The public architecture of the new nation (19th century)
En 1776, los miembros del Congreso declaran la independencia de las 13 colonias americanas. El Tratado de París "Tratado de París (1783)") (1783) reconoce la existencia de un nuevo país republicano, los Estados Unidos de América. Si hay ruptura con Reino Unido a nivel político, las influencias inglesas siguen señalando los edificios construidos en esta parte del Nuevo Mundo. Los pedidos públicos, filantrópicos y comerciales se desarrollan en paralelo con el crecimiento demográfico y la extensión territorial. Los edificios de las nuevas instituciones federales y judiciales adoptan el vocabulario clásico (columnas, cúpula y frontón), en referencia a la Antigüedad grecorromana. Las publicaciones relativas a la arquitectura se multiplican: en 1797, Asher Benjamin publica The Country Builders Assistant.[2] Los americanos pretenden afirmar su independencia en todos los ámbitos: política, económica y también cultural, con la fundación de universidades y de museos. Es al final del siglo cuando esta independencia y este dinamismo se expresan mejor.
The vision of Thomas Jefferson: architecture, republic and democracy
Thomas Jefferson, who was president of the United States between 1801 and 1809, expressed interest in various fields, including architecture. Living on successive occasions in Europe, he wished to apply the formal syntax of Palladianism and Antiquity to public and private buildings, in cities and in the countryside. In this regard, he contributed to the plan of the University of Virginia, built from 1817 onwards. The project, completed by Benjamin Latrobe, allows him to apply his architectural conceptions. The university library is located under a rotunda crowned by a dome that is inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.[2] The complex presents great homogeneity thanks to the use of brick and white-painted wood. For the Richmond Capitol "Richmond (Virginia)") in Virginia (1785 - 1796), Jefferson chose to imitate the Maison Carrée of Nimes, but choosing the Ionic order for its columns. Man of Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson participated in the emancipation of New World architecture by imposing his vision of an art at the service of democracy.[2] He contributed to developing the federal style in his country and adapting European neoclassical architecture to the republican values born from the American Revolution.
The neoclassical style
The neoclassical style had a real attraction for architects working in the United States in the first half of the century. The young nation, freed from British tutelage, believes itself to be the new Athens, that is, a focus of democracy. The constitution, written in 1787, gives birth to new institutions that require buildings and impose the principles of national sovereignty and separation of powers. The official and even civil or religious architecture (which constitutes the originality of the United States), reflects this vision and takes the buildings of the Acropolis as a model. The Propylaea are reproduced on a different scale in front of the houses in the countryside of the eastern coast. Benjamin Latrobe (1764-1820) and his students William Strickland (1788-1854) and Robert Mills (1781-1855) obtain orders to build banks and churches in large cities (Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C.). Above all, the Capitols of the federal states adopt the neoclassical style as in North Carolina (Capitol of Raleigh) "Raleigh (North Carolina)"), rebuilt in 1833-1840 after a fire or in that of Indiana (Capitol of Indianapolis). One of the later examples of this trend is the Columbus Capitol "Columbus (Ohio)") in Ohio, designed by Henri Walters and completed in 1861. The sober façade, the continuous cornice and the absence of a dome give an impression of austerity and grandeur to the building. It has a symmetrical plan and houses the supreme court and a library.
The official architecture in Washington D.C.
The federal capital of the United States is a beautiful example of homogeneous urban planning: the complex was imagined by the Frenchman Pierre Charles L'Enfant. This ideal of a monumental and neoclassical city is revived by the maintainers of the City Beautiful movement. Several cities wanted to apply this concept, which is part of the trend of Fine Arts], but Washington D.C. seems to be the most successful among all. The White House was built after the creation of Washington, D.C., by an act of Congress in December 1790. After a competition, the design of an Irish-American, James Hoban, was chosen, and construction began in October 1792. The building was copied from the first and second floors of Leinster House, a ducal palace in Dublin, Ireland, which is now the seat of the Irish Parliament. But during the War of 1812, much of the city burned, and the fire devastated the White House. Only the outer walls remained standing, but it was rebuilt. The walls were painted white to conceal smoke damage. At the beginning of the century, two new wings were added to cope with the development of the Government. The Capitol of the United States of America was built in successive stages starting in 1792. Shortly after the end of construction, it was partially burned by the British during the War of 1812. Its reconstruction began in 1815 and was not completed until 1830. During the 1850s, the building was significantly enlarged by Thomas U. Walter. In 1863, an imposing statue, Freedom, was placed at the top of the dome. The Washington Monument is an obelisk-shaped monument created in honor of George Washington, the first American President. It was Robert Mills who made the original plans in 1838. You can see a difference in color downwards, because its construction was stopped due to lack of money. With a height of around 170 meters, it was completed in 1884 and opened to the public in 1888.
The Lincoln Monument (1915 - 1922) is another monument from the same series: made of white marble and limestone, the building takes the form of a Greek temple of the Doric order without a pediment. Finally, the Jefferson Monument is the last great monument built in the Fine Arts tradition, in the 1940s. Its architect, John Russell Pope, wanted to highlight Jefferson's taste for Roman buildings. So he decided to imitate the pantheon of Rome and give the building a spectacular dome, which rose 39 meters above the ground. It was severely criticized by supporters of the international style "Rationalism (architecture)").
The return to medieval forms
The taste for Gothic has never completely disappeared, both in Europe and in America. There is nothing more to see than the various churches "Church (building)") that appear in the century and in the century due to population growth. Starting in the 1840s, the neo-Gothic style tended to prevail in the United States, under the impetus of Andrew Jackson Downing (1815 - 1852).[2] It spread in a context of reaction to classicism and development of romanticism. It is characterized by a return to medieval decoration: (chimneys, gables, merlons, pointed windows, gargoyles "Gargoyle (architecture)"), stained glass windows...) and the use of steeply sloping roofs. The buildings adopt a complex plan that moves away from symmetry and neoclassical rigor.
But neo-Gothic was also used for the construction of universities (Harvard) and churches. Richard Upjohn (1802 - 1878) specialized in rural churches of the northeast but his main work was Trinity Church in New York. Its red stone architecture refers to the European century,[2] but today it is drowned in the middle of the immense skyscrapers of Manhattan.
Likewise in New York, it is to James Renwick Jr. that we owe St. Patrick's Cathedral, an elegant synthesis of the cathedrals of Reims and Cologne. The project was entrusted to him in 1858, but it was not completely completed by the construction of the two spiers of the façade until 1888. The use of lighter materials than stone makes it possible to dispense with external supports and buttresses.
Renwick also expressed his talents in Washington, D.C. with the construction of the Smithsonian Institution. But his detractors accuse him of having broken the architectural harmony of the capital by building a heterogeneous complex (Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombard loans and personal additions) in red brick. The success of neo-Gothic lasted until the beginning of the century in numerous skyscrapers, particularly in Chicago and New York.
Tendency towards eclecticism and influence of the Academy of Fine Arts (1860-1914)
Eclecticism is a trend in architecture that manifested itself in the West between the 1860s and the First World War. It consists of mixing different elements borrowed from heterogeneous traditions. It is distinguished from the neoclassical in that it built homogeneous buildings of a single inspiration (Greco-Roman antiquity). The Paris Academy of Fine Arts "Academy of Fine Arts (France)") applies the precepts of eclecticism and influences several American architects. The churches also attracted the attention of architects. Trained at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, the great American architects apply to the letter the principles they learned in France: symmetrical plans, grandiose and monumental buildings, rich decoration and large semicircle openings. The classic decoration is applied to completely new buildings such as stations.
Trinity Church (Boston) in Boston is among the most notable buildings of that time. Adopting a centered plan, architect Henry Hobson Richardson stacks several volumes to give the whole a pyramidal configuration. It uses different materials, such as stoneware and granite.[2] The semicircular arches that frame the stained glass windows are typical of the neo-Romanesque style. New York City is, with Washington D.C., the main field of application of the Beaux-Arts style: it is personified in the public library (New York Public Library), the campus of Columbia University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Museum. Grand Central Terminal, the largest station in Manhattan, is guided by the same spirit and was completed in 1913. Its monumental façade is adorned with columns and large curved openings.
The Brooklyn Bridge is emblematic of eclecticism and New York City. It gives a positive image of progress and can be compared to the Eiffel Tower[2] since it is the work of an engineer, John Augustus Roebling, and because it was criticized by some of his contemporaries. The pointed arches recall the historicist trend, but the steel cables as well as the technical result (480 meters of reach, one of the tallest buildings in the city at the end of the century) make it a modern building. From the 1920s onwards, the Beaux-Arts style competed with the Art Deco trend despite the works of Paul Philippe Cret (Detroit Institute of Arts, 1927) and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (Rockefeller Monument Chapel, 1928; Capitol du Nebraska, 1919-1932). The neoclassical forms are maintained and continue to exist in the federal capital. The National Gallery of Art was still inspired by the Pantheon in Rome and was completed in 1940, based on plans by John Russell Pope.