American Renaissance: Architectural Reflection of 19th Century Ideals

In his book The Art Idea: Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture in America, James Jackson Jarves states that, “Each civilized race, ancient or modern has incarnated its own aesthetic life and character in definite forms of architecture.... To get at the prevailing life-motive of any epoch, we must read its architecture, as well as its literature.” When considering the architecture of 19th century United States, one style in particular seems to best represent the ideals United States and its life-motives, the American Renaissance1. The word renaissance stems from the French world renāscī, which in translation means rebirth. It can be best used to describe political, social, and educational ideas based on a renewed faith in mankind. The original

The planar monochromatic, symmetrical, planar facades11 seen in both libraries are one of the key elements that I have adapted to fit the exterior of my building. While there is a slight protrusion of the entrance, all sides of my design remain planar with only minor exceptions for ornamentation. The protrusion of the entrance was done so that the door into the library could be slightly into the façade. As one can see in the Boston Public Library, the entrance doors do

As French architect and theorist Viollet le Duc once said " each nation, or to speak more correctly, each center of civilization ... has ... a genius of its own which must not be disregarded; and it is because during the last three centuries we have too often failed to appreciate our own genius, that our arts ... have become hybrid."20 The strong renaissance belief in beauty and the ideal of striving to create a high culture that would, as many thought, keep the forces of barbarism at bay21 in the United States during the 19th century is one of the key influence for such powerfully inventive building styles and the emergence of a plethora of cultural centers and libraries. The use of these renaissance ideas in 19th century architecture in buildings similar to my proposed library design could be used to argue the emergence of such an innovative architecture landscape in the United States in years to follow. As American architect Ernest Flagg would say, "Thus we are about to enter upon a course which will make possible the evolution of a national style of our own, or perhaps enable us to set the fashion for the