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Architecture in Colonial and Post-Colonial America

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(1)

Architecture in Colonial and

Post-Colonial America

(2)

Influences

The study of the progress of architecture in new country, untrammeled with precedent and lacking the conditions obtaining in Europe, is interesting; but room is not available for more than cursory glance.

During the eighteenth century (1725-1775) buildings were erected which have been termed “colonial” in style, corresponding to what is understood in England as “Queen Anne” or “Georgian”.

In the “New England” States wood was the material principally employed, and largely affected the detail. Craigie House, Cambridge (1757), is typical of the symmetrical buildings. It has elongated Ionic half-columns to its façade, shuttered sash windows the hipped roof and the dentil cornice of the “Queen Anne” period; the internal fittings resembling those of Adam and Sheraton.

Economically and Socially the most advanced nation of the continent was the U.S.A., where a sense of national identity had been reinforced by the war with Britain of 1812-14. By 1840 the country’s trade was worth 250 million dollars per year, almost half being earned by New York. Cotton of Louisana and extensive coal and iron resources of Pennsylvania.

(3)

Influences

The presidency of Andre Jackson gave impetus to wider democratic ideals and greatly encouraged individual enterprise. The westward

movement being dramatically

accelerated by the discovery of gold in California in 1848.

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States.

(4)

Influences

The coming to power in 1861 of an anti-slavery government under Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) brought to a head the rivalry between the more dynamic Northern States and cotton producing Southern States, with their long-established plantation system based on slavery, and kindled the tragic civil war (1861-65), during the course of which, in 1863, slavery was abolished. The victory of the Northern States, and of the union, was decisive for the future of the country and encourage industrial development, which in turn greatly increased the rate of immigration generally, the period following the civil war was one of continuing commercial expansion, an age offering great opportunities and high material rewards to individual industrialist, bankers, farmers, and railway owners. This situation, clearly reflected in the architecture of the time, continued until the financial crash of 1929 and ensuing depression. The opening up of the country by railways was essential to development, and the continent was finally transverse by rail from coast to coast in 1869. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876 further facilitated communications across the vast country which, in 1865, had been linked to Europe by trans-Atlantic cable. Finally the mass production of the motor car between the two world wars further extended communications and movement.

(5)

Influences

As far as industry is concerned, Canada’s development was much less rapid, her economy being based almost entirely on the export of lumber and wheat.

Like Canada, the countries of South America relied on the export of natural products rather than on manufacturing, and opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 was great significance in the development of the countries of the Pacific Coast.

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Character

European influence in both North and South America remained strong throughout the period, although materials, local skills, social customs and especially climatic conditions played their part, and buildings continued to posses strong regional characteristics.

In the U.S.A. itself, a conscious striving for a truly ‘national’ architecture became evident soon after the war of independence, and architecture in that country can be considered as passing through three broad and loosely phases:

a.) Post-Colonial

b.) First Eclectic Phase c.) Second Eclectic Phase

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Character

a.)Post-Colonial (1790-1820)

Architecture of this period moved away from the English Georgian idiom which had become established along the eastern seaboard of the country Neo-classic elements were introduced.

b.) First Eclectic Phase (1820-1869)

During this period the revived Greek style was predominant receiving a more whole-hearted acceptance that it did in England and developing specifically American characteristics. The Gothic and Egyptian styles found some popularity but compared with the Greek revival, these were minor streams.

The type of timber – framing known as the ‘baloon – frame’ came into use during this period and revolutionized timber construction. As its name suggest, rather than relying on an essentially post-and-lintel construction, the ‘baloon-frame owes its strength to the walls, roofs, etc., acting as diaphragms. Comparatively light timber sections are employed which are nailed together, floor, and ceiling joist, forming ties, the whole stiffened by the external timber sheathing.

(8)

Character

This period saw considerable developments in the use of cast-iron

as a building material.

(9)

Character

c. ) Second Eclectic Phase (1860-1930)

American architecture achieved international significance

during this period and followed two main streams. The first

related to the Gothic revival and initiated as a Romanesque

revival with H.H. Richardson as its first important exponent,

gained considerable momentum and reached great vigor

and vitality in the work of Louis Sullivan. In some respects

the movement in its later stages can be equated with that

of the arts and crafts in Britain and it culminated in the

work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The second stream was more academic in character.

Influence by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris its

architecture inspired by the great periods of the past, the

Italian and French Renaissance, ancient Greek and Roman

and late Gothic.

(10)

Character

Two important and influential exhibitions belongs to this period; the

centennial expositions 1876, Philadelphia and the world’s

Columbian exposition (Chicago 1893).

The period is noteworthy for structural experiment and

achievement. The Skyscraper, often regarded as America’s

greatest single contribution to architectural development, was a

product of this phase and was closely related to metal frame

construction the non-load-bearing ‘curtain wall’ and the lift or

elevator. The period saw also the establishment of many schools of

architecture in the U.S.A., the first at Massachusetts Institutes of

Technology in 1868, under W.R. Ware.

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Examples (Domestic Buildings)

The WHITE HOUSE, Washington D.C. (1792-1829)

the

official

residence

of

the

president

of

the

U.S.A.

was

designed by James Hoban, an Irish

architect, in the English Palladian

Style. After damage sustain in the

war of 1812, it was restored and

considerable restoration has been

carried out in the present century.

The porticoes were designed by

B.H. Latrobe.

James Hoban (c. 1758 –

December 8, 1831) was an Irish architect, best known for

designing the White House in Washington, D.C.

(12)

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

Robie House, Chicago (1908

)

by Frank Lloyd Wright, is dominated

externally by its strong horizontal

lines which seem to make it almost

one with the land on which it is

built. Constructed of fine, small

brick with low-pitched hipped

roofs, the house is planned in an

open

and

informal

manner,

interesting use being made of

changes of level internally, the

flowing

internal

spaces

being

generated

by

a

central

core

containing staircase and fireplaces.

Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank

Lincoln Wright, June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1000

(13)

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia (1793)

Was designed by Thomas Jefferson

third person of the U.S.A. For his

own use. The first house, and

elegant example of colonial

Georgian, was completely

remodeled in a free and imaginative

Palladian manner.

Thomas Jefferson (April 13 [O.S. April 2] 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the

Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third

President of the United States (1801–1809).

(14)

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

BILTMORE, Ashville, North Carolina (1890-5)

by R.M. Hunt, the first American

architect to be trained at the Ecole

des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in style of

an early French Renaissance

chateau.

Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and a preeminent figure in the history of American architecture. Hunt was,

according to design critic Paul Goldberger writing in The New York Times, "American architecture's first, and in many ways its greatest, statesman.

(15)

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

STOUGHTON HOUSE, Cambridge, Mass (1882-3)

by Mckim, Mead and White, is a timber-framed house, its walls clad externally with wood

shingles providing an important example of the so-called

(16)

Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and

partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White,

the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms.

William Rutherford Mead (August 20, 1846 – June

19, 1928) was an American architect, and

was the "Center of the Office" of McKim, Mead,

and White, a noted Gilded Age architectural

firm. Charles Follen Mckim

(August 24, 1847 – September 14, 1909)[1]

was an American Beaux-Arts architect of

the late 19th century. Along with Stanford White, he provided the

architectural expertise as a member of the partnership McKim,

(17)

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

STOUGHTON HOUSE, Cambridge, Mass (1882-3)

An external cladding of wood Shingles over a timber frame became popular in domestic building during the second half on the 19th century. Internally, the plan arrangement shows a loosening and foreshadows the ‘Free Plan’, to be developed later by Frank Lloyd Wright.

(18)

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

WINSLOW HOUSE, RIVER FOREST , Illinois (1893)

The first important work of Frank Lloyd Wright, is a simple structure, basically symmetrical, but its hipped roof, wide projecting eaves and emphatic

horizontal lines foreshadow the

architect’s later work and what was to become known as the ‘Praire House’.

(19)

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

TALIESIN EAST, Spring Green, Winscosin (1911)

(20)

Examples (Religious Buildings)

The First CHURCH of CHRIST SCIENTIST, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

(1910-12)

By Bernard Maybeck, provided an

article to the antidote to the epidemic of old-Spanish-Mission revivalism, which was threatening to engulf architecture in California. It uses

natural materials, and owes something to the vernacular tradition of the west coast of America.

Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7,

1862 – October 3, 1957) was

an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was a professor

(21)

Examples (Religious Buildings)

TRINITY CHURCH BOSTON, Massachusets

(1872-7)

By H.H. Richardson, is one of the key monuments of American architecture. The design, chosen competition,

although basically Romanesque in character, is handled in a master full and imaginative way. A Greek cross plan, the building is dominated by a square central tower with round corner turrets, and is constructed mainly of red granite, the rock-faced texture of which is exploited. Internal decoration in encaustic colour was carried out by J.F. Lafange, while the west porch was added in 1897 to the designs of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge.

Henry Hobson Richardson

(September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was a prominent American architect who

designed buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburg, and other

(22)

Examples (Religious Buildings)

UNITY TEMPLE, OAK PARK, ILLINOIS (1905-7)

by Frank Lloyd Wright, is characterized by the sturdy simplicity of its external massing, on which the design relies rather than eclectic detail. In the building, the architect displayed a knowledge of and sympathy with the natural qualities of materials, which are here exploited both externally ( in the pebble-faced concrete of the

walls) and internally (in the sand-lime plaster work and natural details)

(23)

Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The STATE CAPITOL, Richmond, Virginia (1789-98)

by Thomas Jefferson, was based on a Roman temple prototype, the Maisan Carree, Nimes. An ionic order was used by Jefferson, while for the Fenestration of the “cella” he had recourse to Palladian formulae. The building is regarded as the first truly Neo-classic monument in the U.S. and had much influence on later

American buildings, Classical temple forms, were adapted for banks,

schools and other buildings,

accommodation being sometimes ruthlessly crammed into the cella in order to retain, at all costs, the

(24)

Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The UNITED STATES Capitol, Washington D.C.

seat of the United States government, has become, with its crowning dome, one of the world’s best known planned on

Palladian lines with a central rotunda; this has survived in essentials, despite

numerous modifications and additions. After the war, B.H. Latrobe was responsible for rebuilding the structure. Between 1851 and 1867 additions were made by Thomas Ustick Walter who designed the flanking wings and great dome over the central rotunda, and was constructed largely of cast iron, with an internal diameter of 30 m and a total height of 68 m.

Thomas Ustick Walter, born

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was an American architect, the dean of

American architecture between the 1820 death of Benjamin Latrobe and the emergence of H.H. Richardson in the 1870s.

Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1,

1764 – September 3, 1820) was a British neoclassical architect who immigrated to the United States and is best

known for his design of the United States Capitol, along with his work on the Old

Baltimore Cathedral or The Baltimore Basilica, the first Roman Catholic Cathedral

(25)

Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The NATIONAL ACADEMY of DESIGN, NEW YORK (1862-5)

by P.B. Wight , Venetian (Gothic in style and making full use of polychrome

masonry patterning, shows the indfluence of the writings of John Ruskin.

Peter B. Wight (1838–1925) was a

19th-century architect from New York City who worked there and in Chicago.

(26)

Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOSTON, Massachusetts (1887-93)

by Mckim, Mead and White is beautifully detailed buildings, representative of the best in the academic stream of late 19th

(27)

Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The LINCOLN MEMORIAL WASHINGTON, D.C. (1911-22)

By Henry Bacon, is in the form of an

unpedimented Greek Doric peripteral temple, set on a high podium and surmounted by a simple attic. Executed in white marble, its detail is superlatively refined and in its scholarship and execution marks a peak in academic architecture.

Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered

for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., which was his final

(28)

Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The CHAPEL and Post Headquarters, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.

romantically sited on a steep encarpment over looking the Hudson River, are the work of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, and provide examples of academic architecture in Gothic style.

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was an American architect celebrated for his work

in neo-gothic design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for the Merrymount Press

Ralph Adams Cram (December

16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and

influential American architect of collegiate and

ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style.

(29)

Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The Temple of Scottish Rite, Washington D.C. (1916)

A masonic temple design by John Russel Pope, is in the same tradition as the Lincoln memorial. Externally, it takes the form of a reconstruction of the Mausoleum Halicarnassos, but is somewhat ponderously handled.

John Russell Pope was an American architect whose firm is widely known for designing of the National Archives and Records

Administration building, the Jefferson Memorial and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, all in Washington, DC.

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