walls are panels of glass. The essential idea of framing a box, building from outside in remains 19th Century. Twentieth Century architecture is organic from inside outward: the steel strand in tension embedded in concrete for compression. This ferro-concrete system is the true new building of the 20th Century." Handsomely double-matted and framed with a portrait to an overall size of 22.5 x 15. In fine condition, with creasing in the top blank area.
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