18th and 19th Centuries Modern Architecture

Neo-classicism.

Against Sullivan's equation of beauty with truth, his structural emphasis, the New Yorkers led by Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909) and Stanford White (1853-1906) sought to re-establish the independence of art through abstract beauty of form. Like worshippers of form in many earlier periods, they turned again to the Roman alphabet, but their work is not to be regarded merely as one more historical revival among many. They reaffirmed a unity of style, as well as a unity in the single work, ignoring the temptation to characterize and differentiate minor elements. The long unbroken fronts of McKim's Boston library (designed in 1888), with its uniform arcades, was the first work in this vein to seize public attention.

The cohorts of function and of form met on the battlefield of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The Westerners, with one exception lost themselves in a variety of historical reminiscences. Sullivan, in his Transportation building, glowing with colour and gold, sought to create a new expressive idiom of detail and orna ment, but he stood alone. The Eastern men made common cause in unifying their buildings about the Court of Honour. The sheds of steel and wood disappeared behind ordered white colon nades whose justification lay only in their own harmony. The cumulative effect was overwhelming, and was deeply branded on the memory of the nation.

In the remaining years of the decade its whole architecture turned again to classic unity of form, finding a sanction in the works from the formative period of the Republic. The great

formal groups for Columbia and New York universities, domi nated by their domed libraries, recalled Jefferson's initiative at the University of Virginia. The banks reverted to the models of Latrobe ; the triumphal arch and column were revived as types of monuments. Domestic architecture followed Colonial or Ital ian suggestions, with gardens (see LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE) once more formal in design. With the plans for the improvement of Washington, developing the neglected conceptions of L'Enfant, at the turn of the century, the artistic ideals of the founders were re-established. (For current work see ARCHITECTURE.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Books concerned with the whole history of Ameri can architecture are: L. Mumford, Sticks and Stones (1924) ; T. F. Hamlin, The American Spirit in Architecture (1926) ; T. E. Talimadge, The Story of Architecture in America (1927) ; F. Kimball, American Architecture with full bibliography (1928). For the earlier period see W. R. Ware, ed., The Georgian Period (Boston, 1898-19o2) ; A. Em bury, Early American Churches (New York, 1914) ; F. Kimball, Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies (New York, 1922). For the contemporary period see J. Greber's L'architecture aux Etats Unis (1920) ; W. Hegemann and E. Peets, American Vitruvius (192o), and G. H. Edgell, American Architecture of To-day (1928).

(F. KO