User:Organicus

I am an architectural historian with thirty years of research interest in progressive American architecture, particularly the period between 1890 and the early 1920s. I focus on the idiom of organic architecture, popularly known as the "Prairie School" that flourished in the American Midwest and elsewhere during that time. My area of special expertise is the firm of Purcell & Elmslie (1907-1921), whose archival records I helped catalog and for which collection I produced a 750 page reference guide during the 1980s. My publications include over fifty articles and essays, including the first monograph on the work of the firm, "Purcell & Elmslie, Architects," which appeared in Art and Life on the Upper Mississippi, 1890-1914: Minnesota 1900, edited by Michael Conforti (University of Delaware Press, 1994). Another book, The Architecture of Arthur Dyson (Word Dancer Press, 1994) discusses the work of an architect who was uniquely an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright, William Gray Purcell, and Bruce Goff, all key contributors to the organic design modality in American architectural history. Various of my writings have been translated into French, Italian, Turkish, and Japanese.

As I learn to operate the Wiki way, I will make appropriate additions and changes to this page so that others may understand the basis for my contributions to this worthy endeavor called Wikipedia.