American renaissance; a review of domestic architectureDow, Joy Wheeler
History
American renaissance; a review of domestic architecture
Dow, Joy Wheeler
Architecture -- United States; Architecture, Domestic
In glancing back over what I have written, I find yet another class of
architects and another theory of architecture to which no credit has
been given. I refer now to that class of architects who publish books of
readymade plans, and who advertise for clients in the periodicals, and
to their theory of architecture which does not allow that the artist
enters into the proposition. This is as I understand it, at least, from
one of their advertisements, which reads, “Plans made _not_ by an
_artist_, but by an _architect_.”
Bored nearly to death by having to listen to unwelcome
PLATE XCV.
[Illustration: GARDEN GATE AT WYOMING, N. J.]
[Illustration: WINDOW OF A DINING-ROOM.]
[Illustration: THE EDGAR HOUSE, NEWPORT.]
art discussion which to them does not seem either necessary or practical
in what they consider a purely utilitarian business for housing the
people, they have conceived a positive aversion to architecture as a
fine art. I do not know exactly what they mean by the affectation and
exaggeration they exploit if it is not intended to be artistic; but it
is quite possible they deprecate all that, themselves, as the necessary
amount of tawdriness the American people will have, feeling the while
unequal to educating such hopeless material. For it may be that I do
these wholesalers of printed plans a great injustice--it may be they
realize, as do other architects, only too keenly, that architecture is
the cubic measure of art, and requires an artist of the third power to
fuss with it successfully, in which case I fancy I recognize even
greater method in their madness.
THE END
INDEX
Alexandria, Va., 71, 72;
Fairfax house, 71;
Carlyle house, 71.
Alice in Wonderland, reference, 31.
Alison, Archibald, historian cited, 108.
American Notes, Dickens’ criticisms in, 89-91.
American Renaissance explained, 17-20;
its local color, 21-27;
sincerity of, 21-23;
various observations concerning, 21-27;
its derivation, 25-27;
outraged by modern Romanesque, 27-29;
Andrew Jackson’s influence upon, 41, 48-50;
early architects of, 42-44;
designing a farmhouse in, 46-48;
modern farmer’s knowledge of, 40, 49, 50;
not taught in schools, 35, 49, 50;
contrasted with architecture of England, 51-53, 77;
restoration of an old house, 55-57;
various motives, 57-60;
roofs, 60;
development under aristocracy, 62-78;
Washington connoisseur of, 73;
originality of, 76, 77;
in Annapolis, 62-64;
in Bristol, 81, 82;
in Salem, 82, 83;
in Middletown, Conn., 84, 85;
in Philadelphia, 85-88;
influence of Ruskin Gothic, 95-97;
influence of Civil War, 108-17;
of Centennial Exposition, 118-20, 125;
Colonial revival, 128-31;
adaptations, 132;
criticised by writers, 132-34;
apprenticeship of, 140-41;
injured by financiers, 131, 166;
traditions of, 40-42;
legislative buildings, 134.
Amplification, modern, houses injured by, 75.
Annapolis, Md., 62-65, 68, 70, 82.
Anne Arundel Town, 62.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account