The publications of Greek archxological research, the antiquities of Athens by Stuart and Revett, Paestum by Major, the practical in terest of Lord Elgin, and particularly the his tory of art by Winckelman, issued synchro nously with the works of Stuart and Revett, in which the enunciation of the principle that a canonical relation between a whole and the various parts of a structure was necessary to produce an harmonious and balanced result forced the acceptance by many of the belief that the prototypes ot a perfect architecture were to be found not in Roman examples but in Hellenic. Many buildings were therefore erected in England, Germany, France and America in the style of the Greek revival, in which Greek Ionic anu Doric columns and de tails were used in profusion. While monu mentality and dignity were obtained, the failure to appreciate the interdependence of the func tions of Greek sculpture and Greek architec ture with its then unknown refinements, re suited for the most part in an architectural style that was lacking in animation and national character. In Germany, the Greek revival was frequently modified to meet the needs of modern conditions, and while archaeological correctness was to a degree subordinate, the more rational use of the Greek forms achieved a better style than in England. The style in England is exemplified by the Bank of Eng land (1788), the British Museum (1823), Saint George's Hall, Liverpool (1815), and in Ger many by the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin (1784), the Old Museum, Berlin, and the Propylwa, Munich, and in America is best expressed in the Treasury, Washington, the old Custom House, New York, Girard College, Philadelphia, and the State House, Albany.
The results shown in the architectural monu ments of the period in Germany, England and America were disappointing, for architecture to be completely successful must reflect the conditions of the civilization whose activities it is planned to house. The impossibility of in stilling into modern life the conditioning causes of a dead civilization, made it impossible for the structural forms that were employed to re flect the functioning of the civilization of to day.
In France the enthusiasm that resulted from the Greek. revival stimulated an ambition for added refinement and purity. The delicacy of detail and the spirit of spontaneity that marks the Library of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Library of Ste. Genevieve exhibit well the possibilities of the msthetic influence of Greek types.
Contemporaneous with the Roman and Greek revivals due to the influence of scholars and artists who travelled in the Far East, a pseudo-Chinese design became the vogue for many porticoes, pavilions and landscape acces sories throughout France and England. The novelty and decorative possibilities of this Oriental influence, although for years imper fectly understood, have markedly influenced sportive and landscape design to the present day.
In Great Britain, about the middle of the 19th century, there appeared a revival founded upon the national Gothic architecture. The movement known as Victorian Gothic had its beginning in an archaeological enthusiasm in which the decorative possibilities of English Gothic caused many misapplications of the Insular Gothic forms. Subsequent to 1850, archaeological method gave way to an intel ligent effort to adapt the Gothic principles to modern requirements, as the result of which ac tivity there arose a number of monuments im posing in mass and refined in detail, the most successful of which is the building that houses Parliament at Westminster, London. The in fluence of this style extended to America dur ing the last 40 years, but having no deep foundation in national requirements it has fallen into disuse and, like the Greek and Roman styles, has been replaced by designs founded upon Renaissance principles. In France, the 19th century Gothic revival very slightly affected the development of the modern Renaissance. The few buildings that were erected are generally superior to the English examples resulting from the same influence, in that the structural side of the problem has been scientifically dealt with; for the English and American interiors of the pseudo-Gothic style, for the most part completed with plaster work, compared unfavorably with the French constructions in that, in France, the vaultings and dependent details are executed in masonry. Among the various nations in Europe, eclecti cism made itself apparent during the last quar ter of the 19th century. In modern times, the desire for truth and logic through struc tural form has appeared in a number of suc cessful buildings in France, Germany and Eng land. Perhaps the most remarkable example of eclecticism is the Trocadero, Paris. It is im possible to classify this edifice according to architectural styles, but fulfilling its functions as a great Expositional Building, it is typical of the possibilities of a structurally trained archi tectural mind, in which license and extrava gance are restrained by a knowledge of stylistic precedents.
The United States.-- It has been the ex perience of all civilizations that a national art is not attained until there has been developed a suitable centralized authority, possible only with the establishment of a political and commercial independence. A nation achieves such a posi
tion after a long struggle, and, from the time of primitive conditions each step in the formation of an effective national life is marked by archi tectural and constructive methods which punc tuate the epochs of the country's advance. Commercial conditions, utilitarian requirements and scientific discovery necessitate modifica tions in structural procedure and types of plan and mass composition adapted to new and local requirements. Dependence upon historic ante cedents is continually evident. The historic development of the architecture of the United States aptly illustrates the conditions that must surround and control the evolution of archi tecture and its dependent arts in a growing and virile nation. From the time of the colonization of America, until the first half of the 18th cen tury, building was confined almost entirely to sheltering and utility structures. During the period from 1725 to 1776, increase in wealth and population brought about a style based upon that in vogue in England at the time. Trained architects were not to be had in the colonies and the models which set the colonial fashion, due to lack of training of America's builders in classic traditions and the necessity of alterations caused by the use of brick and wood instead of stone, produced an architecture, which, while interesting, had no truly monumental character. In churches in New England and the Middle States, the English designs by Wren and Gibbs obviously served as prototypes and the influence of Adam and Sheraton is patent. Craigie House, Cambridge; Independence Hall at Philadelphia and the Old State House at Bos ton, while refined in mass and detail are not monumentally striking. In the West, in fluenced by Spanish types, were built picturesque mission buildings, and a few churches and secular buildings which exhibited a translated phase of the Spanish Churrigueresque. The era between 1776 to 1812 following the growth of the national government and the development of Federal strength, a characteristic monumen tality became evident as is well exemplified in the central portion of the present Capitol at Washington, the City Hall, New York, and the State House at Boston. The enthusiasm which resulted from the ar chaeological discoveries in classic lands spread to the United States, and previous to 1850 re sulted in an architectural dassic revival. The chaotic conditions surrounding the Civil War seriously impeded structural progress from 1850 to 1876. However a few monumental undertakings belong to this otherwise construc tively poor era. The Capitol at Albany, the dome of the Capitol at Washington, Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York, belong to this period. Due to a variety of causes, the opening up of the West, the great conflagrations in Boston and Chicago, and the return from Europe of Hunt and Richardson, men thoroughly trained by European study, a re vival in architectural spirit and production of the most powerful nature made itself felt throughout the country during the last quarter of the 19th century. With the Romanesque style as his vehicle, Richardson left an artistic imprint upon the nation's art that continues to the present day. Structural verity and dignity of mass mark his works (Trinity Church, Bos ton ; County buildings in Pittsburgh). Hunt, with his great faculty for organization and his thorough founding in the principles of the Renaissance, formally established the Renais sance style. The Marble House, the Breakers at Newport and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York exhibit his genius for organ ized plan and standardization of style. The demand for great commercial buildings in which height was a necessary component on account of the problem of housing multifarious activities in restricted areas, caused the de velopment of new structural form. The intro duction of elevators, the invention of various methods of fireproof construction, the inauguration of a skeleton steel fabric and the solution of problems of lighting, heating and sanitation made possible the rearing of great usky scrapers," the most notable example of which is the Woolworth Building, New York. In spite of the great advances that have been made in the development of architectural science in the United States, no style can be said to have developed that is new and char acteristic. Commercial requirements, the de mand for speed in design and construction and the experimental conditionings that restrict the modern designer have discouraged the evolu tion of a typical national style. In works of a public and commercial character the necessity for a co-operative understanding between the architect and the engineer is increasingly felt. It is only when a unified resultant combining the efforts of the architect and the engineer has been achieved—a resultant in which plan and detail shall adequately and truly function with the discoveries of modern science, that a new American style will appear.