Architecture

Today, May 18, is the birthday of German-born architect and Harvard professor Walter Gropius (1883-1969). For over 30 years, Gropius and his family lived in this house he built near Boston. The stark simplicity of the 1938 Walter Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts may seem very different from the designs of his contemporary, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). However, both architects shared the aesthetics of a rapidly changing world.

Read More...

It's home to the Addams Family. It's the haunting hilltop architecture seen in movies such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Why has the Second Empire or Mansard style house become the perfect setting for horror films and all things spooky?

Read More...

With the 18th section of its spire now in place, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in New York. At 1,776 feet, the David Childs-designed structure is now the third tallest skyscraper in the world.

The steel broadcasting tower sits atop the 104-story office building built on the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks. When the World Trade Center Twin Towers were destroyed on 9/11, the Empire State Building became New York's tallest building, as it had been when it opened on May 1, 1931.

But now, lower Manhattan is getting back in business. The spire doesn't quite look like the architect's rendering, but when the top beacon is finally lit later this year, New York's tallest building will be visible for 50 miles in every direction.

^{Photo of spire installed on May 10, 2013 courtesy Port Authority of New York and New Jersey}

Robert Venturi is only one of many architects who have designed for their parents and other family members. Young architects often launch their careers by building family homes. Mature architects sometimes turn to their families when they want to try out experimental new ideas. For an up-close and personal look at home designs by twenty-five architects, check out Beth Dunlop's book, A House for My Mother (compare prices). The affordable paperback is packed with photos, plus interviews with architects and their parents.

Also, for an inside look at the Vanna Venturi house, check out the PBS broadcast 10 Buildings That Changed America. Check your local listings for dates and times.

^{Book cover of A House for My Mother - Architects Build for their Families by Beth Dunlop, 1999, courtesy Princeton Architectural Press and PriceGrabber.com}

Which buildings changed the way Americans live, work, and play? In the new documentary 10 Buildings That Changed America, host Geoffrey Baer suggests Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House is one answer. From Boston to Los Angeles, Baer takes us on a fast-paced one-hour journey of American architecture, architects, and ideas that shaped a nation. Our new architecture pages give a preview of this weekend's broadcast on PBS (check your local Public Broadcasting Service listings).

New Architecture Pages:

• Ten Buildings That Changed America
• Which Buildings Changed America?

Updated Architecture Pages:

• William Holabird, Skyscraper Pioneer
• Louis Sullivan, America's First Modern Architect
• Thomas Jefferson, Gentleman Architect
• East Wing, National Gallery in Washington DC
• Universal Design
• Great Homes of the Gilded Age

^{Photo: Geoffrey Baer at Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Chicago courtesy of PBS Press Room, 2013}

Another film version of the classic American novel The Great Gatsby opens worldwide this weekend, and once again we're brought back to the Gilded Age. The title character, Jay Gatsby, remains tragic and fictional—unlike the era's real-life Otto Hermann Kahn.

Like Gatsby, Kahn hosted lavish summer parties and grand balls at his Long Island mansion, but that may be where similarities end. Kahn was the real deal—a smart banker of legitimate wealth, a philanthropist, a patron of the arts, a family man. The German-born financier built the "Gold Coast" mansion OHEKA Castle as a family getaway in 1919. Otto Hermann Kahn named his château after himself but modeled it after the great castles of France, including the grand stairway of the Chateau Fountainbleu. Oheka is still America's largest residence after the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.

Do you think you've seen Kahn's face before? Otto H. Kahn made it to the cover of Time magazine in 1925, but his image is widely known as the cartoon millionaire in the game Monopoly. Take THAT, Mr. Gatsby.

Learn about Oheka Castle on Long Island, New York:

• Gilded Age Grandeur
• The Romantic Road to Oheka
• Olmsted-Designed Grounds
• The Grand Stairway
• Library of Illusions
• Saving the Castle

^{Photograph of Otto Kahn courtesy of Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, Library of Congress.}

Not often do architects get their names attached to a style, but that's just what happened to Henry Hobson Richardson. During the 1870s and 1880s, the New Orleans-born architect applied his unique vision to masonry churches, schools, libraries, and public buildings. With towers and arches of rugged stone, Richardson's buildings brought together an American rusticity with the ancient Roman architecture he studied while in France. Soon, his distinctive approach became known as Richardsonian Romanesque.

Trinity Church in Boston is one of Richardson's most famous buildings and is featured in the PBS documentary 10 Buildings That Changed America.

Learn More:

• 1880 - 1900: Richardsonian Romanesque
• The Romanesque Revival House Style

^{Photo of Trinity Church in Boston © lokate366 on flickr.com, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)}

Architects, planners, and developers flock to St. Louis this week for the Fifth Universal Design Summit (UDS5) at the Busch Student Center on the campus of Saint Louis University. They'll discuss ways to build accessible housing and communities and also visit noteworthy examples of universal design found throughout St. Louis.

Presentations include AARP Livable Communities, a case study on Modifying a Mid-Century Ranch home, and other topics related to the Better Living Design (BLD) movement.

Not on the schedule: the famous Saint Louis Gateway Arch. Universal design wasn't on the radar when Eero Saarinen designed the 630-foot tall monument. To enjoy the views, visitors must maneuver at least 96 stairs and remain standing for upwards of 20 minutes. There are no restrooms at the top, and no way for wheelchairs to get there.

Eero Saarien would certainly make many changes if he were designing the Arch today.

^{Above: NOT accessible--the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Photo ©Chris Brown, zoonabar on flickr.com, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). Arch statistics from Accessibility, Gateway Arch at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, National Park Service.}

Buildings collapse for a variety of reasons—shoddy construction, inept engineering, disregard of building codes, poor site choices on unstable land, and stupid remodeling decisions, just to name a few. As the death toll climbs in Bangladesh, architects and engineers say the tragedy at the Savar garment factory could have been avoided.

From the Telegraph: Rana Plaza architect says building was never meant for factories

Updated Architecture Pages This Week:

• Buildings that Changed the World
• 1910: Frederic C. Robie House
• Marin County Civic Center by Frank Lloyd Wright
• Bauhaus
• Prairie Style
• Colonial Houses in New England
• George W. Bush Library, Dallas, Texas
• George Bush Library, College Station, Texas
• Christ Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

^{Collapse of the Savar garment factory in Bangladesh, April 2013. Photo by Sharat Chowdhury CC-BY-2.5 via Wikimedia Commons}

May is Historic Preservation Month in the USA, so expect a flurry of walking tours and special festivals to celebrate America's Colonial and Victorian architecture.

Although great progress is being made toward preserving architecture from the 1700s and 1800s, newer buildings often suffer neglect. So, many preservationists have broadened the definition of historic to include modernist architecture like the Bauhaus style Gropius House shown here.

What do you think? Is it time for historians to embrace the 20th century?

^{Photo of the Walter Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts © Jackie Craven}