San Francisco was becoming a cultural center of the isolated Californian frontier in the late nineteenth century. While advancements in communication and transportation were closing the geographical barriers between East Coast and European influences, San Francisco progressed into a distinctive pioneer society. The city attracted artists, architects, and writers from all around the globe to develop innovative ideas from traditional fundamentals. The most dramatic evidence of San Francisco’s coming of age can be seen in the field of architecture, where design practices were departing away from norms established elsewhere.
A new movement for local design in San Francisco was established during the 1890s, known as Academic Eclecticism. It represented a different approach from the nineteenth-century conception of style, in which design was limited by traditional stylistic parameters. Architects were now taking a more liberal perspective in design, where they fostered gradual evolution of their art by using historical precedents, then modifying and combining them in accordance to contemporary need. The movement’s aim was academic by encouraging architectural development through a scholarly knowledge of the past, which was acquired through formal education. The Bourn Mansion’s Architect, Willis Polk, along with architects Ernest Coxhead, A.C. Scheweinfuth, and Bernard Maybeck principally influenced Academic Eclecticism in San Francisco due to their renowned talent. Each architect was educated in either the East Coast or Europe before moving to San Francisco in the late nineteenth century. The city’s pioneer society and isolation allowed the architects to design freely without the limitations of architectural standards that were impose...
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...later commissioned to design Filoli, Bourn’s country house in Woodside, California. Constructed in 1915, Filoli is a grand masonry building with Georgian characteristics. It was designed for a grand scale of living, with large living areas and magnificent gardens. Polk and local muralist Bruce Porter designed the gardens in a collaborative effort.
The Bourn Mansion represents one of the earliest significant design projects of Willis Polk’s career. It was his first project of its size to be completed, and the first to be built for William Bowers Bourn II. Shortly after, Polk rose to prominence as a leading architect of the San Francisco Bay Area. He is credited for designing important civic, residential and commercial buildings throughout the remainder of his career. Polk played in a leading role in the planning of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
A premier example of the California eclectic style, Fioli is considered one of the finest houses of the early 20th century in the United States, and has been hailed for its forward-thinking design, which emphasizes preservation of natural resources and self-sufficiency. It was built just 10 years after the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and was seen at the time of its building as a symbol of hope amid ruin. Its English Renaissance gardens are considered among the finest recreated antique English gardens in North America.
Gehry draws his inspiration from famous paintings such as the Madonna and Child which he qualifies as a “strategy for architecture” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 42) and which he used as an inspiration for a project in Mexico . Through his interpretation of the paintings and artwork, Gehry looked for a new kind of architecture. His search for a new type of architecture culminated in 1978 with his own house in Santa Monica. What was once a traditional Californian house would be redesigned to become one of the most important and revolutionary designs of the 20th century, giving Gehry international prestige and fame. Frank Gehry’s “Own House” uses a mixture of corrugated metal, plywood, chain link and asphalt to construct a new envelope for an existing typical Californian house. This house has been inspired by Joseph Cornell, Ed Moses and Bob Rauschenberg. Gehry comments on his house by saying that there was something “magical” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 54) about it. He admits having “followed the end of his [my] nose” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 54) when it came to constructing the “new” house, which led Arthur Drexler, former Director...
The island of Manhattan was consolidated into the greater New York City in 1898. Because of this the city was transformed from a nineteenth century seaport with cobblestone streets into a twentieth century metropolis of skyscrapers and subways. The artists of the Ashcan movement saw this changing society in human terms. They saw this in a light which depicted the interaction of so many different cultures which were being thrust together. They documented these changes on a level which the ordinary person could understand. Because of the Ashcan School we have a picture of society which one really cannot understand amidst the overpowering spectacle of overpowering buildings and increasing technology.4
James K. Polk was an accomplished, hardworking president. Although Polk lacked charm and was known for his boring disposition, few could match his record of acquired land for the U.S. Polk is most well known for the fact that he is the only President to have sketched out a set of goals in his first terms and leave office having accomplished them.
Hunt designed many incredible homes during the Gilded Age, when many businessmen became rich and built huge mansions. He also designed many public buildings in New York, Boston, Newport, and Chicago. Some of his most famous works were the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, the façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Biltmore House, and two of the Newport cottages (the Breakers and the Marble House). His favorite style of architecture was Beaux-Arts, and the influence is seen in many of his designs.
It is the new decade after the end of world war two and modernism is a well-established practice. Its pioneers and spearheads are prevalent figures looming over the new architects and designers who are trying to make their mark in the shadows of such historically influential people. With new technologies and materials emerging from the world wars the next era of modernism had started to evolved, bringing with it philosophies and ideas which seemed far removed from those of the pioneers of modernism “What emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s was an expanding synthesis of questions utterly removed from the confident statements of the pioneers.”(Spade 1971,10) Two significant buildings were designed in the 50's, both of them for educational institutes and to house students of architecture, there were both designed in completely different styles and methods. The first is Ludwig Mies van der Rohes' Crown Hall, finished in 1956 and designed as a part of a campus master plan for the Illinois Institute of technology in Chicago. Mies' design for Crown Hall is one of his most realised expressio...
Richard Wilson, "Challenge and Response: Americans and the Architecture of the 1889 Exhibition," in Annette Blaugrund (ed.) Paris 1889. American Artists at the Universal Exposition, Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1989, 93-110.
The house, of which Mr. Jefferson was the architect and often one of the workmen, is rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, though not without fault; it consists of one large square pavilion, the entrance to which is by two porticoes, ornamented with pillars. The ground floor consists chiefly of a very large, lofty saloon which is to be decorated entirely in the antique style; above it is a library of the same form; two small wings with only a ground floor and attic story, are joined to this pavilion,
James F. O'Gorman, Dennis E. McGrath. ABC of Architecture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Document. October 2013.
Approaching the end of the 19th century entered the development of economical and adaptable steel, which changed the rules surrounding weight limitation. At this time America was undergoing great economic and social development, which brought forth great potential for Architecture. As a demand for a more urbanized society was forming, taller and larger building were needed. The large-scale manufacture of steel was the primary main thrust behind the capacity to...
Art Deco and Bauhaus are two of the most influential art styles that influenced modern America today. From the avant-garde decorations and design that is still present in Los Angeles, to the flat roof design and simplicity of houses and shops that can be seen almost anywhere, these two designs are still present in our communities. The two movements do have some comparative similarities, but are also very different in design and concept. One should now be able to distinguish the similarities and differences between Art Deco and
Architecture, the practice of building design and its resulting products, customary usage refers only to those designs and structures that are culturally significant. Today the architecture must satisfy its intended uses, must be technically sound, and must convey beautiful meaning. But the best buildings are often so well constructed that they outlast their original use. They then survive not only as beautiful objects, but as documents of history of cultures, achievements in architecture that testify to the nature of the society that produced them. These achievements are never wholly the work of individuals. Architecture is a social art, yet Frank Lloyd Wright single handily changed the history of architecture. How did Frank Lloyd Wright change architecture?
The essence of modern architecture lays in a remarkable strives to reconcile the core principles of architectural design with rapid technological advancement and the modernization of society. However, it took “the form of numerous movements, schools of design, and architectural styles, some in tension with one another, and often equally defying such classification, to establish modernism as a distinctive architectural movement” (Robinson and Foell). Although, the narrower concept of modernism in architecture is broadly characterized by simplification of form and subtraction of ornament from the structure and theme of the building, meaning that the result of design should derive directly from its purpose; the visual expression of the structure, particularly the visual importance of the horizontal and vertical lines typical for the International Style modernism, the use of industrially-produced materials and adaptation of the machine aesthetic, as well as the truth to materials concept, meaning that the true nat...
Frank Lloyd Wright has been called “one of the greatest American architect as well as an Art dealer that produced a numerous buildings, including houses, resorts, gardens, office buildings, churches, banks and museums. Wright was the first architect that pursues a philosophy of truly organic architecture that responds to the symphonies and harmonies in human habitats to their natural world. He was the apprentice of “father of Modernism” Louis Sullivan, and he was also one of the most influential architects on 20th century in America, Wright is idealist with the use of elemental theme and nature materials (stone, wood, and water), the use of sky and prairie, as well as the use of geometrical lines in his buildings planning. He also defined a building as ‘being appropriate to place’ if it is in harmony with its natural environment, with the landscape (Larkin and Brooks, 1993).
Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are two very prominent names in the field of architecture. Both architects had different ideas concerning the relationship between humans and the environment. Their architectural styles were a reflection of how each could facilitate the person and the physical environment. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, is considered one of the most important buildings in the history of American architecture and Le Corbusier s Villa Savoye helped define the progression that modern architecture was to take in the 20th Century. Both men are very fascinating and have strongly influenced my personal taste for modern architecture. Although Wright and Corbusier each had different views on how to design a house, they also had similar beliefs. This paper is a comparison of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s and Le Corbusier ‘s viewpoints exhibited through their two prominent houses, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.