Art: Exuberant Architecture

One afternoon in 1890 the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan bustled into the office of his chief draftsman, Frank Lloyd Wright, and tossed onto the table his plans for a new building in St. Louis. "Look at it!" cried Sullivan triumphantly. "It's tall! Sullivan had good reason to boast: he had given form and logic to the skyscraper for the first time. A readable and richly illustrated new book called Architecture Today and Tomorrow (McGraw-Hill; $17.50) takes off from that boast to trace the rise of modern architecture—and the lively rebellion against it among...