Architecture in Colonial and Post-Colonial America

Architecture in Colonial and PostColonial America Clint Jun A. Maturan

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.

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.

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 longestablished 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.

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.

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

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 ‘baloonframe 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.

Character

This period saw considerable developments in the use of cast-iron as a building material.

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.

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.

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

James Hoban (c. 1758 – December 8, 1831) was an Irish architect, best known for designing the White House in Washington, D.C.

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.

Examples (Domestic Buildings) Robie House, Chicago (1908)

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 structures and completed 532 works.

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.

Examples (Domestic Buildings) Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia (1793)

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).

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.

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

BILTMORE, Ashville, North Carolina (1890-5)

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.

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.

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 ‘Shingle style’.

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, Mead & White.

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.

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.

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’.

Examples (Domestic Buildings)

TALIESIN EAST, Spring Green, Winscosin (1911)

by Frank Lloyd Wright

Examples (Religious Buildings)

The First CHURCH of CHRIST SCIENTIST, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA (1910-12)

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 at University of California, Berkeley.

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.

Examples (Religious Buildings) TRINITY CHURCH BOSTON, Massachusets (1872-7)

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 cities

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.

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)

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 external lines of the antique form

Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings) The UNITED STATES Capitol, Washington D.C.

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 constructed in the United States

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.

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.

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 19thcentury architect from New York City who worked there and in Chicago.

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 and 20th century architecture in America.

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 BeauxArts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., which was his final project

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.

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.

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

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.