Kaufmann Office

Frank Lloyd Wright’s office for Edgar J Kaufmann is one of the most important twentieth-century objects in the V&A’s collections. Designed by the most significant American architect of the century, it is unusual both in that it retains all of its original woodwork, furniture, carpets and textiles. The room was designed for Wright’s most distinguished patron, department store owner Kaufmann, who installed it in his store in downtown Pittsburgh. Around 1929 Kaufmann had begun modernisation of the store’s interiors by commissioning the architect of his medieval-style Pittsburgh home, Benno Janssen, to introduce an American version of French Art Deco to the store’s ground floor. By 1934 Kaufmann

Panelled room · Pittsburgh · 1935-1937. Panels of swamp cypress plywood. By Wright, Frank Lloyd. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.