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Thomas Jefferson Monticello
1769 - 1775
Most of the early American architecture is based
on European models; either Georgian or Palladian like this example
by Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. The
temple front is composed of modified Doric columns with triglyphs
along the frieze and a lunette in the tympanum of the pediment.
The eight sided rotunda with the dome is reminiscent of the
Villa Rotunda. The upper story is balustraded instead of having
acropodiums.
Photo by Kevin Liu
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Rotunda Library Thomas Jefferson
Classicism came to America through Thomas Jefferson
who planned the University of Virginia as a living museum. This
library, obviously inspired by the Pantheon, forms the end of
a grass promenade flanked by the Classical façades of
classrooms and staff houses. This layout became the model for
subsequent American universities.
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San Juan - Puerto Rico
The Casa Alcaldia, City Hall, in San Juan is
also Neo-Classical in design after it was remodeled in 1840
to have the same façade as the City Hall in Madrid. It
was begun in 1602 in a more colonial design.
Like many Neoclassical designs, the Casa Alcadia
is a public building, currently home of the office of the mayor.
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St.
Bartholomew's 1918
Following the Classical or Greek Revival of Thomas
Jefferson, American architecture evolved the Eclectic Style
so known because of the wide variety of period revivals. Along
with the Greek Revival was Gothic Revival, Romanesque Revival
as seen in St. Bartholomew's New York, and a series of Colonial
Revivals. This penchant for Revivals made Louis Sullivan refer
to American architecture as
"the art of covering one thing to with another
thing to imitate a third thing which, if genuine, would not
be desirable."
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Washington Square Arch - Stanford
White 1892
It was originally constructed of wood with plaster
orna-ment in 1888 to commemorate the centennial of Washington's
election as first president of the United States. It was so
popular that it was replaced four years later with this marble
one, designed by Stanford White. This arch is modeled after
the Arc de Triomph in Paris.
LET US RAISE A STANDARD TO WHICH THE WISE AND
THE HONEST CAN REPAIR. THE EVENT IS IN THE HAND OF GOD. - WASHINGTON
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Eclectic Style
Two centuries old by the time of the Civil War
(1861 - 1865), New York had accumulated countless building regulations,
largely based on the Beaux Arts style. The elevator was being
employed in buildings, but these were still largely of masonry
construction and generally a maximum of five stories in height.
Ornament and design were taken from the parent countries in
Europe.
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The Chicago School
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In 1833 Chicago consisted of 150 people. Due
to the logging and mining industries that were opening up
the west, there were 20,000 by 1850, and 300,000 by 1870.
Chicago epitomizes the American Dream. Here was an entire
city built by people who had come for only one reason; to
make money. New office space was needed for expanding American
enterprise. The great American contribution to building
was made in Chicago in the 1880's and 1890's.
In 1871 the Chicago Fire destroyed much of the
downtown core of the city - 3 1/2 square miles, most of
which was done in the eclectic style. Architects were drawn
to Chicago by the opportunities it presented. With the population
booming, property values on a meteoric increase, and a leveled
city core, the only option was to develop an architecture
that was by its very nature in opposition to historical
styles: the high rise.
As a result of the fire, hollow terra-cotta bricks were
introduced for floor construction. Iron was covered with
a fireproof coating to prevent further problems, and strict
bylaws were introduced to prevent a recurrence of disaster.
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The High Rise
The first skyscraper was William Le Baron Jenny's
Home Insurance Building. It had a metal frame with brick
and masonry cladding. The structure was new but the detailing
was traditional. Over the next decade, skyscrapers were
built by many firms around the growing city. The most important
buildings were designed by Burnham and Root (Monadnock Building,
Holabird and Roche (Chicago Board of Trade), and Adler and
Sullivan (Carson Pirie Scott ). Between them they set the
precedent for the essential profile of twentieth-century
architecture.
Innovative Design
The other huge innovation of the Chicago School
was the idea America needed a type of architecture that
was not not dependent on any European root. The major influence
for this style was H.H. Richardson
who already had a national reputation for his unique interpretation
of mass, line and detailing. He started the ball rolling
and was quickly followed by Louis Sullivan and then frank
Lloyd Wright.
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Home
Insurance Building - 1885 - Jenny
Best known for its use of steel, it is a pure
skeleton; all loads were taken on the metal frame. This is not
a beauty of a building, but it instigated safe metal framing.
The frame is not only steel, but is also fireproof, being constructed
with a masonry veneer. The Home Insurance Building was built
in 1895 and demolished in 1931.
The frame construction was said to have been inspired
by Jenny's wife's bird cage.
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Marshall Field Store 1885
Designed by H.H. Richardson in 1885, this warehouse
store was one of the first buildings to be interpreted by architects
and critics in Europe as being distinctly American. Using textured
mono -chromatic brownstone masonry as bearing walls and cast
iron with wood interior columns, the structure itself is conservative,
but the use and the overall design were radical.
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Merchandise Mart
45 years later the Merchandise Mart was opened
in Chicago. It has over 4.2 million square feet of floor space
for displays of merchandise of all kinds.
Along the front are a series of sculptures of
the business men who made Chicago and America prosperous.
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Auditorium
Building 1889 - Sullivan and Adler
Trained in Jenny's office were the men who would
design the beautiful Chicago skyscrapers. The steel frame was
not adopted immediately.
This is the first major building of Sullivan and
Adler, bringing them instant success. The structure has a load
bearing stone façade, like the Marshal Field building
by Richardson, carefully tiered in a Renaissance manner to break
up the huge mass. This is a revolutionary building as well in
that it consists of an opera house combined with a hotel and
an office building.
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Auditorium Building 1889 -
Sullivan and Adler
Trained in Jenny's office were the men who would
design the beautiful Chicago skyscrapers. The steel frame was
not adopted immediately.
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Auditorium Building 1889 -
Sullivan and Adler
Trained in Jenny's office
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Monadnock
Building 1891
Walking down the streets of Chicago, you would
never realize that this is one of the oldest high rise buildings
in the town. We are so used to this type of architecture, that
it does not strike us as unusual that a high rise would have
next to no exterior detailing.
Compared to other exterior treatments of this
decade, particularly those of Sullivan, this shows remarkable
simplicity of elevation treatment. This was the last tall building
in Chicago that was constructed with load bearing walls. Brick
walls, six feet thick at the base slowly taper as the building
ascends.
It was metal construction and the elevator plus
the ever increasing land values of urban centers, particularly
in America, which made the high building possible.
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Monadnock Building 1891
Looking at this detail, this building could have
been built in the 1960s. The refusal to adopt historical styles
became Chicago's single most important contribution to modern
architecture.
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Fisher
Building Chicago
D.H. Burnham
The Fisher building has a superstructure
of steel, but the overall appearance and the detailing are Gothic
in inspiration. The façade has strong vertical lines,
though the arches are round-headed. It is an interesting juxtaposition
of the old and the new.
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Fisher Building 1894
Chicago
DH Burnham
The front portal is in a traditional
cathedral style entrance with three three-centered arches. The
arches are deeply carved and separated by crocketed finials.
On the street level the door frames are also carved and separated
by gablets (small Gothic cap-like details).
The spandrel above the opening
has the name of the building flanked with the family coat of
arms.
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Fisher Building
Chicago
Burnham
The doorways around the building
have wonderful carvings of fish, reptiles and animals all done
in the fashion of the middle ages.
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The
American Skyscraper
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Rolled iron floor beams came into use gradually from the
middle of the 19th century on - the floors themselves were
of caste iron or steel, but it was only the discovery that
wall weights could be carried on the metal frame just as
simply as floors themselves which made the modern sky scraper
a reality.
In steel skyscrapers all of the weight of the building
is carried on steel. The veneer of the early buildings was
either stone, brick, terra-cotta, or a mixture of these.
It is interesting to note that after the clean lines of
the Monadnock building in 1891 there was a return to historicising
detail as seen in the Tribune building. Different types
of detailing then emerged as seen in the organic designs
of Louis Sullivan and the more stylized designs of the Art
Deco.
The skyscraper leitmotif was elaborated in three overlapping
phases: the classic, the theatrical and the international.
The classic phase, as seen
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in Chicago, was mostly a
squarish piling of storey on storey, a result of the regular
grid pattern of the streets. This is shown in the Monadnock
Building and the Tribune building. The theatrical phase
was seen in New York with the Chrysler and Empire State
Buildings, and most particularly the Flatiron building.
The international style is more of a modern style and is
illustrated here in the John Hancock Building.
New York, essentially 200
years older than Chicago, was developed along the narrow
winding streets and angled intersections of traffic patterns
left from the pioneer days. The first skyscrapers rose without
setbacks and blocked the sunlight. Understandibly, city
dwellers were unhappy about this and in 1916 setback laws
were introduced in New York. whent eh theatrical phase of
skyscrapers was over, plaza's began to appear at the bottom
of skyscapers to comply with the setback legislation. These
plazas give a very distinctive air to New York architecture.
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Tribune
Building 1925
The Tribune building in Chicago is an example
of the lasting effects of the revival period. The tower reaches
a height of 462 feet (141 meters). The building skeleton is
steel, yet it is covered with very high quality stone carving
of the type found in the Revival era. The building was much
criticized for not adapting the more modern European style,
the International style, but the owners of the Tribune thought
it served their purpose and were happy to build it.
Notice that the building rises in a solid block
from the base up to nearly the top. The tower is fashioned after
the Button Tower of the Rouen Cathedral in France. The buttressing
on the upper level is, in this case, purely decorative.
Like the Monadnock building, this is a skyscraper
in the Classic phase.
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Tribune Building Detail
The door to the Tribune tower is a curious mixture
of mostly Gothic and a little Renaissance detailing. Most pronounced
is the tracery surrounding the three door bays.
The doors have three centered arches with brass
detailing on the doors. Above the doors is a parapet with stylized
crenelation.
While beautiful to those who appreciate Gothic
design, the modern architects found this building abhorent.
Critics found too many office buildings plastered with ornament
that was contrary to the nature of the building. Sullivan, among
others, felt that an office that had fale buttressing on the
attic storey was palpably absurd.
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Bayard
Building
1898 - New York
Sullivan
This building was built by a
Chicago architect, in New York, prior to the setback Ordinance
of 1916 described below. It is a Classic phase skyscraper rising
in one continuous block.
Seen in the Bayard building is
a terra-cotta façade containing a massive amount of organic
detailing.
Sullivan's ornate floral designs are found in
cast iron as well as carved stone. The major facing of this
building is in white terra-cotta tile.
Sullivan's ideas were articulated in his book
"Autobiography of an Idea" (1924, reprinted again
in 1956)
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Bayard
Building Door
Like many architects, Sullivan's words have been
as important as his buildings in promoting an American school
of architecture. He urged his students to
"cease struggling and prattling handcuffed
and vainglorious in the asylum of a foreign school, and produce
a democratic art that will live because it will be of the people,
for the people and by the people."
The accretion, molding and lunette designs are
unique to North America and to Sullivan.
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Bayard Building
Sullivan taught that ornament should be an integral
part of any design. He drew all of the ornament for his buildings,
and each building is unique. He encouraged Wright among others
to look at nature's rhythms and processes and to create architecture
that related to contemporary life. Sullivan was the philo-sophical
father of the Prairie School: he provided the rhetoric that
called for an American architect that was not bound by tradition.
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Empire
State Building Shreve, Lamb and Harmon 1930
The Empire State Building was one of the first
really high towers in New York. It was built at the same time
as the Chrysler Building and the two were rivals in the race
for the tallest building in the world.
While the tower is some 1,250 feet (380 meters)
in height, the building doesn't seem so tall because the street
wall is only five stories high, and the next set of offices
are at a setback of 60 feet, giving the building a distinctive
profile. The building recedes in two tiers behind the street
level so that you never get the impression, walking by, that
you are passing one of the tallest buildings in the world.
The New York City Planning Ordinance of 1916 dictated
set backs for tall buildings to provide both light and ventilation
for city residents. The Empire State building was one of the
first to implement these changes. The whole skyline of New York
was changed as a result of this ordinance. These same ordinances
were adopted in most US cities by 1929.
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Empire State Building Shreve,
Lamb and Harmon 1930
A stylized Art Deco rendering of the building's
distinctive profile has been used in the interior as shown here.
The profile of the building is unique.
The building was finished just after the stock
market crash of 1929. For years it was known as the "Empty
State Building" as many of the offices remained unoccupied.
Today it is a thriving business building and a
tourist destination because and famous for the magnificent Art
Deco detailing throughout the building.
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Chrysler
Building - William Van Alen 1930
The setback zoning in New York was used as the
design criterion for the Chrysler Building. Where the Empire
State building recedes in two stately tiers behind the street
wall, the Chrysler Building recedes in many tiers, ending with
the crowning glory, the six overlapping diamond studded arches
that form the crown of the building.
The spire of the Chrysler Building is a series
of overlapping sunbursts, a familiar Art Deco pattern. The spire
reaches to a height of 319 meters (1048 feet) and was the tallest
building in the world until the Empire State Building's radio
tower gained that title.
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Chrysler Building
The building itself is constructed of white brick
with gray brick accents.
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Chrysler Building
New York 1931
Bright stainless steel gargoyles in the shape of eagles adorn
the upper stories. These stylized shapes echo the stylized hood
ornaments found in on expensive cars. The iconography of the
building is as impressive as anything from the Romanesque period.
The difference is that the Romanesque carvings were stories
with a moral imperative taken from the bible or from classical
mythology. The icons on the Chrysler building have a commercial
imperative: they are advertising.
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John
Hancock centre 1969
The John Hancock center in Chicago is a brilliant
example of cross bracing used as a wind brace in modern skyscrapers.
It is composed of both residences and commercial spaces, including
restaurants.
It is an example of the International phase of
skyscrapers.
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Richardson,
Sullivan and Wright
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Richardson, Sullivan and
Wright are the recognized trinity of American architecture.
Each had a signature style which dominated a particular
building type: for Richardson it was the library, Sullivan
the office, and Wright the house. Each signed each building
with a personal monogram, like a painting, sculpture, or
other material piece of art. Each reflected the optimism
and excitement of America during the late nineteenth, early
twentieth centuries.
In Europe, most countries
were still reeling from the French Revolution. While there
was a demand for new building types to service the growing
bourgeoisie, as well as new building materials and services
such as steel, plate glass and electricity, building in
Europe was still somewhat static. Ruskin inspired picturesque
Gothic was battling it out with Palladian classicism in
England. In France a similar battle was raging between Violette
le Duc's theories of metallic building based on an analysis
of Gothic structure and academic Classicism applied to Second
Empire buildings. In Germany the Rungbogenstil mixture of
Romanesque and round arched Renaissance dominated. Europe
was nervous, apprehensive, almost waiting for the crash
of the First World War.
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America, on the other hand,was
the land of opportunity. The possibilities of great wealth
and, more importantly, social mobility were staggering.
After centuries of class-based repression, people from all
economic backgrounds felt that hard work and the abundance
of natural resources in the new world would lead them to
success undreamed of in their parent countries.
After the American Civil
War (1861-186510 two social zones appeared in the new world,
the urban commercial block and the suburban single family
house. It was this change in the structure of city life
that Richardson, Sullivan and Wright's work addresses. They
created the architecture of the city and the suburb. They
also followed the path of the great Renaissance architects
in their conviction that they were architects of great merit.
"The stamp of self-reliance
and ego-driven ambition emerges with increasing clarity
over the course of these careers." (James O'Gorman,
p.22)
Both Richardson and Wright
had studios and workspaces adjacent to their homes and mingled
their professional and their private lives. Richardson's
studio was in Brooklyn near Boston and Wright's was in Oak
Park and later Taliesen in Illinois.
These three men together
changed the face of American architecture.
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Trinity
Church Richardson
The groundwork for the new American style was
Henry Hobson Richardson. He felt that a style based on but not
copying the Romanesque would echo the rugged individuality and
constructive energy of the American people.
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_Austin
Hall Harvard Richardson
Richardson's style is characterized by dramatic
semicircular arches as can be seen in this doorway at Harvard.
The clusters of squat columns are adorned with massive capitals,
heavily carved with foliage, animal and human forms. In stone
Richardson's work is generally heavily rusticated. In wood,
the only style he was really interested in was the Shingle Style.
Richardson was famous internationally, but his influence was
mostly found in the Chicago School.
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Great
Western Staircase Richardson
This is the best detail of Richardson's Romanesque
style.
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Crane
Library Richardson
The Crane Library at Quincy Massachusetts of
1880 - 83 is a good example of Richardson's translation of Romanesque
weight and mass into a more informal and American style. This
combination of mass with a use of heavy line detailing is uniquely
American. On the interior, Richardson designed the window panes,
the furniture and the lights.
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Carson
Pirie Scott 1901 Chicago
Sullivan
The Carson Pirie Scott department
store became the prototype for department stores and offices
across North America due to the logic of the design. The street
level of the building is an ornate two storey structure decorated
with sumptuous Art Nouveau designs, illustrating the opulence
of the store and its consumers. Superimposed on this are ten
stories of offices constructed of steel frame with large regular
window bays and faced with white terra-cotta.
Nineteenth century theorists
had coined the phrase "Form Follows Function" but
it was Louis Sullivan who claimed it as his axiom for architecture.
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Carson Pirie Scott Store -
1901 Chicago - Louis Sullivan
The street level decoration is
made of cast iron, a material used frequently in the 19th century,
particularly in Italianate designs. These Art Nouveau designs
are fantasies, swirls and scrolls and floral arrangements not
found in the Gothic or Classical repertoire of imagery. Art
Nouveau was the style for wealthy patrons and commercial enterprises
who could afford to decorate to access.
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Carson Pirie Scott Store -
1901 Chicago - Louis Sullivan
The street level decoration is
made of cast iron, a material used frequently in the 19th century,
particularly in Italianate designs. These Art Nouveau designs
are fantasies, swirls and scrolls and floral arrangements not
found in the Gothic or Classical repertoire of imagery. Art
Nouveau was the style for wealthy patrons and commercial enterprises
who could afford to decorate to access.
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Charnley
House Chicago 1892
Adler, Sullivan and Wright
This was the only residence that
Wright and Sullivan worked on together. Wright moved from Wisconsin
to Chicago in 1887, leaving the University of Wisconsin after
only two semesters. He got a job with Adler and Sullivan, and
thereafter considered himself a student of Sullivan's, referring
to him as "Lieber Meister" for the rest of his life.
Wright's simplicity of design
is here shown in tandem with Sullivan's ornament.
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Winslow
House
River Forest 1894
Wright
The Winslow House was one of
the first built in this area of Chicago, and shows a marked
departure from the neoclassical and Gothic Revival houses that
make up the neighborhood. The large chimney in the center shows
the large central fireplace that was at the root of Wright's
concept of a family building, the hearth was the heart of the
house.
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Susan
Lawrence Dana House 1903 Wright
Music was an inspiration to Wright
as well as nature. Because his architecture was rooted in nature,
it was referred to as organic. At the root of his work is simplicity,
harmony, unity and integrity of amply illustrated by this house.
Wright was only 25 years old when this was built.
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Susan Lawrence Dana House 1903
Wright
Like most of the geniuses in
the history of architecture, Wright took responsibility for
his own education studying not with any particular school, but
with architects that he admired, both alive and dead. This doorway
shows a variation on the compound arch found in many Romanesque
buildings. Richardson's influence is clearly shown here. The
brick used in this construction was Roman, 24' x 24' b 2",
giving it a distinctive texture.
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Heurtly
House
Oak Park 1902
Wright
The Heurtly House in Oak Park
has similar characteristics to the Dana House. The colour is
a warm inviting brick. The façade is simple and the building
seems to be united with the ground around it.
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Heurtly House
Oak Park 1902
Wright
The doorway on this house is
visible but there is a small courtyard for privacy between it
and the street. Again wright has used the radiating compound
arch. The massing and the use of distinguishing masonry lines
are reminiscent of Richardson's work.
The house is built around the
central hearth.
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Robie
House
Chicago 1908
Wright
Possibly Wright's most famous
residence, the Robie House has all the distinctive features
of a Prairie style home. It is long and low. The roof projects
out over the windows and the courtyards to provide privacy and
a sheltered area outside. Being directly on the sidewalk, Wright
used brick walls to enclose the entrances and clerestory windows
for privacy.
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Robie House
Chicago 1908
Wright
The house was designed along
a central axis with the roof overhangs providing shade in the
summer and light into the rooms in winter. Wright was one of
the first to use passive solar, like the Romans had done, on
modern buildings.
Wright designed all aspects of
the house from the stained glass windows to the furniture. Thankfully
the people who have owned this house were smart enough not to
succumb to vinyl replacement..
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Robie House
Chicago 1908
Wright
The brick used on this and many other houses is
the Roman style of brick. To give it extra horizontal thrust,
Wright specified that the horizontal grout should be a light
tone, but the vertical grout should match the brick colour.
From a distance, this makes the brick look like horizontal stripes.
Plans for several Wright houses are commercially
available for anyone who would like to construct one.
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American Further Reading
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Books
Boorstin, Daniel, The
Creators, New York : Random House, 1992
O'Gorman, James F, Three American
Architects, Chicago, University of Chicago Press,
1991
Rand, Ayn, The Fountainhead,
Chicago, University of Chicago press, 1991
James, Henry, The Golden Bowl,
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Films
The Fountainhead, Gary Cooper,
Patricia Neal 1949
Eight Men Out, John Cusack,
Clifton James, 1988
Frank Lloyd Wright, Ken Burns,
1998
Illuminata, John Turturro,1998
Legends of the Fall, Brad
Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, 1995
Skylark, Glenn Close, Christopher
Walken, 1993
The Color Purple, Danny Glover,
Whoopi Goldberg,1985
The Golden Bowl, Kate Beckinsale,
James Fox, Anjelica Huston, 2000
The House of Mirth, Gillian
Anderson, 2000
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