Cuando los europeos se instalaron en América del Norte, llevaron sus tradiciones arquitectónicas y sus técnicas de construcción. La arquitectura colonial está, por tanto, muy vinculada a las influencias occidentales. La construcción depende de los materiales disponibles allí: la madera y el ladrillo son elementos omnipresentes de los edificios ingleses de Nueva Inglaterra. Está también ligada a la lógica de colonización que da lugar a una apropiación política del espacio por la metrópoli (palacios del gobernador, fuertes). La marca del dominio europeo es tanto económica (aduanas, plantaciones, almacenes) como religiosa (iglesias "Iglesia (edificio)"), templos protestantes, misiones franciscanas y jesuitas).

The Hispanic influence in the south

Spanish exploration of the American southwest began in the 1540s. Conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado traveled through this arid region in search of the mythical gold cities of the Pueblo Indians. The latter build houses in adobe (mass of mud dried in the sun). They are supported by purpose-made wooden beams. The cubic shape of the buildings and their convoluted organization give the towns this unique appearance, which will be taken up later by the American (village style).[2]​.

You can imagine the disappointment of the conqueror in front of these modest constructions without ornamentation, but in the shelter of which the temperature remains constant and cool. The Spanish finally conquered these towns and made Santa Fe "Santa Fe (New Mexico)") the administrative capital of the region in 1609. The governors' palace was built between 1610 and 1614, mixing Indian (adobe) and Spanish influences (wrought iron grilles).[2] The work is elongated and has a patio. The San Miguel de Santa Fe chapel dates back to 1610 and uses the adobe technique that gives this religious building a surprising majesty and austerity.

In the century and century, the Spanish founded a series of forts (presidios) from present-day Los Angeles to present-day San Francisco "San Francisco (California)"). They create a mission network "Mission (religion)") in the southwest region. The most famous is surely that of San Antonio "San Antonio (Texas)") in Texas (Fort Alamo "Alamo Mission (Texas)")). It has an adobe church, with a rectangular nave, with exterior buttresses, two symmetrical bell towers and no ornamentation.[2]​ The San Xavier del Bac Mission in Arizona is a good example of the Churriguerense style in vogue in the rest of Latin America. The façade is framed by two massive vaults and the portico has stipes, carved columns that only serve as ornamentation.

Spanish sovereignty also concerned Florida discontinuously from 1559 to 1821. Here, the conch style enjoyed a certain success in Pensacola, for example. It is about decorating houses with wrought iron balconies; This trend is found in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Spanish also built forts such as those at Pensacola and St. Augustine (Castillo de San Marcos, formerly Fort Marion National Monument), which are the rare architectural vestiges of the century that remain in the United States.

The English influence on the east coast

The colonial architecture of the 13 colonies is characterized by the English model. But climatic and religious differences introduce American elements. In New England, Pasteur Capen's house in Topsfield (Massachusetts, 1683), the central position of the fireplace is planned in case heat is needed in winter.[2] It is covered with "board" boards and uses wood for the structure, two specifically American characteristics. Puritanism imposes simple and sober places of worship, far from any ostentatious ornamentation: the meeting houses serve as the temple office and also as a place of socialization.[2] In the Old Ship Meeting House of Hingham (Massachusetts, 1681), the pulpit is placed in the center and the structure is voluntarily left visible and naked.

In the century the Georgian style and Palladianism developed from the city of Williamsburg "Williamsburg (Virginia)") in Virginia. The governor's palace, built in 1706-1720, is preceded by an extensive entrance wall and above it a skylight placed on a platform with a railing.[2]​ It respects the principle of symmetry. It combines materials found in New England: red brick, white painted wood and blue slate for the gable roof. It serves as a model for the residences of the farmers and rich businessmen of the Atlantic coast (see below “American aristocratic houses”).

In religious architecture, the common elements are the use of brick, sometimes stucco imitating stone and a single spire that exceeds the height of the entrance: St. Michael's Church in Charleston "Charleston (South Carolina)") (1761) or St. Paul's Chapel of Trinity in New York (1766) are a good illustration. The architects of this period are greatly influenced by the canons of the Old World. Peter Harrison (1716 - 1755) reports on his travels about the European techniques applied in the State of Rhode Island: between 1748 and 1761, he built the Redwood Library and the Newport Market. Boston and Salem "Salem (Massachusetts)") are the two main cities where the English style is manifested, but a style purified and adapted to the American method of life. The architect Charles Bulfinch provided the Massachusetts State House in 1795 - 1798 with an original golden dome. He works on the construction of several houses in the Beacon Hill neighborhood and Louisburg Plaza in his hometown of Boston.[2]​.

Other European colonial influences

Dutch influences developed around 1630, with the arrival of Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam and the Hudson River Valley in what is now New York State and in Bergen, in what is now New Jersey. Initially, settlers built small one-room cabins with stone walls and steep roofs to allow for a loft on the second floor. Around 1670, two-story gabled houses were common in New Amsterdam.

For its part, French influences developed in the settlements of the Illinois country and French Louisiana "Louisiana (New France)"). It is believed that they were mainly influenced by the building styles of French Canada and the Caribbean. It had its beginnings in 1699, with the establishment of French Louisiana, but continued to be built after Spain assumed control of the colonial territory in 1763. Building styles that evolved during the French colonial period include the Creole cottage, the Creole townhouse, and the French Creole plantation.

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.

Rural aristocratic houses

They developed on the eastern coast where rich owners and cultivators had sumptuous and comfortable residences built from the 19th century onwards, which sought to imitate English residences.

The dissemination of the Architectural Treatises among the colonial aristocracy allowed the Georgian style to be affirmed: in Mount Pleasant (Philadelphia), John McPherson had a residence built in 1761-1762 equipped with an entrance with a pediment, supported by Doric columns. It has a roof with a railing and a symmetrical resolution, characteristic of the neoclassical style then in vogue in Europe. In Salem, Samuel McIntire is the architect of the John Gardner-Pingree House (1805); uses the low-slope roof, the railing and the brick. It takes up Palladio's idea of ​​connecting the buildings by a semicircular portico with columns "Column (architecture)"). In the 1780s, the federal style gradually moved away from the Georgian style and became a truly American style. At the time of the War of Independence, the houses moved away from the strictly rectangular plan, adopted curved lines and were adorned with decorative details such as garlands and urns. Some openings are ellipsoidal in shape; one or more parts are oval or circular.

Thomas Jefferson drew up plans for his own house at Monticello in Virginia, near Charlottesville. A beautiful example of the Palladian style, it recalls the Salm hotel located in Paris, which Jefferson was able to see when he was ambassador to France. It used ancient components such as Doric columns, tetrastyle porticos and a central dome. In Louisiana, colonial houses are sometimes commissioned with a neoclassical pediment and columns, as is the case at Belle Meade Plantation in Tennessee: symmetrical in style, the residence has a porch with columns and narrow windows. But the domestic architecture of the South knew how to emancipate itself from the classical model by adding a mid-height balcony on the façade and forgetting the pediment over the entrance porch (Charleston, South Carolina; Oak Alley plantation in Louisiana). The houses are adapted to the climate of the region and are part of the plantation economy. They have a stucco and cast iron decoration like in the French quarter.

Later, the great families of the east coast had immense palaces and chalets built in the neo-Gothic style, the opposite of neoclassicism. They took Sir Horace Walpole's English house on Strawberry Hill as a model. Alexander Jackson Davis (1803 - 1892) worked on Hudson Valley chalet projects and furnished them with whimsical details taken from the medieval directory. For George Merritt's residence in Lyndhurst, he chose to build a building with a complex plan and open several windows that may make one think of stained glass windows in churches.

In the second half of the century, architects Richard Morris Hunt, Henri Hobson Richardson, and Frank Furness often received commissions from wealthy families such as the Ames or Vanderbilts and built residences in Neo-Romanesque or Neo-Renaissance styles. Industrial or transportation magnates wanted grand mansions inspired by European palaces: Biltmore Palace, near Asheville, North Carolina, was the largest private residence in the country. Richard Morris Hunt copied the Louis XII and Francis I wings of Blois Castle. It is the golden age of large agencies such as McKim, Mead & White and the Fine Arts style, even for private constructions. The architecture expresses the prestige of American notables.

Modest habitat

At the beginning of the century, non-technical manuals, the pattern books, were disseminated. The settlement of the western United States modified the needs of architecture. The pioneers used the balloon frame technique in the 1840s and 1850s. The first use seems to date back to 1833 for the construction of St Marys Church in Chicago. Its success lies in the speed of construction (standardized boards and nails)[2]​ that allowed everyone to easily create the structure and skeleton of the house, which was then covered with boards. The interior of the walls was covered with plaster or wood. It encouraged the rapid development of cities and provided great mobility. However, these houses did not offer good sanitary conditions and burned easily in the event of a fire.

The Stick style is an American method of house construction that uses protective walls made of wooden beams. The buildings are closed with high ceilings and steep roofs. The plan is asymmetrical and the interior space opens onto several galleries. The exterior is not devoid of decoration (large and refined consoles), although the main objective is comfort. Richard Morris Hunt built the John N. Griswold House in Newport in 1862. The Stick Style was gradually abandoned after the crisis of 1873.

Then the Shingle style replaced the Stick style. It is characterized by simplicity and the search for convenience. Henri Hobson Richardson built William Watts Sherman's house in 1874 - 1875, leaving the wooden structure to appear. Mrs. F. Stoughton's Cambridge House "Cambridge (Massachusetts)") (1882-1883) and the Newport Casino (1879-1881) retain the plank covering. On the west coast, which attracts more and more Americans and architects, domestic architecture is also evolving towards more and more modernity.

The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco is representative of Victorian-Italianized houses (1860 - 1900). Built using redwood wood, they withstood the city fire in 1906. They are highly decorated and colored. At the same time, they offered all the modern comforts: central heating, electricity, running water... Their dimensions are standardized: 8 meters for the façade and 30 meters for the depth. They have several floors and windows.

The taste for simplification of volumes and exterior decoration progressed thanks to the achievements of Irving Gill, to whom we owe several flat-roofed California houses in 1910 (Walter Luther Dodge's house, Los Angeles, for example). Rudolf M. Schindler and Richard Neutra adapt European modernism to the Californian context, in the 1920s (Lovell Beach House, Newport Beach (California); Health House in Los Angeles).

La segunda mitad del siglo es la de la reconstrucción después de la Guerra de Secesión y del desarrollo económico de los Estados Unidos. La revolución industrial es el nacimiento de nuevos materiales de construcción (acero, hormigón). La urbanización, el crecimiento demográfico y el capitalismo suscitan convulsiones profundas en la arquitectura americana (estaciones, oficinas,…), que conocen su edad de oro. Los arquitectos obtienen un reconocimiento oficial y trabajan tanto para el Estado como para una clientela burguesa en búsqueda de la comodidad. El final de este período se caracteriza por la aparición del cine que exige nuevas construcciones garantizadas, en particular, por Thomas W. Lamb"), en Nueva York.

Cast-iron Buildings

In the middle of the century, new methods of direct steel manufacturing appeared (Thomas-Gilchrist method, Bessemer and Siemens-Martin furnaces). These discoveries allow the mass manufacturing of “quality” steel. Industrialists emphasize the qualities of metal in architecture: standardized parts reduce the cost of construction. Fire risks are reduced thanks to the fireproofing method. James Bogardus (1800-1874) is one of these entrepreneurs who advertises this construction method linked to the industrial revolution and called cast-iron building. Several factories and warehouses use this technique in New York, such as the Harper Building, built in 1854 and which imitates the façade of a Renaissance palace. Daniel Badger (1806-1884) manufactures the metal elements that decorate the façade of the Haughwout building. It is equipped with the first steam elevator that serves all five floors. The windows are framed by Corinthian columns and the whole is crowned by a meticulously decorated cornice. The decoration of the façade hides the internal metal skeleton.

The metal architecture is provided with stained glass windows that illuminate the interior space: in Cleveland, the 1890 arcades were designed by John Eisenmann on the model of the Victor-Emmanuel Gallery in Milan. They are made up of 1,800 glass panels and were financed by magnates John D. Rockefeller and Marcus Hanna.

Birth of skyscrapers

The constructions of skyscrapers were possible thanks to the invention of the elevator and the progress of the steel industry. The board plan and land ownership speculation in American urban centers are no strangers to the success of this construction method. Finally, the grouping of companies and capitalist competition encourage the vertical rise of buildings.

It is difficult to say which was the first skyscraper in history. New Yorkers claim it is the New York Tribune Building, designed by Richard Morris Hunt (1873, 78 meters). Others consider it to be the Home Insurance Building (1884 - 1885), in Chicago, built by members of the Chicago School "Chicago School (architecture)"): Louis Sullivan, William LeBaron Jenney, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird and Martin Roche. They advocate a simple and utilitarian style; some consider that they prefigure the rationalist movement.

Neo-Gothic skyscrapers

The Woolworth Building in New York, a work of architect Cass Gilbert (1913), is one of the most successful neo-Gothic skyscrapers. [3] With its 60 floors, it was surpassed at the time by the Metropolitan LIFE Tower. The first three floors are made of beautiful limestone, replaced in the following ones by terracotta.[2]​ The neo-Gothic trend prompted the architect to add false buttresses and gargoyles "Gargoyle (architecture)"). Taking into account the gigantism of the building, the decorative elements were large in size in order to be visible from the street. In Chicago, the project for the headquarters of the Chicago Tribune Newspaper was awarded to Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells. Opened in 1925, it is one of the city's iconic buildings and looks like a notable secular cathedral.

Reflections on skyscrapers

Quickly, several American architects (including Louis Sullivan...) criticized this new vertical architecture. The vertiginous rise of the buildings prevents light from reaching the ground. The orthogonal plane implies an accumulation of circulation. There is a risk of standardizing the appearance of city centers. Finally, new safety problems are emerging, particularly regarding fires. Starting in 1916, to respond to these difficulties, a law on subdivision into zones (Zoning Law) was adopted in New York. The Regulation obliges architects to adapt the height of buildings depending on the size of the plot. It remains in force until 1961. This gives rise to the construction of pyramidal buildings (smaller top floors) such as the Empire State Building, or it is even built only on part of the plot, such as the Seagram Building (Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, 1958) which provides a decrease of 28 meters in relation to Park Avenue, and proposes an original means of integrating the skyscraper into the city. Even today, this right to heaven is highly regulated (Tiffany sold her right to Trump, allowing the rise of the Trump Building).

In 1904 Frank Lloyd Wright was also interested in the problem of light, designing the Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, which he organized around a large central patio illuminated from above and to which the doors of each floor open. The building opens inwards and has a large common room in the center. By using stone and brick and cutting out horizontal planes, Wright rejects the normalization of the skyscraper.

The work of Frank Lloyd Wright

The Prairie School inaugurates the period of organic architecture in the United States. Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright are considered its main representatives. The first large house of the Prairie School is that of Highland Park "Highland Park (Illinois)") in Illinois, completed in 1902 by Ward W. Willitts. Wright advocates a centered and asymmetrical plan, organized around the fireplace. The house is representative of the idea of ​​openness to nature and horizontality. The entrance is modest and the rooms are low-ceilinged: in his autobiography (1932), Wright acknowledges that he calibrates them by taking the size of a 1.74 m man. The most successful example of the Prairie School is surely the Robie House located in Chicago (1906-1909), which recalls an elongated transatlantic ship.

After a stay in Japan, Frank Lloyd Wright returned to the United States and perfected the textile block technique, that is, he used standardized concrete blocks. This results in houses with a simple and concise appearance, such as Alice Millard's house in Pasadena "Pasadena (California)") (1923, California). Thanks to the patronage of Edgar J. Kaufmann, Wright continued his research and built the famous Waterfall House in 1936. He exploited the possibilities of overhangs and angle windows.

Art Deco in American architecture

At the end of the 1920s, the influence of Art Deco was felt in American architecture, mixing with local urban planning requirements and pre-Columbian sources of inspiration.[2] The side taken by geometric simplification, stylization and the use of luxurious materials is perfectly illustrated in the skyscrapers of New York (Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Chanin Building, etc.). The other buildings are isolated (Board of Trade Building, Fisher Building, 1928 and Guardian Building, 1929, Detroit) or located on the West Coast (Los Angeles: Argyle Hotel, The Eastern Building, 1929, by Claude Beelman"; San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge, 1937).

Despite the Wall Street crisis of 1929, skyscrapers rise above the ground, sometimes at impressive speed, as in the case of the Empire State Building, described as a wonder of the modern world. Rockefeller Center, a huge complex located in the heart of Manhattan, marks the ambitious idea of ​​building a "city in the city"[2]​ in a rather gloomy time. To sustain this start and reduce unemployment in the construction sector, President Roosevelt invested in a series of large public works. Art Deco experienced a unique development in Florida: numerous hotels were built in Miami Beach after the hurricane of 1926. The decorative elements in stucco and marble represent the local fauna and flora (pink flamingos, palm trees...) which is why we speak of a Tropical Art Deco trend, which uses pastel colors. The historic sites commission has classified more than 800 of these sometimes exuberant buildings, concentrated in Lincoln Road Mall and Ocean Drive "Ocean Drive (Miami Beach)". Florida Art Deco will decline in four trends from the 1920s to the 1940s: Zig-zag modern, Mediterranean revival, Streamline moderne and Depression modern.

The International Style and the influence of the Bauhaus School

The expression International Style is used for the first time in 1932 in a work by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, written after an exhibition at the MoMA in New York entitled Modern Architecture. The rise of dictatorships in Europe left America the initiative for the dissemination of architectural modernism, welcoming European emigrated architects, particularly German and Austrian. In 1933, the Bauhaus school closed its doors in Germany under pressure from the Nazis, its harshly persecuted artists often fled to the United States, in particular, Chicago, while their works were systematically destroyed in Germany.

Three basic norms mark the break with traditional architecture: valorize volumes with smooth external surfaces; avoid all decorative elements but take care of the architectural details; finally follow the principle of regularity. The International Style is therefore presented as a resolutely modernist trend.

The UN headquarters in New York is the most notable example of the international style after 1945. It was built along the East River on land acquired thanks to a donation from John Davison Rockefeller Junior. It was inaugurated on January 9, 1951 and became the symbol of internationalism and progress.

The concept of separate buildings according to their function applies. The skyscraper that houses the United Nations Secretariat reaches 164 meters and is presented on two sides as a wall covered in glass and aluminum, while the other sides are covered with marble slabs.

The post-war period is characterized by the works of the Finnish Eero Saarinen whose eclecticism is manifested in the Kresge auditorium of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT - 1956), the arch "Arco (construction)") of Saint Louis "Saint Louis (Missouri)") (1967) or also in his work on the airport terminals of New York and Washington D.C.. The German Walter Gropius teaches architecture at Harvard and builds with Pietro Belluschi's controversial Pan Am building in New York (1963). He trains the great architects of the next generation and founded The Architects' Collaborative studio with several young architects. Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe arrived in the United States in 1937 and applied his concepts of modernist classicism in New York (Seagram building, 1958), Chicago (university on South Side). He is the most fertile architect of all.

The modernist movement widely used concrete, leaving it in its raw state in several works from the 1960s and 1970s: the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts on the Harvard campus is the only building designed by Le Corbusier in the United States.[2] The most famous representatives of the brutalism trend are Paul Rudolf, Marcel Breuer, Bertrand Goldberg and Louis Kahn.

The 1970s mark a before and after in American architecture, due to the oil crisis and the consideration of heritage. There is criticism of the international style and its minimalist and austere tendency. Many architects return to the Beaux-Arts and Art Deco styles.

The masterpieces of postmodernism are the Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera (New York, 1962-1966). The eclectic trend is expressed on university campuses such as Yale (Gordon Wu Hall, 1980, Robert Venturi). Philip Johnson's skyscrapers move away from banality and the tendency towards uniformity (IDS Center in Minneapolis). This architect tries to establish codes, references to the past and totally modern elements. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company") in New York has a monumental 8-level entrance arch and an unfinished pediment-shaped roof; it has been heavily criticized.

Finally, museums need architectural renovation during this period. One thinks first of all of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is equipped with new wings entrusted to John Dinkeloo") and Kevin Roche, which use large stained glass windows (Sackler wing, for example). Edward Larrabee Barnes adopts a daring helix plan for the Walker Art Center") in Minneapolis (1968-1971). He also works for the Dallas Museum of Art (1984) and the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago. Finally, Ieoh Ming Pei and Richard Meier left their mark on several cultural sites in the 1980s. For the National Gallery of Art, Pei juxtaposes the volumes. Richard Meier renews the Le Corbusier genre (Getty Center in Los Angeles (1985-1997), High Museum of Art in Atlanta (1980-1983)).

The other great representatives of American postmodernism are Charles Willard Moore, Stanley Tigerman), Wallace K. Harrison and Robert Venturi. Some have an international career.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 provoked the beginning of a reflection on skyscrapers, their symbology and their security. New ecological demands appear (green architecture) and the use of information technology transforms the way of understanding architecture. In the context of globalization, one would tend to think that all megalopolises are alike. However, we are instead witnessing an increase in diversity thanks to new materials (tensioned steel, membrane structures) and the daring of architects. The architecture of the place takes into account the environmental conditions (earthquakes, cold...) and tries to use solar panels (case of California). Today, a new generation of "green" skyscrapers ("green buildings") is coming to light in American metropolises: the Chicago-based architecture studio Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has designed the 7 World Trade Center building in New York, which maximizes the use of natural light and the use of recycled materials.[4]​ The US Green Building Council (USGBC) is the body in charge of attributing the "green building" label to a building.

Finally, American architects are invited to reflect, with their urban planning colleagues, on the revitalization of business centers and degraded intermediate neighborhoods (creation of lofts, rehabilitation of the Harlem neighborhood by Roberta Wash).

The United States is fortunate not to have been affected by the destruction caused by the two world wars. They have not known the bombings and destruction of cities like Europe or Japan. On the contrary, the territory presents important natural risks for heritage: earthquakes in California, cyclones around the Gulf of Mexico that are particularly devastating. To protect historical buildings from speculative and private appetites, the federal State has provided itself with several institutions: at the beginning of the century, American national monuments were created to protect natural places and also architectural achievements (Amerindian villages, forts from the colonial era, Spanish missions... "Mission (religion)")); Since 1935, the National Park Service has been responsible for listing buildings, monuments or neighborhoods of historical interest in the United States.

But the movement to rehabilitate old buildings developed mainly from the 1970s onwards. There was a protest against the destructive urban renewal operations (Pennsylvania Station, demolished in 1965 and the Singer Building destroyed in 1968. In 1975, an opinion campaign in which Jackie Kennedy participated saved the Grand Central Terminal station in New York, built at the beginning of the century, from destruction. In 1998, interior restoration work made the roof reappear in shape. star of the main hall.

On the occasion of the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence (1976), the government decides to renew the urban and local heritage of the nation. Become aware of defending the most recent heritage: this is how the Little Rock High School was registered as a protected historic site on November 6, 1988 due to its importance in the civic rights movement in the late 1950s. With deindustrialization, the rehabilitation of old warehouses or factories became very active. There is a desire to adapt an old structure to new uses while always preserving its historical interest. Finally, associations such as "Historic New England" are attentive to preserving and maintaining local heritage.

History

The teaching of architecture in the first half of the century remains under the influence of English methods. On the other hand, there are still no specialized training places. Architecture agencies and their libraries serve as schools. Sketching clubs give night courses in large metropolises. They federated in 1891 to form the Architectural League of America.

In 1865, the first architecture courses were given at MIT under the tutelage of William Robert Ware, then at Columbia University in 1881. The American Institute of Architecture (AIA) congress met for the first time in 1867. The Society of Fine Arts architects was created in 1894. It was necessary to wait until 1903 for an architecture department to open on the west coast, at the University of Berkeley "University of California (Berkeley)"). In 1905, the American academy opened its doors to Rome. This teaching slowly opens up to minorities (the black William Taylor comes out number one in his promotion to the MTI in 1892) and to women. Architect Julia Morgan is chosen by William Randolph Hearst to build his San Simeon residence. Architecture magazines help spread interest in this discipline: one of the first is American Architect and Building News in Boston in 1876. In San Francisco, you can read the Californian Architect and Building News' from 1879. The influence of the School of Fine Arts in Paris continues to be predominant and American architects are trained there. The Fine Arts Institute of Design' was created in 1916.

Cranbrook Academy, near Detroit, trained American architects in the 19th century. Created by George G. Booth, a newspaper magnate, the project was entrusted to Eliel Saarinen. A boys' school was built between 1926 and 1930; then comes a girls' school (1929-1931) [23]. With his son, he built the Cranbrook Institute of Sciences (1936-1937) and the Academy Library (1938-1942), which was inspired by the Tokyo Palace in Paris.

Today

The most prestigious architecture schools in the United States are:[5]​.

Cuando los europeos se instalaron en América del Norte, llevaron sus tradiciones arquitectónicas y sus técnicas de construcción. La arquitectura colonial está, por tanto, muy vinculada a las influencias occidentales. La construcción depende de los materiales disponibles allí: la madera y el ladrillo son elementos omnipresentes de los edificios ingleses de Nueva Inglaterra. Está también ligada a la lógica de colonización que da lugar a una apropiación política del espacio por la metrópoli (palacios del gobernador, fuertes). La marca del dominio europeo es tanto económica (aduanas, plantaciones, almacenes) como religiosa (iglesias "Iglesia (edificio)"), templos protestantes, misiones franciscanas y jesuitas).

The Hispanic influence in the south

Spanish exploration of the American southwest began in the 1540s. Conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado traveled through this arid region in search of the mythical gold cities of the Pueblo Indians. The latter build houses in adobe (mass of mud dried in the sun). They are supported by purpose-made wooden beams. The cubic shape of the buildings and their convoluted organization give the towns this unique appearance, which will be taken up later by the American (village style).[2]​.

You can imagine the disappointment of the conqueror in front of these modest constructions without ornamentation, but in the shelter of which the temperature remains constant and cool. The Spanish finally conquered these towns and made Santa Fe "Santa Fe (New Mexico)") the administrative capital of the region in 1609. The governors' palace was built between 1610 and 1614, mixing Indian (adobe) and Spanish influences (wrought iron grilles).[2] The work is elongated and has a patio. The San Miguel de Santa Fe chapel dates back to 1610 and uses the adobe technique that gives this religious building a surprising majesty and austerity.

In the century and century, the Spanish founded a series of forts (presidios) from present-day Los Angeles to present-day San Francisco "San Francisco (California)"). They create a mission network "Mission (religion)") in the southwest region. The most famous is surely that of San Antonio "San Antonio (Texas)") in Texas (Fort Alamo "Alamo Mission (Texas)")). It has an adobe church, with a rectangular nave, with exterior buttresses, two symmetrical bell towers and no ornamentation.[2]​ The San Xavier del Bac Mission in Arizona is a good example of the Churriguerense style in vogue in the rest of Latin America. The façade is framed by two massive vaults and the portico has stipes, carved columns that only serve as ornamentation.

Spanish sovereignty also concerned Florida discontinuously from 1559 to 1821. Here, the conch style enjoyed a certain success in Pensacola, for example. It is about decorating houses with wrought iron balconies; This trend is found in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Spanish also built forts such as those at Pensacola and St. Augustine (Castillo de San Marcos, formerly Fort Marion National Monument), which are the rare architectural vestiges of the century that remain in the United States.

The English influence on the east coast

The colonial architecture of the 13 colonies is characterized by the English model. But climatic and religious differences introduce American elements. In New England, Pasteur Capen's house in Topsfield (Massachusetts, 1683), the central position of the fireplace is planned in case heat is needed in winter.[2] It is covered with "board" boards and uses wood for the structure, two specifically American characteristics. Puritanism imposes simple and sober places of worship, far from any ostentatious ornamentation: the meeting houses serve as the temple office and also as a place of socialization.[2] In the Old Ship Meeting House of Hingham (Massachusetts, 1681), the pulpit is placed in the center and the structure is voluntarily left visible and naked.

In the century the Georgian style and Palladianism developed from the city of Williamsburg "Williamsburg (Virginia)") in Virginia. The governor's palace, built in 1706-1720, is preceded by an extensive entrance wall and above it a skylight placed on a platform with a railing.[2]​ It respects the principle of symmetry. It combines materials found in New England: red brick, white painted wood and blue slate for the gable roof. It serves as a model for the residences of the farmers and rich businessmen of the Atlantic coast (see below “American aristocratic houses”).

In religious architecture, the common elements are the use of brick, sometimes stucco imitating stone and a single spire that exceeds the height of the entrance: St. Michael's Church in Charleston "Charleston (South Carolina)") (1761) or St. Paul's Chapel of Trinity in New York (1766) are a good illustration. The architects of this period are greatly influenced by the canons of the Old World. Peter Harrison (1716 - 1755) reports on his travels about the European techniques applied in the State of Rhode Island: between 1748 and 1761, he built the Redwood Library and the Newport Market. Boston and Salem "Salem (Massachusetts)") are the two main cities where the English style is manifested, but a style purified and adapted to the American method of life. The architect Charles Bulfinch provided the Massachusetts State House in 1795 - 1798 with an original golden dome. He works on the construction of several houses in the Beacon Hill neighborhood and Louisburg Plaza in his hometown of Boston.[2]​.

Other European colonial influences

Dutch influences developed around 1630, with the arrival of Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam and the Hudson River Valley in what is now New York State and in Bergen, in what is now New Jersey. Initially, settlers built small one-room cabins with stone walls and steep roofs to allow for a loft on the second floor. Around 1670, two-story gabled houses were common in New Amsterdam.

For its part, French influences developed in the settlements of the Illinois country and French Louisiana "Louisiana (New France)"). It is believed that they were mainly influenced by the building styles of French Canada and the Caribbean. It had its beginnings in 1699, with the establishment of French Louisiana, but continued to be built after Spain assumed control of the colonial territory in 1763. Building styles that evolved during the French colonial period include the Creole cottage, the Creole townhouse, and the French Creole plantation.

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.

Rural aristocratic houses

They developed on the eastern coast where rich owners and cultivators had sumptuous and comfortable residences built from the 19th century onwards, which sought to imitate English residences.

The dissemination of the Architectural Treatises among the colonial aristocracy allowed the Georgian style to be affirmed: in Mount Pleasant (Philadelphia), John McPherson had a residence built in 1761-1762 equipped with an entrance with a pediment, supported by Doric columns. It has a roof with a railing and a symmetrical resolution, characteristic of the neoclassical style then in vogue in Europe. In Salem, Samuel McIntire is the architect of the John Gardner-Pingree House (1805); uses the low-slope roof, the railing and the brick. It takes up Palladio's idea of ​​connecting the buildings by a semicircular portico with columns "Column (architecture)"). In the 1780s, the federal style gradually moved away from the Georgian style and became a truly American style. At the time of the War of Independence, the houses moved away from the strictly rectangular plan, adopted curved lines and were adorned with decorative details such as garlands and urns. Some openings are ellipsoidal in shape; one or more parts are oval or circular.

Thomas Jefferson drew up plans for his own house at Monticello in Virginia, near Charlottesville. A beautiful example of the Palladian style, it recalls the Salm hotel located in Paris, which Jefferson was able to see when he was ambassador to France. It used ancient components such as Doric columns, tetrastyle porticos and a central dome. In Louisiana, colonial houses are sometimes commissioned with a neoclassical pediment and columns, as is the case at Belle Meade Plantation in Tennessee: symmetrical in style, the residence has a porch with columns and narrow windows. But the domestic architecture of the South knew how to emancipate itself from the classical model by adding a mid-height balcony on the façade and forgetting the pediment over the entrance porch (Charleston, South Carolina; Oak Alley plantation in Louisiana). The houses are adapted to the climate of the region and are part of the plantation economy. They have a stucco and cast iron decoration like in the French quarter.

Later, the great families of the east coast had immense palaces and chalets built in the neo-Gothic style, the opposite of neoclassicism. They took Sir Horace Walpole's English house on Strawberry Hill as a model. Alexander Jackson Davis (1803 - 1892) worked on Hudson Valley chalet projects and furnished them with whimsical details taken from the medieval directory. For George Merritt's residence in Lyndhurst, he chose to build a building with a complex plan and open several windows that may make one think of stained glass windows in churches.

In the second half of the century, architects Richard Morris Hunt, Henri Hobson Richardson, and Frank Furness often received commissions from wealthy families such as the Ames or Vanderbilts and built residences in Neo-Romanesque or Neo-Renaissance styles. Industrial or transportation magnates wanted grand mansions inspired by European palaces: Biltmore Palace, near Asheville, North Carolina, was the largest private residence in the country. Richard Morris Hunt copied the Louis XII and Francis I wings of Blois Castle. It is the golden age of large agencies such as McKim, Mead & White and the Fine Arts style, even for private constructions. The architecture expresses the prestige of American notables.

Modest habitat

At the beginning of the century, non-technical manuals, the pattern books, were disseminated. The settlement of the western United States modified the needs of architecture. The pioneers used the balloon frame technique in the 1840s and 1850s. The first use seems to date back to 1833 for the construction of St Marys Church in Chicago. Its success lies in the speed of construction (standardized boards and nails)[2]​ that allowed everyone to easily create the structure and skeleton of the house, which was then covered with boards. The interior of the walls was covered with plaster or wood. It encouraged the rapid development of cities and provided great mobility. However, these houses did not offer good sanitary conditions and burned easily in the event of a fire.

The Stick style is an American method of house construction that uses protective walls made of wooden beams. The buildings are closed with high ceilings and steep roofs. The plan is asymmetrical and the interior space opens onto several galleries. The exterior is not devoid of decoration (large and refined consoles), although the main objective is comfort. Richard Morris Hunt built the John N. Griswold House in Newport in 1862. The Stick Style was gradually abandoned after the crisis of 1873.

Then the Shingle style replaced the Stick style. It is characterized by simplicity and the search for convenience. Henri Hobson Richardson built William Watts Sherman's house in 1874 - 1875, leaving the wooden structure to appear. Mrs. F. Stoughton's Cambridge House "Cambridge (Massachusetts)") (1882-1883) and the Newport Casino (1879-1881) retain the plank covering. On the west coast, which attracts more and more Americans and architects, domestic architecture is also evolving towards more and more modernity.

The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco is representative of Victorian-Italianized houses (1860 - 1900). Built using redwood wood, they withstood the city fire in 1906. They are highly decorated and colored. At the same time, they offered all the modern comforts: central heating, electricity, running water... Their dimensions are standardized: 8 meters for the façade and 30 meters for the depth. They have several floors and windows.

The taste for simplification of volumes and exterior decoration progressed thanks to the achievements of Irving Gill, to whom we owe several flat-roofed California houses in 1910 (Walter Luther Dodge's house, Los Angeles, for example). Rudolf M. Schindler and Richard Neutra adapt European modernism to the Californian context, in the 1920s (Lovell Beach House, Newport Beach (California); Health House in Los Angeles).

La segunda mitad del siglo es la de la reconstrucción después de la Guerra de Secesión y del desarrollo económico de los Estados Unidos. La revolución industrial es el nacimiento de nuevos materiales de construcción (acero, hormigón). La urbanización, el crecimiento demográfico y el capitalismo suscitan convulsiones profundas en la arquitectura americana (estaciones, oficinas,…), que conocen su edad de oro. Los arquitectos obtienen un reconocimiento oficial y trabajan tanto para el Estado como para una clientela burguesa en búsqueda de la comodidad. El final de este período se caracteriza por la aparición del cine que exige nuevas construcciones garantizadas, en particular, por Thomas W. Lamb"), en Nueva York.

Cast-iron Buildings

In the middle of the century, new methods of direct steel manufacturing appeared (Thomas-Gilchrist method, Bessemer and Siemens-Martin furnaces). These discoveries allow the mass manufacturing of “quality” steel. Industrialists emphasize the qualities of metal in architecture: standardized parts reduce the cost of construction. Fire risks are reduced thanks to the fireproofing method. James Bogardus (1800-1874) is one of these entrepreneurs who advertises this construction method linked to the industrial revolution and called cast-iron building. Several factories and warehouses use this technique in New York, such as the Harper Building, built in 1854 and which imitates the façade of a Renaissance palace. Daniel Badger (1806-1884) manufactures the metal elements that decorate the façade of the Haughwout building. It is equipped with the first steam elevator that serves all five floors. The windows are framed by Corinthian columns and the whole is crowned by a meticulously decorated cornice. The decoration of the façade hides the internal metal skeleton.

The metal architecture is provided with stained glass windows that illuminate the interior space: in Cleveland, the 1890 arcades were designed by John Eisenmann on the model of the Victor-Emmanuel Gallery in Milan. They are made up of 1,800 glass panels and were financed by magnates John D. Rockefeller and Marcus Hanna.

Birth of skyscrapers

The constructions of skyscrapers were possible thanks to the invention of the elevator and the progress of the steel industry. The board plan and land ownership speculation in American urban centers are no strangers to the success of this construction method. Finally, the grouping of companies and capitalist competition encourage the vertical rise of buildings.

It is difficult to say which was the first skyscraper in history. New Yorkers claim it is the New York Tribune Building, designed by Richard Morris Hunt (1873, 78 meters). Others consider it to be the Home Insurance Building (1884 - 1885), in Chicago, built by members of the Chicago School "Chicago School (architecture)"): Louis Sullivan, William LeBaron Jenney, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird and Martin Roche. They advocate a simple and utilitarian style; some consider that they prefigure the rationalist movement.

Neo-Gothic skyscrapers

The Woolworth Building in New York, a work of architect Cass Gilbert (1913), is one of the most successful neo-Gothic skyscrapers. [3] With its 60 floors, it was surpassed at the time by the Metropolitan LIFE Tower. The first three floors are made of beautiful limestone, replaced in the following ones by terracotta.[2]​ The neo-Gothic trend prompted the architect to add false buttresses and gargoyles "Gargoyle (architecture)"). Taking into account the gigantism of the building, the decorative elements were large in size in order to be visible from the street. In Chicago, the project for the headquarters of the Chicago Tribune Newspaper was awarded to Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells. Opened in 1925, it is one of the city's iconic buildings and looks like a notable secular cathedral.

Reflections on skyscrapers

Quickly, several American architects (including Louis Sullivan...) criticized this new vertical architecture. The vertiginous rise of the buildings prevents light from reaching the ground. The orthogonal plane implies an accumulation of circulation. There is a risk of standardizing the appearance of city centers. Finally, new safety problems are emerging, particularly regarding fires. Starting in 1916, to respond to these difficulties, a law on subdivision into zones (Zoning Law) was adopted in New York. The Regulation obliges architects to adapt the height of buildings depending on the size of the plot. It remains in force until 1961. This gives rise to the construction of pyramidal buildings (smaller top floors) such as the Empire State Building, or it is even built only on part of the plot, such as the Seagram Building (Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, 1958) which provides a decrease of 28 meters in relation to Park Avenue, and proposes an original means of integrating the skyscraper into the city. Even today, this right to heaven is highly regulated (Tiffany sold her right to Trump, allowing the rise of the Trump Building).

In 1904 Frank Lloyd Wright was also interested in the problem of light, designing the Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, which he organized around a large central patio illuminated from above and to which the doors of each floor open. The building opens inwards and has a large common room in the center. By using stone and brick and cutting out horizontal planes, Wright rejects the normalization of the skyscraper.

The work of Frank Lloyd Wright

The Prairie School inaugurates the period of organic architecture in the United States. Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright are considered its main representatives. The first large house of the Prairie School is that of Highland Park "Highland Park (Illinois)") in Illinois, completed in 1902 by Ward W. Willitts. Wright advocates a centered and asymmetrical plan, organized around the fireplace. The house is representative of the idea of ​​openness to nature and horizontality. The entrance is modest and the rooms are low-ceilinged: in his autobiography (1932), Wright acknowledges that he calibrates them by taking the size of a 1.74 m man. The most successful example of the Prairie School is surely the Robie House located in Chicago (1906-1909), which recalls an elongated transatlantic ship.

After a stay in Japan, Frank Lloyd Wright returned to the United States and perfected the textile block technique, that is, he used standardized concrete blocks. This results in houses with a simple and concise appearance, such as Alice Millard's house in Pasadena "Pasadena (California)") (1923, California). Thanks to the patronage of Edgar J. Kaufmann, Wright continued his research and built the famous Waterfall House in 1936. He exploited the possibilities of overhangs and angle windows.

Art Deco in American architecture

At the end of the 1920s, the influence of Art Deco was felt in American architecture, mixing with local urban planning requirements and pre-Columbian sources of inspiration.[2] The side taken by geometric simplification, stylization and the use of luxurious materials is perfectly illustrated in the skyscrapers of New York (Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Chanin Building, etc.). The other buildings are isolated (Board of Trade Building, Fisher Building, 1928 and Guardian Building, 1929, Detroit) or located on the West Coast (Los Angeles: Argyle Hotel, The Eastern Building, 1929, by Claude Beelman"; San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge, 1937).

Despite the Wall Street crisis of 1929, skyscrapers rise above the ground, sometimes at impressive speed, as in the case of the Empire State Building, described as a wonder of the modern world. Rockefeller Center, a huge complex located in the heart of Manhattan, marks the ambitious idea of ​​building a "city in the city"[2]​ in a rather gloomy time. To sustain this start and reduce unemployment in the construction sector, President Roosevelt invested in a series of large public works. Art Deco experienced a unique development in Florida: numerous hotels were built in Miami Beach after the hurricane of 1926. The decorative elements in stucco and marble represent the local fauna and flora (pink flamingos, palm trees...) which is why we speak of a Tropical Art Deco trend, which uses pastel colors. The historic sites commission has classified more than 800 of these sometimes exuberant buildings, concentrated in Lincoln Road Mall and Ocean Drive "Ocean Drive (Miami Beach)". Florida Art Deco will decline in four trends from the 1920s to the 1940s: Zig-zag modern, Mediterranean revival, Streamline moderne and Depression modern.

The International Style and the influence of the Bauhaus School

The expression International Style is used for the first time in 1932 in a work by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, written after an exhibition at the MoMA in New York entitled Modern Architecture. The rise of dictatorships in Europe left America the initiative for the dissemination of architectural modernism, welcoming European emigrated architects, particularly German and Austrian. In 1933, the Bauhaus school closed its doors in Germany under pressure from the Nazis, its harshly persecuted artists often fled to the United States, in particular, Chicago, while their works were systematically destroyed in Germany.

Three basic norms mark the break with traditional architecture: valorize volumes with smooth external surfaces; avoid all decorative elements but take care of the architectural details; finally follow the principle of regularity. The International Style is therefore presented as a resolutely modernist trend.

The UN headquarters in New York is the most notable example of the international style after 1945. It was built along the East River on land acquired thanks to a donation from John Davison Rockefeller Junior. It was inaugurated on January 9, 1951 and became the symbol of internationalism and progress.

The concept of separate buildings according to their function applies. The skyscraper that houses the United Nations Secretariat reaches 164 meters and is presented on two sides as a wall covered in glass and aluminum, while the other sides are covered with marble slabs.

The post-war period is characterized by the works of the Finnish Eero Saarinen whose eclecticism is manifested in the Kresge auditorium of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT - 1956), the arch "Arco (construction)") of Saint Louis "Saint Louis (Missouri)") (1967) or also in his work on the airport terminals of New York and Washington D.C.. The German Walter Gropius teaches architecture at Harvard and builds with Pietro Belluschi's controversial Pan Am building in New York (1963). He trains the great architects of the next generation and founded The Architects' Collaborative studio with several young architects. Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe arrived in the United States in 1937 and applied his concepts of modernist classicism in New York (Seagram building, 1958), Chicago (university on South Side). He is the most fertile architect of all.

The modernist movement widely used concrete, leaving it in its raw state in several works from the 1960s and 1970s: the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts on the Harvard campus is the only building designed by Le Corbusier in the United States.[2] The most famous representatives of the brutalism trend are Paul Rudolf, Marcel Breuer, Bertrand Goldberg and Louis Kahn.

The 1970s mark a before and after in American architecture, due to the oil crisis and the consideration of heritage. There is criticism of the international style and its minimalist and austere tendency. Many architects return to the Beaux-Arts and Art Deco styles.

The masterpieces of postmodernism are the Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera (New York, 1962-1966). The eclectic trend is expressed on university campuses such as Yale (Gordon Wu Hall, 1980, Robert Venturi). Philip Johnson's skyscrapers move away from banality and the tendency towards uniformity (IDS Center in Minneapolis). This architect tries to establish codes, references to the past and totally modern elements. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company") in New York has a monumental 8-level entrance arch and an unfinished pediment-shaped roof; it has been heavily criticized.

Finally, museums need architectural renovation during this period. One thinks first of all of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is equipped with new wings entrusted to John Dinkeloo") and Kevin Roche, which use large stained glass windows (Sackler wing, for example). Edward Larrabee Barnes adopts a daring helix plan for the Walker Art Center") in Minneapolis (1968-1971). He also works for the Dallas Museum of Art (1984) and the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago. Finally, Ieoh Ming Pei and Richard Meier left their mark on several cultural sites in the 1980s. For the National Gallery of Art, Pei juxtaposes the volumes. Richard Meier renews the Le Corbusier genre (Getty Center in Los Angeles (1985-1997), High Museum of Art in Atlanta (1980-1983)).

The other great representatives of American postmodernism are Charles Willard Moore, Stanley Tigerman), Wallace K. Harrison and Robert Venturi. Some have an international career.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 provoked the beginning of a reflection on skyscrapers, their symbology and their security. New ecological demands appear (green architecture) and the use of information technology transforms the way of understanding architecture. In the context of globalization, one would tend to think that all megalopolises are alike. However, we are instead witnessing an increase in diversity thanks to new materials (tensioned steel, membrane structures) and the daring of architects. The architecture of the place takes into account the environmental conditions (earthquakes, cold...) and tries to use solar panels (case of California). Today, a new generation of "green" skyscrapers ("green buildings") is coming to light in American metropolises: the Chicago-based architecture studio Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has designed the 7 World Trade Center building in New York, which maximizes the use of natural light and the use of recycled materials.[4]​ The US Green Building Council (USGBC) is the body in charge of attributing the "green building" label to a building.

Finally, American architects are invited to reflect, with their urban planning colleagues, on the revitalization of business centers and degraded intermediate neighborhoods (creation of lofts, rehabilitation of the Harlem neighborhood by Roberta Wash).

The United States is fortunate not to have been affected by the destruction caused by the two world wars. They have not known the bombings and destruction of cities like Europe or Japan. On the contrary, the territory presents important natural risks for heritage: earthquakes in California, cyclones around the Gulf of Mexico that are particularly devastating. To protect historical buildings from speculative and private appetites, the federal State has provided itself with several institutions: at the beginning of the century, American national monuments were created to protect natural places and also architectural achievements (Amerindian villages, forts from the colonial era, Spanish missions... "Mission (religion)")); Since 1935, the National Park Service has been responsible for listing buildings, monuments or neighborhoods of historical interest in the United States.

But the movement to rehabilitate old buildings developed mainly from the 1970s onwards. There was a protest against the destructive urban renewal operations (Pennsylvania Station, demolished in 1965 and the Singer Building destroyed in 1968. In 1975, an opinion campaign in which Jackie Kennedy participated saved the Grand Central Terminal station in New York, built at the beginning of the century, from destruction. In 1998, interior restoration work made the roof reappear in shape. star of the main hall.

On the occasion of the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence (1976), the government decides to renew the urban and local heritage of the nation. Become aware of defending the most recent heritage: this is how the Little Rock High School was registered as a protected historic site on November 6, 1988 due to its importance in the civic rights movement in the late 1950s. With deindustrialization, the rehabilitation of old warehouses or factories became very active. There is a desire to adapt an old structure to new uses while always preserving its historical interest. Finally, associations such as "Historic New England" are attentive to preserving and maintaining local heritage.

History

The teaching of architecture in the first half of the century remains under the influence of English methods. On the other hand, there are still no specialized training places. Architecture agencies and their libraries serve as schools. Sketching clubs give night courses in large metropolises. They federated in 1891 to form the Architectural League of America.

In 1865, the first architecture courses were given at MIT under the tutelage of William Robert Ware, then at Columbia University in 1881. The American Institute of Architecture (AIA) congress met for the first time in 1867. The Society of Fine Arts architects was created in 1894. It was necessary to wait until 1903 for an architecture department to open on the west coast, at the University of Berkeley "University of California (Berkeley)"). In 1905, the American academy opened its doors to Rome. This teaching slowly opens up to minorities (the black William Taylor comes out number one in his promotion to the MTI in 1892) and to women. Architect Julia Morgan is chosen by William Randolph Hearst to build his San Simeon residence. Architecture magazines help spread interest in this discipline: one of the first is American Architect and Building News in Boston in 1876. In San Francisco, you can read the Californian Architect and Building News' from 1879. The influence of the School of Fine Arts in Paris continues to be predominant and American architects are trained there. The Fine Arts Institute of Design' was created in 1916.

Cranbrook Academy, near Detroit, trained American architects in the 19th century. Created by George G. Booth, a newspaper magnate, the project was entrusted to Eliel Saarinen. A boys' school was built between 1926 and 1930; then comes a girls' school (1929-1931) [23]. With his son, he built the Cranbrook Institute of Sciences (1936-1937) and the Academy Library (1938-1942), which was inspired by the Tokyo Palace in Paris.

Today

The most prestigious architecture schools in the United States are:[5]​.