Northwest Historical Book Shelf

Sponsored by University of Washington Press
and WSU Press

Featured Book of the Fortnight

Lionel H. Pries, Architect, Artist, Educator: From Arts and Crafts to Modern Architecture

By Jeffrey Karl Ochsner
University of Washington Press, 2008
Hard cover, 384 pages
325 Illustrations, 175 in color, notes, index, 9 X 12 in.
ISBN: 978-0-295-98698-2
$60.00

In his most recent book, Jeffrey Karl Ochsner examines the life and work of architect Lionel Pries, a professor at the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning from 1928 until he suddenly resigned in 1958. Lionel H. Pries is part biography and part coffee table book. Almost every page features images of Pries's buildings, designs, and paintings, as well as some of his students' work.

Pries moved to Seattle in 1928 to work as a partner in an architecture firm with William Bain, in addition to accepting a teaching position at the University of Washington. Though the firm dissolved in 1931, Pries continued to influence architecture and design in the Northwest. Pries was on of the first to incorporate Northwest Coastal Indian and Asian design, as well as wood paneling, shoji screens, indigenous murals, and concrete with detail work into his open-floor-plan designs. Until Ochsner's book was published, many credited Pries's students with introducing these design elements into Northwest architecture. However, Ochsner deftly provides countless examples, both in print and in illustration, to prove his assertion that classic Northwest regional architecture can almost entirely be attributed to Pries.

Ochsner also solves the mystery of Pries's sudden resignation from the University of Washington in 1958 when Pries was just a few years from retirement. The administration of the University of Washington told Pries's students that he had resigned due to illness. In reality, the University had fired Pries after finding out that he was gay. In Lionel H. Pries, Ochsner seeks to rectify this injustice by providing us with an extensive look at Pries's prominence, influence, and genius.