American Art and Architecture

- born in 1754 and died in 1825

- French-American soldier, engineer, and architect

- following his retirement from the American service in 1784, he found

exercise for his artisitc talents in various designing and architectural

commissions in New York City

- he remodeled City Hall at the foot of Wall Street in NY at the

proposed Federal Hall

- due to his haughty manners and excessive haste in pushing the whole

project simultaneously, regardless of cost, public inconvinience, or

official approval, soon brought him serious difficulties with the

congressional commision which had charge of building the city, and in

1793, President Washington was obliged to request the suspention of his

services.

- he spent a large part of the remainder of his life in attempting to secure

what he deemed adequate remuneration of his work at Washington, and

though Congress voted him certain grants, he died in poverty at

Green Hill on June 14, 1825.

- was most important Lonson Church architect of the early 18th century

- in 1703, he went to Rome to study for the priesthood, but after one

year he took up painting and then architecture, which he studied under

the Italian architect Carlo Fontana

- his most distinguished achievements are St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London

(1721-26), whose design became the prototype for many parich churches

in England and the United States, and the Radcliffe Camera of Oxford

University

- Gibbs’s electic architectural style reflects the influence of Sir Christopher

Wren, but he later took up the popular Palladian manner, especially in

St. Martin-in-the-Fields, andoriginal combination of a steeple with a

portico facade.

- the originality of the Radcliffe Library lies in Gibbs’s use and

understanding of the Mannerist style.

- Gibbs’s designs were influencial because they were published in books.

- American architect who became popular through his adaptations of

designs by the great architects of history

- considered a amateur architect, he depended upon printed hand books and

engraved editions of historic architects for his plans, using them with

outstanding success

- purity and exactness within the Palladian tradition were characteristics of

his execution of plans

- he built both Redwood library (1748-50) and the Touro Synagogue

(1759-63) in Newport, R.I.

- born in 1759 and died in 1828

- amateur British-born US architect, inventor, and public official best

known as the creator of the original design for the Capital Washington,

D.C.

- from 1790 to 1792 he first heard of important competition for the

after the competition closed; yet the judges, not satisfied with those

previously submitted, selected Thornton’s.

- he designed the Octagon in Washington D.C. which was used in 1814 by

President Madison after the White House was burned and is now head

quarters of the American Institute of Architecture.

- born in 1763 and died in 1844

- American archetect who was one of the first major exponents of the

Federal style

- he went to Harvard University

- during a tour of Europe he was influenced by the dignified proportions

and delicate classical motifs of the Georgian and Adam styles in

England and by the taste for Roman architecture of Thomas Jefferson,

whom he met in France

- he sometimes rendered plans without pay for people intending to build

- his public buildings, included the Massachusetts State House (1798) and

the main building of Massachusetts General Hospital (1820), both in

Boston, and Harvard’s University Hall in Cambridge, generally

incorporated such classical elements as pilasters, porticoes, and domes.

- his houses, notably three in Boston built for the statesman Harrison

Gray Otis, used simpler adaptations of the classical style

- he also designed the Connecticut State House in 1795 in Hartford, and the

Maine State House in 1831 in Augusta/

- born in 1802 and died in 1878

- American architect who is best known for his churches in the Gothic

Revival style

- after working in Shaftesbury as a cabinetmaker, he emigrated to the

US in 1829, living in New Bedford, Mass., and Boston

- first working for other architects primarily in the neoclassical style, he

began as independent practice

- St. John’s Church in Bangor, Maine, completed in 1837, was his first

Gothic church

- in 1839 he was called to New York City to supervise repairs and

alterations for Trinity Church in lower Manhattan

- Trinity, completed by Upjohn in 1846, was regarded as the most

beautiful church in the United States, distinguished by the purity of its

Gothic lines

- Upjohn also designed civic architecture, chiefly in the Italian

Renaissance style, and domestic architectur in various styles
William Jenney

- born in 1832 and died in 1907

- American architect and engineer, who pioneered in the development of

the skyscraper and the use of steel in building construction

- practiced engineering and architecture in Chicago from 1868 to 1905

- designed the ten-story Home Insurance Building, the first tall building

constructed along modern skyscraper principles of construction

- completed in Chicago in 1885 and demolished in 1931, it had square

cast-iron wall columns, hollow cylindrical cast-iron interior columns,

wrought-iron beams up to the sixth floor, and steel beams above the

sixth floor

- by 1895, Jenney and other architects in Chicago has mastered the steel

skeleton for building skyscrapers

- other American cities soon followed Chicago’s lead

- Jenney is regarded as the founder of the Chicago school of architecture

- he influenced many of teh 19th century builders of Chicago including