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American Architecture. Colonial Architecture. Developed from European style of Middle Ages and Renaissance. Colonies eventually adapted European influences to suit tastes and needs. Built structures with resources that were available.
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Colonial Architecture • Developed from European style of Middle Ages and Renaissance. • Colonies eventually adapted European influences to suit tastes and needs. • Built structures with resources that were available. • Spanish colonies (southwest America) built adobe structures. • Combined American Indian and Spanish architectural styles.
Architectural Adaptation • When Europeans settled in North America, they brought with them architectural traditions and their construction techniques. • Northern colonists built wooden houses, designed to withstand cold winters. • Most houses were small, easily heated with small rooms. • Houses usually had sloping roofs to shed snow. • New York mainly Dutch at time. • Followed architectural styles from Netherlands. • Built houses with wooden shudders.
Spanish Influence • Pueblo people built houses of adobe, a sun-dried clay brick. • Held together with exposed wooden beams. • Decorated houses with balconies of wrought iron. • Adobe churches with rectangular nave, exterior buttresses, and two symmetric towers. • Finely worked columns that serve only as ornamentation.
English Influence • Architecture of the thirteen colonies is marked by the English style. • Climatic and religious differences produced some American elements. • Central position of the fireplace is reflective of the heating needs of the winter. • Covered with clapboard and uses wood for the frame, two characteristics typically American.
Georgian Style • Appeared during the 18th century. • Characterized by proportion and balance; simple mathematical ratios to determine the height of a window in relation to its width. • Respects principle of symmetry and uses the materials that are found in New England: • Red brick, white painted wood, and blue slate used for roof. • Style is used to build houses of plantation workers and the rich merchants living on Atlantic coast
Public Architecture • English influences continue to mark the buildings constructed. • Buildings of these new federal and judicial institutions adopted the classic architecture characteristics: • Columns • Domes • Reference to ancient Rome and Greece.
The Industrial Revolution • Began in Great Britain during 1700’s. • Spread to North America in early 1800’s. • For centuries, architects focused mainly on churches, castles, palaces and country housing. • Revolution required factories, railroad stations, warehouses, & office buildings. • Required new methods for new structures.
Industrial Effects • Early 1800’s greatly affected development of architecture. • Rapid growth of industrialization. • Industrial Revolution created demand for architects. • New types of buildings. • New construction techniques. • Many architects revived styles from past. • Greek Revival, Gothic Revival. • Many combined two or more styles into one.
Industrial Revolution • Success of the Great Exhibition in London brought fairs to U.S. • Crystal Palace Exhibition housed in revolutionary glass and iron structure. • Similar special facilities such as the Crystal Palace had opportunity to be built. • Architects designed new structures and new idea. • Led to the influence of skyscrapers.
Early Modern American • Henry Richardson first important architect in U.S. • Included Modern Architecture elements in designs. • Worked with medieval styles, especially Romanesque. • Wanted to simplify exterior ornamentation. • Designed Glessner House and Marshall Field & Company in Chicago. • Chicago became center for Modern Architecture in the U.S.
Early Modern American • After Great Chicago Fire, architects were able to test new ideas for new city. • First metal frame skyscraper • 10-story Home Insurance Building. • Steel frame supported building. • Walls provided no support but curtains. • Steel frame and curtain wall began basic to modern design.
Slick Style • "Stick Style" is one American method of house construction that uses wooden rod truss work. • Buildings are topped by high roofs with steep slopes. • Design is asymmetrical and the interior space is more open. • The exterior is not bare of decoration.
Shingle Style • Replaced “Slick Style” • Characterized by simplicity and the attention to comfort. • Simplification of the volumes and the exterior decoration. • Continuous wood shingles on siding and roof • Irregular roof line. • Asymmetrical floor plan
Four-square Architecture • Foursquare reconfigured American city neighborhoods in the 1890's. • Theme is the most evident design to a traveler passing through suburbs. • Built to be simple. • Typical house was either 30x30 feet, or 30x36 feet, for deeper lots. • 2.5 stories with four (more or less equally-sized) rooms on each full floor. • Hipped roof. • Porch spanned the entire, or nearly, front of the house • Exterior walls were plain.
Skyscrapers • Most notable innovation in U.S. architecture. • Safety elevator made skyscrapers possible. • Load bearing stone walls mainly made impossible for skyscrapers greater than 20 stories. • Steel support frame began to be used. • Most are boxy looking. • Postmodernists feel skyscrapers should no longer be box-like. • Began use of contours and bold decoration.
