William A. Storrer collection

William Allin Storrer was born on March 22, 1936 in Highland Park, Michigan. He graduated from Harvard College with an undergraduate degree in Engineering Sciences (1959), recieved his master's degree in Theater Arts from Boston University (1962) and his doctorate in Comparative Arts from Ohio University, Athens (1968). He was certified in Video Production (1977) and Travel Agency Management (1984) and recieved a teaching certificate as a Media Specialist from Montclair State University, New Jersey (1992).

Early in his career, Storrer worked in the engineering field. After finishing his graduate degree in theater arts, Storrer began his teaching career and taught in high schools, colleges and universities in New Jersey, South Carolina, New York and Ohio. Concurrently, he continued to pursue his interest in the arts through various positions in non-academic fields (i.e., Manager of the Harvard Opera Guild and President of the Guild of Photographic Artists). He has traveled extensively, researched his family's genealogy, written original plays, composed musicals, produced films, given seminars and exhibited his photographic works.

Storrer is a noted scholar of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Storrer published the first comprehensive catalog of Wright's built work, The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Comprehensive Catalog (1973); as well as The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion (1993). He is also responsible for developing a definitive numbering system (The Storrer Catalog Numbering System) of Wright's built works. He created The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Guide to Extant Structures (1980) to provide maps and directions to Wright's built works. He also wrote, edited and published a monthly newsletter FLlW Update (1988-1998) which he has continued to publish as an online newsletter. Beyond Frank Lloyd Wright, he has written over 400 articles for newspapers and magazines about the arts, technology and travel in the United States, England and New Zealand. In 2004 Storrer was appointed Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin to provide continued opportunities to advance Frank Lloyd Wright scholarship.

Most items in the Storrer Collection in the Alexander Architectural Archives are cataloged by the published Storrer Catalog numbering system of the built work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Accordingly, when one wishes to access an item, it should be referred to by this catalog number which may be found in either The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, a complete catalog (3rd of later edition) or The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion.

The creation of the catalog of Wright's built work came about when Professor Storrer noted in 1968 that there was no accurate published listing of Wright's built work. Working with Taliesin archivist Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Storrer created as accurate a listing as could be produced with information in the files of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Between the fall of 1958 and the summer of 1971, he visited all known sites and photographed the extant work. He further collected photographs of demolished structures and, in 1974, his findings were published as The Architectures of Frank Lloyd Wright, a complete catalog.

Continuing his research, twenty years later The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion was published with the catalog numbering refined to be commensurate with electronic searching. The Companion contained plans of all built structures for which a plan could be produced as well as many interior photographs of both extant and destroyed structures.

The Storrer Catalog identifies built work only. The Storrer Catalog number, S. ### identifies each built work as constructed, which may differ significantly from Wright's original design. This, therefore, provides the researcher with a means of distinguishing specifically an existing Wright structure from its original plan. Taliesin apprentices who supervised construction often made on-site changes, such that the plan is not an accurate representation of what was built.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation employs an accession numbering system to identify original documents including plans of Wight's built and unbuilt structures. This T. ### system was created by Professor Anthony Alofsin with Taliesin archivist Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and is referenced in the Companion. It is suggested that, when referring to an unbuilt work of the original design (rather than the finished work as constructed), this number may be used for identification and differentiation of plan and built work, while the Storrer Catalog system be used when discussing built work.

The University of Texas and its faculty of the School of Architecture have been designated by Professor Storrer as the only institution which may in any way alter of update the Storrer Catalog numbering system and/or The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, a complete catalog or The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion.

It is expected that users of these materials will identify built work of Frank Lloyd Wright in their writings and other presentations not only by the name of the work by also with Storrer Catalog number.

Click to download either an Excel spreadsheet or PDF version of the Storrer Catalog number index.