A4339 American Architecture before 1876
History/Theory Lecture
Paul Bentel
INTRODUCTION
This course is a survey of American architecture from the 17th century to the centennial, with scrutiny of the relationship between social and cultural ideals and architectural style and form. We will consider the influence of European high styles on American building and the connection between high style and vernacular forms. The survey includes examples of domestic, religious, civic, commercial, and industrial architecture.
OUTLINE OF TOPICS COVERED:
1. Introduction: Pre-Columbian Native American settlements; the architecture of the Spanish colonies from Saint Augustine to Santa Barbara
2. Continuity and diversity in colonial settlements: urbanism and architecture on the Eastern seaboard, in the South, and the Middle West
3. Style and taste in colonial architecture: Classicism and the Georgian influence
4. Treatises, Monographs, Pattern Books and Builder's Companions
5. The imagery of American Neo-Classicism: the Federal Style Discussion: ways of thinking about architectural history: vernacular and material culture, the history of styles, regional studies, and building technology
6. American architecture and urbanism at the beginning of the 19 th century: Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Latrobe; Pierre L' Enfant and the planning of Washington, DC
7. The national phase of Neo-Classicism: architectural practice after Latrobe; Robert Mills; designing the Capitol
8. The architecture of politics and trade in the mid-19 th century: the Greek Revival, government buildings and monuments
9. Living patterns and building types in America in the mid-19thcentury: hotels, rowhouses and commercial buildings in the city; religious communities and utopias; prisons
10. The architecture of industry and transportation before the Civil War: railroad stations, bridges, factories, mills, and industrial towns
11. The Gothic Revival: Ruskinism, Ecclesiology and American architecture
12. Parks, suburbs, villas, and cottages: the Picturesque in architecture and landscape design
13. American architecture between the Civil War and the Centennial: the rise of stylistic eclecticism
14. Conclusion: New York architecture, 1850 to 1870: A Case Study
BASIC TEXTS
William Pierson, Jr., American Buildings and Their Architects: The Colonial and Neoclassical Styles, vol. I, Garden City, NY, Doubleday & Co., 1970
William Pierson, Jr., American Buildings and Their Architects: The Corporate and Early Gothic Styles, vol. 2, Garden City, NY, Doubleday & Co., 1978
Talbot Hamlin, Greek Revival Architecture in America, New York, Oxford University Press, 1944
John Reps, The Making of Urban America, Princeton, Princeton Architectural Press, 1965
Alan Gowans, Styles and Types of North American Architecture: Social Function and Cultural Expression, New York, Harper Collins, 1992
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Final exam; 20-page research term paper