ARCHITECTURE OF THE UNITED STATES.1 — I.
THE architecture of the United States is of all the greater interest because it has no past nor school behind it, and because, in its style, forms and tendencies, it reflects the manners and civilization of a new people, an ingenious and
practical people, who have borrowed ideas from every country with which they have come in contact, interpreting, modifying
and assimilating them according to their own needs and tastes. Out of these conditions has sprung a curious and original art, and yet, at the same time, copied. The American people, although the product of old and most diverse civilizations, and imbued with a respect for traditions that often leads to slavish imitation, has, nevertheless, evolved out of the various styles it has encountered an architecture which, notwithstanding its capricious and often jumbled character, displays a sprightly grace in all its irregularities, and is logical underneath all the apparent confusion.
The architecture of the United States is of English origin, and has undergone somewhat the same transformations as has that of Great Britain. From the outset its inspirations were drawn from the same pseudo-Classic models, and, though it has been modified in the direction of individuality, the Anglo- Norman influence — often combined, especially in civil structures, with a bastard Romanesque style — is still clearly traceable.
A little of everything is to be met with in this tentative architecture ; it has not yet discovered an untrodden path, nor has it found the new formula so universally sought after, unless, perchance, such a formula may be worked out of the logical combination of the fundamental principles of the different styles. This being the case, the American architects are on the right track. Many of their monumental productions, in which Classic, Romanesque, Renaissance and even Gothic elements appear at the same time, are, comparatively speaking, wonderfully well-balanced, especially when we consider what a hodge-podge such an audacious mixture would naturally produce. Incoherence is, of course, sometimes encountered, but is always rendered tolerable by a certain artlessness and by a genuine freedom of treatment. It is always the work of an original or a bold searcher, whose mind, untrammelled by classic or hackneyed ideas, ignorant of predetermined formulas and of systems, endeavors to find a practical solution of the problem in hand.
In house architecture, especially, American architects clearly pay too much attention to contour and silhouette, thus compli
cating their plans. Yet, notwithstanding this detect, there is a great charm about their dwellings, villas and cottages, which are less formal and far more homelike than their English prototypes.
1 From the French of M. Brincourt, in Planat’s “ EncylopSdie de l Architecture et de la Construction.
Fig. 3. Church by Robertson, New York.
Fig. 1. Cathedral at Topeka, Kansas.
THE architecture of the United States is of all the greater interest because it has no past nor school behind it, and because, in its style, forms and tendencies, it reflects the manners and civilization of a new people, an ingenious and
practical people, who have borrowed ideas from every country with which they have come in contact, interpreting, modifying
and assimilating them according to their own needs and tastes. Out of these conditions has sprung a curious and original art, and yet, at the same time, copied. The American people, although the product of old and most diverse civilizations, and imbued with a respect for traditions that often leads to slavish imitation, has, nevertheless, evolved out of the various styles it has encountered an architecture which, notwithstanding its capricious and often jumbled character, displays a sprightly grace in all its irregularities, and is logical underneath all the apparent confusion.
The architecture of the United States is of English origin, and has undergone somewhat the same transformations as has that of Great Britain. From the outset its inspirations were drawn from the same pseudo-Classic models, and, though it has been modified in the direction of individuality, the Anglo- Norman influence — often combined, especially in civil structures, with a bastard Romanesque style — is still clearly traceable.
A little of everything is to be met with in this tentative architecture ; it has not yet discovered an untrodden path, nor has it found the new formula so universally sought after, unless, perchance, such a formula may be worked out of the logical combination of the fundamental principles of the different styles. This being the case, the American architects are on the right track. Many of their monumental productions, in which Classic, Romanesque, Renaissance and even Gothic elements appear at the same time, are, comparatively speaking, wonderfully well-balanced, especially when we consider what a hodge-podge such an audacious mixture would naturally produce. Incoherence is, of course, sometimes encountered, but is always rendered tolerable by a certain artlessness and by a genuine freedom of treatment. It is always the work of an original or a bold searcher, whose mind, untrammelled by classic or hackneyed ideas, ignorant of predetermined formulas and of systems, endeavors to find a practical solution of the problem in hand.
In house architecture, especially, American architects clearly pay too much attention to contour and silhouette, thus compli
cating their plans. Yet, notwithstanding this detect, there is a great charm about their dwellings, villas and cottages, which are less formal and far more homelike than their English prototypes.
1 From the French of M. Brincourt, in Planat’s “ EncylopSdie de l Architecture et de la Construction.
Fig. 3. Church by Robertson, New York.
Fig. 1. Cathedral at Topeka, Kansas.