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. Spanish colonies (southwest America) built adobe structures. Combined American Indian and Spanish architectural styles.

Spanish Adobe

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

Mount Vernon

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.

Crystal Palace

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.