This all-new new site contains many images and texts absent from the former incarnation, particularly the job-by-job recollections by Purcell called the Parabiographies.  In addition, the complete commission list of the firm is now available, as well as lists of later works by the individual architects after dissolution of the partnership.  The Lake Place shrine, devoted to the Edna S. Purcell residence designed by Purcell and Elmslie in 1913 for a site near Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis, Minnesota, nears completion.  Many contemporary views of P&E buildings are provided by noted architectural photographer Scot Zimmerman, widely known for his numerous books on Frank Lloyd Wright.  Links are also in place to several important on-line resources.  Additional material is frequently added.

The Prairie School On-Line (still being worked on, but useful)

Schlesinger and Mayer Building Louis Sullivan

Residence Walter Burley Griffin

Larkin Building Frank Lloyd Wright

The contents of this web presentation are delivered through the HyperFind™ software now being redesigned. The site is temporarily showing an older, and partly incomplete view as the new web interface for this information management system is written. I am sorry for the inconvenience (you will be automatically re-directed to the older view). The entire catalog of Progressive building images available through this database can be accessed here.

Among the many individuals and firms represented (alphabetically): Percy Dwight Bentley, Parker N. Berry, Claude Bragdon, Bugenhagen and Turnbull, Cannon and Fetzer, Douglas and Hartmann, William S. Drummond (Guenzel and Drummond), Ellerbe and Round, Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin, Handicraft Guild, Robert Jarvie, Jens Jensen, John Henri Klutho, William (Wilhelm) Miller, Niedecken and Walbridge, Nimmons and Fellows, Dwight Perkins, Ottenheimer Stern and Reichert, Purcell and Elmslie, Richard E. Schmidt, Spencer and Powers, Louis Henri Sullivan, Tallmadge and Watson, Trost and Trost, John S. Van Bergen, Charles E. White, Jr., F. D. Wolf, and Frank Lloyd Wright.  Information is also provided concerning exhibitions and competitions, including various architectural clubs which were important venues for public exposure, and significant European or Secessionist practitioners such as Henrik P. Bull, Jan Kotera, Martin Nyrop, Eliel Saarinen, and Otto Wagner. 

The contents of this web presentation are delivered through the HyperFind™ software now being redesigned. This older view remains available until the more sophisticated one can be deployed.

An electronic database version of an archival finding aid work to the collection housed at the Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries.  Biographical essays accompany extensive scope and content, provenance, and other notes.  Conversion from a paper-based format to electronic display is still in progress.  Extensive indexing is already available, and facsimiles of archival documentation are being added on a regular basis.  Take a moment to look at the READ ME link.

The community of those who are inspired by the progressive movement known as the Prairie School continues to grow.  These pages are designed to share information concerning the many different individuals who contributed to the architectural, artistic, literary and philosophical production of this hopeful era.  The first contribution is a catalog of the works of John S. Van Bergen, researched and compiled by Martin Hackl.

The Prairie School Exchange will also include soon include the Owatonna Bank shrine: Farmers National Bank in Owatonna, Minnesota.  One of the great glories of American commercial architecture, the viscerally inspiring effect of visiting this structure cannot be overstated.  These web pages will present a large number of ecstatic detail photographs taken by artist Bill Heug.

Organica, the Community

Established as a web resource in 1994, Organica provides this electronic service to facilitate research into the philosophy and works of organic understanding. If you want to join, dues from members consists of contributions of images, texts, or other information that advances the message to others. Guests get in free. The databases include both historical and contemporary sources, always with appropriate attribution.  Facsimile documentation is provided where possible without copyright violation or with permission of the copyright holder. All donations are published here with good faith interest in sharing on a fair-use, research basis.  Contact information for high resolution images or authorship of texts can be obtained from Mark Hammons (organicus AT gmail.com).

Your visit may be enhanced, or not, by reading the Site Specifications and History page.

If access to these web pages is helpful and you want to express your support of the continued existence of this site, you can donate securely through Paypal.