Art 1630

By comparing buildings from different eras and from different cultures, we shall learn about the diverse traditions of American architecture, from its colonial beginnings to post-modern practices.  The result will be the basis for an architectural vocabulary and a greater consciousness of the built environment of the United States.

We shall examine what the first colonists found, what they crated, and what they brought with them from Europe.  Thus, observations on the American and numerous references to roots in European design will bring us to an initial definition of the nature of American architecture. We shall develop an understanding of the vigor and innovations of the building arts in this country. 

We shall examine not only work of the masters of the discipline, but also architecture without architects.  This introductory course will include lecture, discussion, and a brief presentation by each class member.  Frequent visits to architectural sites in New York will highlight materials, form, ornamentation, and context.

Required texts

Rasmussen, Steen Eiler.  Experiencing Architecture (Cambridge,       Mass.:  MIT Press, 1964.)

Roth, Leland M.  A Concise History of American Architecture (New 
York:  Harper & Row, 1979).

Supplemental texts

Whiffen, Marcus.  American Architecture Since 1780:  A Guide to the Styles (Cambridge, Mass.:  MIT Press, 1979).

Willensky, Elliot and Norval White.  AIA Guide to New York City (San Diego:  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988).

Conceptual and stylistic outline

Experiencing architecture

Colonial or pre-revolutionary styles

1780-1820
The adaptations of classicism--the Adam style & Jeffersonian 

1820-1860
Ancient revivals--Greek & Egyptian
Medieval revivals--Romanesque & Gothic
Renaissance revivals

1860-1890
High Victorian styles
Expressive styles--stick & Queen Anne
Richardsonian Romanesque
Chateauesque

1890-1915
Period revivals--classicism, Georgian or colonial, Gothic
Commercial style & the tall office building in Chicago
Frank Lloyd Wright & the prairie style
Bungalows

1915-1945
Modernistic, the vertical style, & streamline modern
The international style

1945-2000
Miesian
Brutalism
New classicism
Post-modernism