ARCHITECTURE OF THE UNITED STATES.1 —II.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE.
AMERICAN civil structures exhibit very characteristic features ; they likewise demonstrate the existence of a
marked Anglo-Romanesque influence. Except in buildings of a more special nature, such as colleges and hospitals, the general design of all civil edifices in large towns is almost identical as to the principal lines: it includes a basement, a disposition of arches above, rising to a greater or less height, and comprising several stories, and an attic of one or more stories crowning the whole. This is plainly the Romanesque disposition of mediaeval French structures ; but in the United States the proportions are lengthened, and buildings are often carried up to a considerable elevation. The Ames Building, in Boston, may be cited as an example of these tall constructions. It contains twelve stories, and is nearly two hundred feet high (Figure 1). The architects, Messrs. Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, have certainly produced here a most interesting work, although the proportions seem to us exaggerated. The purpose of the building is clearly indicated. The row of semicircular arches beneath the upper line of the basement, which is of Milford granite, makes an ingenious and not clumsy crowning to this part of the edifice. As for the eight stories comprised between this basement and the attic, they are treated with great skill, in view of the extreme difficulty of the disposition.
It might have been better if the angles had been still more strongly accentuated by avoiding some of the bays with which they are pierced from top to bottom, or by making these less prominent. In
any event, the building, which is embellished on the outside with sculptures and mosaics, presents an excellent example of recent civil constructions in the United States.
Figure 2, the United States Trust Company’s Building in New York, by Mr. Gibson, also exhibits the same Romanesque character. The entrance, the columns, which are, moreover, very lavishly distributed, and the arches, are all treated in a style apparently quite too monastic for an edifice designed for the transaction of business.
Both these structures are of stone, but brick is often used for
stores, commercial buildings and public monuments. Among such recent brick constructions, the Boston Athletic Association’s Building deserves especial notice. In its general plan it is wholly American, for it meets the requirements of comfort and all hygienic demands, both of which receive too little attention in France : an establishment of the kind does not exist in our country. The exterior (Figure 3), entirely of brick, is severe in tone, and gives no idea of the distribution of space within; the large halls of the interior find no external expression. What is there behind those huge, bare walls, the flatness of which is broken only, by two rounded, projecting bodies terminating at the second story ? Everything, in fact, that is requisite for the cultivation of physical strength and
suppleness; a Palace of Hygeia, as it were.
The basement story is occupied by Turkish baths, with hot rooms of several different temperatures, a massageroom, a swimmingtank and a large bowling-alley. These rooms, extending up to the first floor, leave spaces in the basement mezzanine, which are utilized for the storage of bicycles and triycles and for a laundry, drying-room, coatrooms, etc. The first story contains a restaurant, billiard-room, drawingroom, library and parlor; in the second, which takes in more than half the building, there is a large gymnasium, a sparring -room, shower-room, rubbing-room, individual shower-rooms, dressing-rooms, etc. In the second-floor mezzanine a running track encircles the spacious gymnasium ; there are also private dressing-rooms, a fencingroo m and toilet-rooms. The third floor contains two tennis-courts, with the necessary dressing-rooms and toilet- rooms. In the first mezzanine over the third floor there is a dryingroom, besides a space for ball-playing. Lastly, in the second mezzanine over the third floor, in addition to a passage overlooking the small tennis-court, we find the kitchens and its dependencies. This disposition of the kitchen in the upper story is surprising to us. It is, however, a very practical arrangement, as it does away entirely with the discomfort of odors rising from the cellar, where we are accustomed to have our cooking done.
These details are sufficient to indicate the scope and utility of this structure; an examination of its plans will show that space has been most skilfully economized, and that everything is well arranged from a practical point-of-view. But it certainly does not come up to the classical ideal, and Messrs.
1 From the French ot M. Brincourt, in Planat’s “Encyclopidie de l’Architecture et de la Construction, Continued from No. 812, page 37.
Fig. 1. The Ames Building, Boston.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE.
AMERICAN civil structures exhibit very characteristic features ; they likewise demonstrate the existence of a
marked Anglo-Romanesque influence. Except in buildings of a more special nature, such as colleges and hospitals, the general design of all civil edifices in large towns is almost identical as to the principal lines: it includes a basement, a disposition of arches above, rising to a greater or less height, and comprising several stories, and an attic of one or more stories crowning the whole. This is plainly the Romanesque disposition of mediaeval French structures ; but in the United States the proportions are lengthened, and buildings are often carried up to a considerable elevation. The Ames Building, in Boston, may be cited as an example of these tall constructions. It contains twelve stories, and is nearly two hundred feet high (Figure 1). The architects, Messrs. Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, have certainly produced here a most interesting work, although the proportions seem to us exaggerated. The purpose of the building is clearly indicated. The row of semicircular arches beneath the upper line of the basement, which is of Milford granite, makes an ingenious and not clumsy crowning to this part of the edifice. As for the eight stories comprised between this basement and the attic, they are treated with great skill, in view of the extreme difficulty of the disposition.
It might have been better if the angles had been still more strongly accentuated by avoiding some of the bays with which they are pierced from top to bottom, or by making these less prominent. In
any event, the building, which is embellished on the outside with sculptures and mosaics, presents an excellent example of recent civil constructions in the United States.
Figure 2, the United States Trust Company’s Building in New York, by Mr. Gibson, also exhibits the same Romanesque character. The entrance, the columns, which are, moreover, very lavishly distributed, and the arches, are all treated in a style apparently quite too monastic for an edifice designed for the transaction of business.
Both these structures are of stone, but brick is often used for
stores, commercial buildings and public monuments. Among such recent brick constructions, the Boston Athletic Association’s Building deserves especial notice. In its general plan it is wholly American, for it meets the requirements of comfort and all hygienic demands, both of which receive too little attention in France : an establishment of the kind does not exist in our country. The exterior (Figure 3), entirely of brick, is severe in tone, and gives no idea of the distribution of space within; the large halls of the interior find no external expression. What is there behind those huge, bare walls, the flatness of which is broken only, by two rounded, projecting bodies terminating at the second story ? Everything, in fact, that is requisite for the cultivation of physical strength and
suppleness; a Palace of Hygeia, as it were.
The basement story is occupied by Turkish baths, with hot rooms of several different temperatures, a massageroom, a swimmingtank and a large bowling-alley. These rooms, extending up to the first floor, leave spaces in the basement mezzanine, which are utilized for the storage of bicycles and triycles and for a laundry, drying-room, coatrooms, etc. The first story contains a restaurant, billiard-room, drawingroom, library and parlor; in the second, which takes in more than half the building, there is a large gymnasium, a sparring -room, shower-room, rubbing-room, individual shower-rooms, dressing-rooms, etc. In the second-floor mezzanine a running track encircles the spacious gymnasium ; there are also private dressing-rooms, a fencingroo m and toilet-rooms. The third floor contains two tennis-courts, with the necessary dressing-rooms and toilet- rooms. In the first mezzanine over the third floor there is a dryingroom, besides a space for ball-playing. Lastly, in the second mezzanine over the third floor, in addition to a passage overlooking the small tennis-court, we find the kitchens and its dependencies. This disposition of the kitchen in the upper story is surprising to us. It is, however, a very practical arrangement, as it does away entirely with the discomfort of odors rising from the cellar, where we are accustomed to have our cooking done.
These details are sufficient to indicate the scope and utility of this structure; an examination of its plans will show that space has been most skilfully economized, and that everything is well arranged from a practical point-of-view. But it certainly does not come up to the classical ideal, and Messrs.
1 From the French ot M. Brincourt, in Planat’s “Encyclopidie de l’Architecture et de la Construction, Continued from No. 812, page 37.
Fig. 1. The Ames Building, Boston.