08/16/2026
We have some exciting news to share! The Laurent House Foundation has been working for almost a year with a highly regarded writer, Jane King Hession, to write a book on the Laurent House (the first and only book authorized by the Laurent House Foundation).
Jane King Hession is a Minneapolis-based architectural historian, writer, and curator, who earned her M.Arch from the University of Minnesota. She has been involved with the Frank Lloyd Wright world since 1999. She is a former president and board member of the Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy (FLWBC). As such, she presented numerous session papers at national conferences and served as guest editor for several issues of the organization’s publication SaveWright. For the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, she curated the exhibits Bridging America with Frank Lloyd Wright (2002), and John Howe in Minnesota: The Prairie School Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright (2000), which featured the sublime renderings of Howe, once known as the “Pencil in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hand.”
Hession has authored/coauthored five books, including: Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-59 (2007); The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park: The Kraus House (2015), and John H. Howe, Architect: From Taliesin Apprentice to Master of Organic Design (2015).
In addition to her focus on Wright, Hession has also researched and written about modernism in Minnesota. Her award-winning books include Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design (1999), and Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture (2020), which was the recipient of a Docomomo US Modernism in America Award of Excellence in 2024.
Her research and writing have been supported by The Getty Research Institute, The Graham Foundation for Advanced Study in the Fine Arts, The Beverly Willis Architectural Foundation, The Minnesota Historical Society, and AIA Minnesota.
