9

History of Contemporary Architecture AA 2016/2017

Prof. Michela Rosso

1850-1906 THE BIRTH OF THE

SKYSCRAPER ANATOMY OF AN

INNOVATION

9/biblio references

CURTIS: 40-51

US around 1850 ��

The cast iron district in New York

cast iron

Lower Manhattan in the second half of 19th

century

New York �1857 � �

Elisha Otis �installs the first mechanical elevator for the

transport of passengers�↓↓↓

first elevator buildings �

The notion of skyline as a new aesthetic category applied to the the built environment

Engineer Gustave Eiffel (left) on the spiral staircase between the first platform and the

top of the Eiffel TOWER

New York, 1870 - 1875

Equitable Life Insurance Building 1868 -70 George Post Tribune Building Richard Morris Hunt 1873-75

Chicago & New York, 1879-1894

First Leiter Building, Chicago, William Le Baron Jenney 1879 Mills Building, New York, George Post 1881-83 Tacoma Building, Chicago, Holabird & Roche 1887-89 Marquette Building, Chicago, Holabird & Roche 1894

Marshall Field Stores H. H. Richardson 1885 -1887

Monadnock Building John Wellborn Root & Daniel

Burnham 1884 - 1891

references… Leon Battista Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai, Florence 1446-1451 Carl Friedrich Schinkel, Bauakademie, Berlin 1832 - 1836 Henry Labrouste, Bibliothèque Sainte Géneviève, Paris 1842- 1850

Subsequent generations of architects in Chicago

William Le Baron Jenney (1832 - 1907)

Henry H. Richardson (1838-1886)

John Welborn Root (1850-1891)

Louis Sullivan (1856 - 1924)

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959)

Independence from the European legacy��to establish �a new, original, American native language

Frank Furness, Fine Arts Library

Philadelphia 1860 -1880

�US after1850

A free interpretation and manipulation of the historic European styles

a revisited version of Medieval Romanesque buildings

Romanesque Revival

ROMANESQUE

when? After 1000: 11th and 12th centuries

where?

France, Italy, Germany, Spain

Cathedral church at Spira, Germany Sant’Abbondio at Como

Duomo di Pisa

ROMANESQUE: some examples

USA 1850�the westward expansion

The American cities

are built at the major junction points

of railway lines and naval routes

THE CITY is built according to the GRID a framework of spaced streets and avenues that are parallel to or cross each other New York in 1879

the New York grid

The advantages of the grid?

Why the grid?

Straight lines Reduce disputes and conflicts on the nature of boundaries in

case of commercial tarnsactions, facilitate commercial transactions

Simplify problems of plot division Solve traffic problems, make traffic and circulation more fluid

Curves obstacle traffic Block the sight

Create irrational junctions

The LOOP: the commercial district of Chicago

The grid criticized Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux Central park, New York, 1857-1870

Chicago & and the westward expansion

CHICAGO 1833- 1836

In 1833 Chicago is a small village of 350 inhabitants

1871: the Great Fire

Chicago after 1871 the new building type and the problem of language

Rookery Building, Chicago 1887–1888 Daniel H. Burnham & John Wellborn Root

Light Court, Rookery Building, Frank Lloyd Wright 1905

Light Court, Rookery Building, Frank Lloyd Wright 1905

Light Court, Rookery Building, Frank Lloyd Wright 1905

Reliance Building Chicago 1889–1885

Daniel H. Burnham & John Wellborn Root

Reliance Building Chicago 1889–1885 Daniel H. Burnham & John Wellborn Root

Henry Louis Sullivan 1856 - 1924

between Richardson e Wright

masters: Furness, Le Baron Jenney

SULLIVAN s Wainwright Building Saint Louis 1890/1891

The ornamentation issue

Wainwright Building Saint Louis 1890

Guaranty Building, Buffalo 1894-1895

Carson Pirie Scott Co. Building 1898-1906