Week 11 - Colonial and Post-Colonial - Lecture Notes

Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts
___________________________________________________________________________
Week 11
Topic: MAN AND A NEW NATION: ARCHITECTURE IN COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL AMERICA
Overview
This lecture will discuss the historical developments that led to the rise of colonial America and the United States of
America, the influences on architecture in colonial and postcolonial America. The lecture will explain the contributions
of the notable artists, architects, builders and patrons of art and architecture during this period.
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the learner should be able to:
• Explain and describe the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial architecture in America;
• Draw and write about notable architectural types/examples in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial
America;
• Identify styles and features in American architecture examples;
• Differentiate the notable builders and architects in colonial and post-colonial America; and,
• Draw the classical orders of architecture and their stylistic features.
References
• Burden, Ernest E., Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture. New York: McGraw-Hill, c2012.
• Ching, Francis, A Visual Dictionary of Architecture. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, c2012.
• Cruickshank, Dan, Sir Banister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture (Twentieth Edition). Oxford: Architectural
Press, c1996
___________________________________________________________________________
Week 11
Topic: MAN AND A NEW NATION: ARCHITECTURE IN COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL AMERICA
The objectives of the discussion are to tackle the following:

1. Introduction
2. Sub periods
3. Influences
4. Character
5. Examples of building together with the architects who introduce them
Colonial and Pre - Colonial American Architecture

• Pre - Columbian or Pre- Colonial American architecture consists mainly of Mesoamerican architecture and
Incan architecture. The architectural character of this period varies from region to region this was due to the
exchange of cultures all throughout the period. It was constantly evolving and changing since this was a span
of at least a thousand years.
• American Colonial Architecture is not necessarily one period but it is named as such to summarize all sub
periods under it. Since there were several design types that were developed during this period and those
period were named after the colonizers. These periods were the French Colonial, Spanish, Georgian, Dutch,
Saltbox, Cape Cod, Southern, New England, Garrison, Federal also there the New Colonial styles which are
the Colonial Revival and Neo - Colonial.
Each of these sub periods have their own architectural character:
First.
French Colonial homes. This residential have stucco-sided homes with expansive two-story porches and narrow
wooden pillars tucked under the roof line. The porch was an important passageway because traditional French Colonial
homes did not have interior halls.
Second.
Spanish Colonial. Residential were most commonly sided in adobe or stucco. The roofs were flat or slightly pitched
and finished with red clay tiles. Some Spanish Colonial homes featured a Monterey-style, second-story porch.
___________________________________________________________________________
Third.
Georgian Colonists. This is built sophisticated brick and clapboard homes that imitated British architectural fashion.
Georgian Colonial homes were highly symmetrical with multi-pane windows evenly balanced on each side of a central
front door. This façade was modestly ornamented with dentil moldings or decorative flat pilasters.
Fourth.
Garrison Colonial. This homes imitated the houses of medieval England. Many of these homes had steep gabled roofs,
small diamond paned windows, and a second story overhang across the front facade. Garrison Colonials usually were
sided in unpainted clapboard or wood shingles.
___________________________________________________________________________
Fifth.
New England Colonial homes. These are two stories high with gables on the side and an entry door at the center. To
conserve heat, a massive chimney ran through the center and sidings were not painted.
Sixth.
Southern colonial homes. Residential were symmetrical in shape. The siding, however, was often brick and the
chimneys were placed at the sides instead of in the center.
Seventh.
Cape Cod colonial houses. Residential had one-story or one-and-a-half stories with no dormers. They usually were
sided with shingles or unpainted clapboards.
___________________________________________________________________________
Eight.
Dutch Colonists. They often built brick or stone homes with roofs that reflected their Flemish culture. Sometimes the
eaves were flared and sometimes the roofs were slightly rounded into barn-like gambrel shapes.
Last is.
Colonial Revival Style. It is a revival of the Colonial styles while Neo Colonial was like mash up of the Colonial Styles
but with improvements.
Influences:
• First. 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.
• Second. 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”.
• Third. 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.
• Fourth. 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 Louisiana and extensive
coal and iron resources of Pennsylvania.
___________________________________________________________________________
The presidency of Andrew 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.
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.
• 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.
• 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 poses 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
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.
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 respect 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.
Two important and influential exhibitions belong 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.
These the architects and their best known designed buildings.

Examples of domestic buildings and the architects.
James Hoban (1758 – December 8, 1831) was an Irish architect, best known for designing the White House in
Washington, D.C.
___________________________________________________________________________
Hoban emigrated to the U.S. after the Revolutionary War, first settling in Philadelphia and then in South Carolina. There
he designed the old state capitol building at Columbia (1791; burned in 1865), whose facade and portico were based
on L’Enfant’s proposed Federal Hall in New York City (1789)—a design that was widely published in the U.S. At George
Washington’s suggestion, Hoban went to the federal capital in 1792 and submitted a plan for the presidential mansion.
He won the national competition and received the commission to build the White House as well as $500 and a lot in
the District of Columbia. The cornerstone was laid in 1793, and work continued until 1801. Hoban also supervised the
reconstruction of the building after it was destroyed in the War of 1812. The design for the
White House was generally influenced by Leinster House in Dublin and the main facade by plate 51 in James Gibbs’
Book of Architecture (London, 1728).
From 1793 to 1802 Hoban was one of the superintendents in charge of the erection of the Capitol as designed by
William Thornton. In Washington, D.C., Hoban also designed the Grand Hotel (1793–95), the Little Hotel (1795), and
his last federal commission, the State and War Offices (1818).
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 damaged sustained 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.
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.
___________________________________________________________________________
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.
Thomas Jefferson (born April 2, 1743, Shadwell, Virginia U.S. —died July 4, 1826, Monticello, Virginia, U.S.),
draftsman of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the nation’s first secretary of state (1789–94)
and second vice president (1797–1801) and, as the third president (1801–09), the statesman responsible for the
Louisiana Purchase. An early advocate of total separation of church and state, he also was the founder and architect
of the University of Virginia and the most eloquent American proponent of individual freedom as the core meaning of
the American Revolution.
Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia (1793) -was designed by Thomas Jefferson third president 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.
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. Architect who
established in the United States the manner and traditions of the French Beaux-Arts (Second Empire) style. He was
instrumental in establishing standards for professional architecture and building in the United States; he took a
prominent part in the founding of the American Institute of Architects and from 1888 to 1891 was its third president. His
eclectic work was almost equally successful in the ornate style of the early Renaissance in France, the picturesque
villa style, and the monumental Classical style of the Lenox Library.
BILTMORE, Ashville, North Carolina (1890- 1895) by R.M. Hunt, the first American architect to be trained at the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the style of an early French Renaissance chateau.
___________________________________________________________________________
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”.
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.
___________________________________________________________________________
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) 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.
___________________________________________________________________________
WINSLOW HOUSE, RIVER FOREST, Illinois (1893), the first important work of Frank Lloyd Wright, 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”.
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.
The First CHURCH of CHRIST SCIENTIST, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA (1910-1912)

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 of religious buildings and the architects who designed them.
Henry Hobson Richardson

H.H. Richardson, in full Henry Hobson Richardson, (born September 29, 1838, Priestley Plantation, Louisiana,
U.S.—died April 27, 1886, Brookline, Massachusetts), American architect, the initiator of the Romanesque revival in
the United States and a pioneer figure in the development of an indigenous, modern American style of architecture.
Richardson was the great-grandson of the discoverer of oxygen, Joseph Priestley. His distinguished pedigree and his
own affability made his move from the South to Harvard University in 1855 as easy as it was eventually to be rewarding.
Sometime during his Harvard days Richardson decided to become an architect. In Boston he was surrounded by
buildings of plain granite design that affected the best of his own later work, but for formal training he had to go abroad,
for there were no schools of architecture in the United States before the Civil War. Fluent in French from his Louisiana
childhood, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1860 to 1862, when the Civil War at home cut off his
income. He then worked in the office of the French architect Théodore Labrouste until he returned to the United States
in October 1865. In Paris he mastered the analytical architectural planning that characterizes much of his mature work
and that was formulated by his friend, the architect and École professor Julien Guadet, in his Éléments et théorie de
l’architecture (1902).
Richardson lived and worked in New York City for the next eight years, forming in 1867 a partnership with the architect
Charles D. Gambrill that lasted 11 years but was never more than one of administrative convenience. From his
Manhattan office and the drafting board in his Staten Island home came the drawings for the early commissions in
Springfield, the State Asylum for the Insane in Buffalo, New York (designed 1870–72), and the Brattle Square (1870–
72) and Trinity (1872–77) churches in Boston. Designed for the renowned preacher Phillips Brooks, Trinity was one of
the most important Episcopal churches in America. Richardson’s Romanesque revival design won him a national
reputation, many imitators, and so many New England commissions that it became desirable to move to the Boston
area. In 1874 he bought a house in suburban Brookline, Massachusetts, and added to it his office and studio.
Richardson suffered throughout his career from chronic nephritis, or Bright’s disease, but nevertheless he worked at a
strenuous pace. He died in 1886 at the top of his profession and with major buildings rising in Boston, Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati, Ohio, Chicago, and St. Louis. He left it to his successors, the Boston architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan,
and Coolidge, to finish these and to the Chicago architects Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright to carry on in the direction
he had initiated.
___________________________________________________________________________
TRINITY CHURCH BOSTON, Massachusetts (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 color was carried out by J.F. Lafange, while the
west porch was added in 1897 to the designs of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge.
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)
___________________________________________________________________________
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.
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.
Examples of educational, civic and public building and the architects who designed them.
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.
___________________________________________________________________________
Peter B. Wight (1838–1925) was a 19th-century architect from New York City who worked there and in Chicago.
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 influence of the writings of John Ruskin.
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.
Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,
D.C., which was his final project.
___________________________________________________________________________
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.
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.
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.
___________________________________________________________________________
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.
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.
___________________________________________________________________________
Examples of commercial and industrial building and the architects who designed them.
William Strickland (November 1788 – April 6, 1854), was a noted architect in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and
Nashville, Tennessee. A student of Benjamin Latrobe and mentor to Thomas Ustick Walter, Strickland was one of the
founders of the Greek Revival movement in the United States and an early proponent of railroads.
MERCHANTS EXCHANGE Philadelphia (1832-1834)

by William Strickland, is in the Greek revival style and is noteworthy for the grand, apsidal treatment of its rear elevation,
enriched externally by a screen of Corinthian columns rising from first-floor level through two storeys, and crowned by
a cupola based on the Choragic monument of Lysicrates, Athens.
___________________________________________________________________________
Henry Hobson Richardson (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was a prominent American architect who designed
buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him:
Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one of "the recognized
trinity of American architecture".
The Marshall Field Wholesale Warehouse,Chicago, Illinois {1885-1887) by H.H. Richardson, had seven storeys
and was of load bearing wall construction. A remarkably powerful design, with its great arched openings and the
vigorous texture of its masonry. it had considerable influence on later buildings in Chicago and elsewhere.
Dankmar Adler (July 3, 1844 – April 16, 1900) was a celebrated German-born American architect.
___________________________________________________________________________
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called the
"father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism".
The Auditorium Building, Chicago, Illinois (1886-9)by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. combined with an opera
house with hotel and office accommodation and owes much of its external character to Richardson's Marshall Field
warehouse. Ten storeys high, it is of loadbearing wall construction built on spread foundations. Settlements has
occurred to one side of the structure, in the tower which rises nearly 30m higher than the main building. Internally, the
details are of high order. many showing a Byzantine character and some probably designed by Frank Lloyd Wright,
who entered Sullivans's office as a draughtsman in 1887.
Daniel Hudson Burnham, FAIA (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer.
___________________________________________________________________________
The MONADNOCK Building, Chicago Illinois (1891- 1893) by Daniel Burnham, has sixteen storeys. The building
derives distinction from the simplicity of its elevational treatment and was the last tall building in Chicago for which
load-bearing walls were employed.
William Le Baron Jenney (September 25, 1832—June 14, 1907) was an American architect and engineer who is
known for building the first skyscraper in 1884 and became known as the Father of the American skyscraper.
___________________________________________________________________________
The SECOND Leiter Building. Chicago Illinois (1889- 1890) by W. Le B. Jenny, is an eight -storey metal framed
building with a simple and effective elevational treatment, the stone facade reading as a sheath over the internal metal
structure.
John Wellborn Root (January 10, 1850 – January 15, 1891) was an American architect who worked out of Chicago
with Daniel Burnham
___________________________________________________________________________
Daniel Hudson Burnham, FAIA (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer.
The RELIANCE Building, Chicago Illinois (1890) by Burnham and Root, was originally built as a four-storeyed
structure but was later extended to sixteen floors. The terra-cotta facing to the metal frame was reduced to a minimum
and its simple yet carefully – detailed elevation the building marks an important advance in skyscraper design.
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called the
"father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism".
John Augur Holabird (1886–1945) was a significant United States architect based in Chicago. Born on May 4, 1886,
the day of Chicago's Haymarket Riot, he was the son of architect William Holabird. John Holabird trained as an engineer
Kevin Roche, FAIA born Eamonn Kevin Roche (June 14, 1922), is an Irish-born American Pritzker Prize-winning
architect.
___________________________________________________________________________
The GAGE BUILDING, Chicago, Illinois (1898-1899 by Louis Sullivan and Holabird and Roche, is a three-bay eight-
storey framed structure, and force shadows the elevational treatment of the Schlesinger-Mayer store.
Louis Henry Sullivan Louis Sullivan, (born September 3, 1856, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died April 14, 1924,
Chicago, Illinois), American architect, regarded as the spiritual father of modern American architecture and identified
with the aesthetics of early skyscraper design. His more than 100 works in collaboration (1879–95) with Dankmar Adler
include the Auditorium Building, Chicago (1887–89); the Guaranty Building, Buffalo, New York (1894–95; now
Prudential Building); and the Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Missouri (1890–91). Frank Lloyd Wright apprenticed for
six years with Sullivan at the firm. In independent practice from 1895, Sullivan designed the Schlesinger & Mayer
department store (1898–1904; now the Sullivan Center) in Chicago. His Autobiography was published shortly before
he died.
The SCHLESINGER-MAYER STORE (1899-1904) by Louis Sullivan, was originally a nine storey structure, a twelve-
storey section being added in 1903-4 and further additions by D. H. Burnham. The building was originally crowned by
a rich overhanging cornice. The white terracotta facing to the building's steel frame truthfully follows its structure, and
horizontal lines are emphasized. The ground and first floors have cast-metal friezes richly decorated in low relief,
Providing first-rate examples of Sullivan's decorative work, in some ways suggestive of European Art Noveau.
___________________________________________________________________________
Dankmar Adler (July 3, 1844 – April 16, 1900) was a celebrated German-born American architect. Back in Chicago in
June 1875, Sullivan worked briefly as a draftsman for a number of firms. One such job was for the recently formed firm
of Johnston and Edelmann. It was John Edelmann who made the momentous introduction of Sullivan to his future
partner, Dankmar Adler. In 1879 Sullivan joined Adler’s office and in May 1881, at the age of 24, became a partner in
the firm of Adler and Sullivan, Architects. Their 14-year association produced more than 100 buildings, many of them
landmarks in the history of American architecture.
The WAINWRIGHT BUILDING, St. Louis, MO. (1890-1) by Adler and Sullivan, a ten storey steel-framed building,
provided an answer to the elevation problem of the skyscraper. Vertical members of the frame are emphasized
externally as brick piers, and the building is capped by a deep, richly decorated frieze, pierced by circular windows
lighting the top floor, while the recessed panels between floors are similarly decorated.
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. Wright’s mother,
Anna Lloyd-Jones, was a schoolteacher, aged 24, when she married a widower, William C. Wright, an itinerant 41-
year-old musician and preacher. (There is uncertainty over whether Frank was given the middle name Lincoln at birth.
However, he later adopted Lloyd as his middle name.) The Wrights moved with their infant son to Iowa in 1869 and
then lived successively in Rhode Island and Weymouth, Massachusetts, before eventually moving back to Wright’s
mother’s home state of Wisconsin. The young Wright attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison for a few terms
in 1885–86 as a special student, but as there was no instruction in architecture, he took engineering courses. In order
to supplement the family income, Wright worked for the dean of engineering, but he did not like his situation nor the
commonplace architecture around him. He dreamed of Chicago, where great buildings of unprecedented structural
ingenuity were rising.
___________________________________________________________________________
Wright left Madison early in 1887 for Chicago, where he found employment with J.L. Silsbee, doing architectural
detailing. Silsbee, a magnificent sketcher, inspired Wright to achieve a mastery of ductile line and telling accent. In time
Wright found more rewarding work in the important architectural firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Wright soon
became chief assistant to Sullivan, and in June 1889 he married Catherine Tobin. He worked under Sullivan until 1893,
at which time he opened his own architectural practice. His family grew to six children, while his firm grew until as many
as 10 assistants were employed.
The LARKIN SOAP CO. BUILDING Buffalo N.Y. (1904- 1906) by Frank Lloyd Wright, was designed around a central
circulation court, lit from the roof and sides by windows sealed from noise and dirt. Offices were approached from
galleries around the court, borne on brick piers. Externally, the building was characterized by the simplicity and scale
of its massing, which relied entirety on the relation of clearly articulated rectangular forms.
Cass Gilbert (born November 24, 1859, Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.—died May 17, 1934, Brockenhurst, Hampshire,
England), architect, designer of the Woolworth Building (1908–13) in New York City and of the United States Supreme
Court Building (completed 1935) in Washington, D.C. Conscientious and prosperous, he was an acknowledged leader
of the architectural profession in the United States during a period in which monumental architecture predominated.
___________________________________________________________________________
The WOOLWORTH Building, New York (1911- 1913) by Cass Gilbert, 241m high with fifty- two storeys, was carried
out in the Gothic style and provides an important landmark in the story of high building.
William Frederick Lamb, FAIA (November 21, 1893 – September 8, 1952), was one of the principal designers of the
Empire State Building.
Richmond Harold Shreve (June 25, 1877, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia - September 11, 1946, Hastings-on-Hudson, New
York) was a renowned Canadian architect.
___________________________________________________________________________
Soon after the completion of the Woolworth Building, the New York City zoning Ordinance (1916) became law. This
had a profound effect on the form of New York Skyscrapers which, for reasons of light and ventilation, were ·now
required to have certain minimum set -backs, related to their height. The effects of the ordinance can be seen in the
Panhellenic House 1928 by J.M. Howells with twenty seven storeys and in the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING {1930-2)
by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which rises through eighty-five storeys.
Here are 8 types of residential prototype reflecting different styles on their timeline.
Colonial revival
Purely American style remiscent of early colonial architecture. Gained renewed importance following
American centinial in 1876. Authentic colonial revival marked by.
Colonial revival 1880- 1893

A cleaner more refined style than ornate Queen Anne. Popularity due to Americas pre occupation with revival styles.
Many roman and Greek elements: symmetrical faces, sensitive proportions, little ornamentations. Popularity ended
with 1893 Columbian exposition in Chicago.
___________________________________________________________________________
Classic Box 1890 to 1910

City version of ornate Queen Anne. Resulted from fashionable trends and small city lots. Elaboration confined in orderly
arrangements. Flush panels, flattened ornamentation, and few protruding parts. Even bay windows flattened. Façade
decorated with swag garlands and plaster ribbons. Eaves enclosed.
Dutch Colonial
Gambrel roof distinctive, recognizable characteristics. Wood shingles often used for roof and sliding. Cameo windows.
Embodies cozy. Informal intimacy.
___________________________________________________________________________
Princess Anne
Extremely popular in 1880s and 1890s. Direct descendant of Victorian Queen Anne. Retains asymmetry, complex roof
line, and large chimneys of Queen Anne Style, but simpler and more restrained. Exhibits little exterior ornamentation.
Lacks pretension, flamboyance. Large porches, double hung windows. Cheaper to build than the Queen Anne.
Bungalow
One story with low overhanging roof and broad front porch. Unpretentious style, often rambling. Spread out floor plan
results in expensive to build house. Sometimes characterized as least house for most money. Convenience on
everything on one floor accounts for widespread popularity. Modern ranch style house direct descendant of earlier,
unpretentious bungalow.
Semi- Bungalow
Modest second story distinguishes semi- bungalow style. Also characterized by broad, sloping roof with knee braces
on eaves. Natural construction materials: fieldstone, shingles and stucco. Broad porches sometimes include attached
arbors and climbing vines.
___________________________________________________________________________
American foursquare
Simple, honest, practical. Few ornaments or frills. Built economically. Extremely popular from turn of 20th century to
1920s. characterized by boxlike shape and hip roof with dormer. A porch usually extends across front of house.

Week 11 - Colonial and Post-Colonial - Lecture Notes

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Week 11 - Colonial and Post-Colonial - Lecture Notes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Far Eastern University

Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

The objectives of the discussion are to tackle the following:

Colonial and Pre - Colonial American Architecture

Each of these sub periods have their own architectural character:

c.) Second Eclectic Phase (1860-1930)

These the architects and their best known designed buildings.

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

The First CHURCH of CHRIST SCIENTIST, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA (1910-1912)

Henry Hobson Richardson

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

The UNITED STATES Capitol, Washington D.C.

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

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

MERCHANTS EXCHANGE Philadelphia (1832-1834)

Colonial revival 1880- 1893

Classic Box 1890 to 1910

You might also like