Overview
Main description
By Jaime Sarrio, Staff Intern
Berdeana Aguar navigates the pages of her book by instinct. Her familiarity with the contents suggests she has spent hour after hour memorizing the text she helped create.
She discusses the life of architect Frank Lloyd Wright effortlessly, never pausing to contemplate a year or fact. In seconds she can point to a page, passage or drawing that supports her point. She's one half of the diligent team that reintroduced the well-known architect to the literary world. The other did not live to see the book's publication.
Aguar co-authored Wrightscapes: Frank Lloyd Wright's Landscape Designs with her late husband Charles E. Aguar. Charles, a seasoned landscape architect, city planner and professor of architecture at the University of Georgia, was always fascinated by Wright's complicated designs, which incorporate light and landscape into the master plan.
In the early '90s, the Aguars committed to writing the definitive work on Wright--one that would explore his influences and the impact they had on his work in a way no other volume had.
"Everyone talks about the homes organic character, but they never say why--and they ignore the landscape," Aguar said.
Married in 1947 when he was 21 and she was 19, the couple had been writing together for decades. Their correspondence began while Charles was a soldier during World War II and evolved into a professional text after they married. Berdeana, a scriptwriter for commercials and documentaries, shared her husband's passion for Wright. She also possessed editing and interviewing skills that were heavily employed during the writing process. Both personally and professionally, the two were a natural fit.
"We were never at a loss for wshat to talk about," said Aguar. "He would do the writing, and then I would do the editing. Charlie always said the questions I asked were what made him think."
After nearly a decade of research, the Aguars compiled two volumes of text on Wright. The tone and direction of the book had taken shape, but the couple had yet to decide on how to close it.
Just months after the couple began the editing process, Charles went to lay down in his bedroom and quietly died at age 73.
Plagued by tragedy and alone for the first time in the Athens home her husband designed, Aguar finally returned to the project after encouragement and support from her five children.
"I wasn't about to let it fall apart," she said. "We put way too much of ourselves into it."
In addition to the challenges Aguar faced as a widow, she also faced the difficult task of finishing the book. Editors requested the two volumes be condensed into one edition and the number of sketches be reduced. Aguar also faced the challenge of writing the conclusion that the couple had put off for so long.
Still uncertain of how she would close the book, Aguar began searching through her husband's belongings. In the closet with several other items related and unrelated to Wright, Aguar found several pages of text marked "conclusion."
This year, Aguar saw the culmination of years of work realized in Wrightscapes, a book that Aguar considers as a living memorial to her husband. The inscription reads "For Charlie--My beloved soul mate and coauthor--deceased February 22, 2000."
"I don't know what I would have done without this," Aguar said.
At 74 with one novel under her belt, Aguar is making plans to tell the story of another under-explored genius. He was a devoted lover who kept his wife's lipstick-kissed handkerchief for good luck. A war hero, who brought his girlfriend's picture along for flights in the South Pacific because he knew she would enjoy it. And a teacher who challenged her students to find solutions to complex zoning problems.
She plans to title it Charles E. Aguar: Unsung Champion of Environmental Design.
Table of contents
"Wrightscapes" defined Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction: Forces That Shaped the Young Architect Chapter 2: The Emergent Years: 1889-1897 Chapter 3: The Oak Park Studio Years: 1897-1909 Chapter 4: The Pivotal Years: 1909-1915 Chapter 5: The California Years: A Search for New Direction, 1916-1923 Chapter 6: The Closing Years of an Era: 1923-1929 Chapter 7: The Depression Years--A Time for Reflection, 1929-1937 Chapter 8: The Taliesin Fellowship Years--The Era of Usonia: 1937-1959 Afterword Appendices Permissions and Copyrights Frank Lloyd Wright Archive Numbers Selected Bibliography Index
Author comments
The authors came to this project uniquely prepared for the task at hand. One possessed the well-founded savvy of an experienced landscape architect and city planner who collaborated with architects over a long period of time; the other has extensive writing expertise. They also share more than a half-century avocational interest in the subject matter and have spent the better part of the past decade conducting travel-field investigations and supportive research, evaluating and interpreting findings, and developing the WRIGHTSCAPES manuscript.
CHARLES AGUAR (deceased) distinguished himself in all three areas of his professional life, as educator, landscape architect, and city planner. He was Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture at the University of Georgia, a charter member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Society for American City and Regional Planning History.He was very active in historical and cultural initiatives across the country, earning awards and grants from the American Planning Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, and many other organizations.
BERDEANA AGUAR collaborated with her husband on the writing of many of his works during the five decades of their marriage and began working full-time on Wrightscapes in 1994. She is a scriptwriter for commercial videos and documentary films whose clients include The Nature Conservancy, the University of Georgia School of Environmental Design, Mitsubishi, the American Arbitration Association, WSB-TV, and PBS.
Back cover copy
THE FIRST IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGNS OF “AMERICA’S FAVORITE ARCHITECT” . . . FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
CONTAINS MANY NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPHS AND SITE PLANS
“ . . . a comprehensive and intriguing look at the work of Frank Lloyd Wright from the outside. It provides a view from the perspective of his designs in settings or landscapes . . . the point of view is to see how the designs of the outside flow into, out of, around, and in a few classic cases, under the architecture of the building.” -- John Crowley, Dean, School of Environmental Design, University of Georgia
Shedding light on a fascinating yet previously unexamined topic, Wrightscapes analyzes 85 of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs paying particular attention to site planning, landscape design, community scale and regional planning. The authors include many original diagrams, rare archival material, and some 200 photographs and site plans, many never published before, detailing Wright’s residential and public work and his urban design initiatives. A true collectors item Wrightscapes is a pleasure to read and a joy to own.
Frank Lloyd Wright is perhaps best remembered for his unmatched mastery of the organic style of architecture – where a structure’s form and material blend harmoniously with its natural surroundings. Less well known, but equally inspirational are the contributions Wright brought to landscape and site design. His creations in this area reflect a holistic, sustainable, and environmentally-sensitive utilization of plants, climate, solar power, and natural lighting.
Wrightscapes is the first definitive book to address Frank Lloyd Wright’s landscapes and environments. The authors provide a unique new perspective of the man and his work by presenting previously ignored, yet important aspects of his achievements, interests, and career, including little-known facts such as:
* Wright originated the visionary concept of a rear living-room opening into a garden terrace -- fifty years before the California architects generally credited with the concept
* Wright actually designed the first carport – three decades prior to the date he is said to have “invented” it
* During the first forty years of Wright’s career, he personally and professionally interacted with, and was significantly influenced by, designers who today would be described as landscape architects
* Wright had a career-long fascination with community-scale planning
Wrightscapes also chronicles how and why Wright’s famous ecological sensibilities were established, delving into Japanese and European influences as well as forces that shaped both the young and the mature architect. The authors also demonstrate how his design aspirations went far beyond the accepted definitions of architecture. In order to be as complete as possible, Wrightscapes even includes a detailed listing of “dos and don’ts” for owners of homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
Here is truly groundbreaking, richly-illustrated coverage of an important yet unexplored aspect of Frank Lloyd Wright’s genius.
