“In the Thought of the World”
This chapter focuses on the Larkin Building, which is firmly entrenched in histories of architectural modernism, such as Henry-Russell Hitchcock's Modern Architecture: Romanticism and Reintegration of 1929. It cites Hendrik Petrus Berlage's Amsterdam Stock Exchange, Peter Behren's AEG Turbine Factory, and Otto Wagner's Post Office Savings Bank as buildings that rival Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin commission for architectural distinction at the turn of the twentieth century. It also reviews the origins of Wright's Larkin Building in the company's history, its material characteristics, and its principal functions. The chapter weighs the Larkin Building against similar considerations of three European buildings in order to identify the ideas and qualities that all four architects shared while also demonstrating characteristics in Wright's building. It describes the Larkin Administration Building that was modern in the abstractness of its blocklike forms and its many innovations.