An Introduction to the American Greek Revival, with architect Jacques Levet

hi everyone my name is jacques lavag i'm an architect with the firm d stanley dixon architect in atlanta georgia i developed this course to provide an introduction into the grecian language that swept the country in the early 19th century and has been providing inspiration in both form and detail really ever since i'm from southeast louisiana originally and i became interested in this early more creole architecture and how it made the transition to a classical specifically grecian language that had led me to focus in on the creation movements in graduate school and luckily i've been able to use the language in professional practice since then with that i would like to share some of the things that i found personally interesting and those that i found useful in practice i hope that this course provides for a greater understanding of the creation movement so that you can better point out his characteristics and perhaps use the language in your own work so from here i'd like to start the slides with a list of objectives that i have for the course these are to understand the basics of the development of the grecian movement in the united states to become familiar with the various modes of transmission that allow the grecian movement to be prevalent across the country to understand how historic precedent was utilized and adapted during this movement for new uses and to further develop existing traditions and building types to gain an understanding of useful precedent in both forms and details that can be utilized and adapted in new designs today to learn about regional variations and how accretion architecture altered vernacular forms and lastly to be familiar with historical and modern resources to utilize as design references and further research those are a number of specifics but overall i hope this demonstrates that the grecian movement is a great example of the adaptability and the usefulness of the classical language for it to continuously evolve and adapt to its purpose and place and that by studying the creation movement you can greatly add to your toolkit for designing today before we get into things i wanted to discuss a way of thinking about types of architecture that is useful to consider when referencing historical precedent stephen sims did a fantastic lecture on this which i encourage everyone to listen to just google stephen sims built environments and you'll find it he describes that most schools of thought place an emphasis on time-based architecture in the time-based approach designers speak of an architecture of our time and historians speak of historic structures as documents of their time a concept that leads to an assumption that the development of architectural character is linear with sequence periods and styles a timeline that is understood to be irreversible continuing forever into the future and the use of historic forms as working against that timeline this approach can affect what we choose to preserve often giving preference to great examples of a specific period and not to other structures that can have other significant features architecturally art to a community especially not elite communities this approach can also affect what we choose to build today especially in historic areas asking for new buildings or additions to read more from our time than of the past differentiating it in character from nearby historic fabric or on the other extreme if someone chooses to design in a so-called historical style they may be compelled to fully epitomize the style rather than expand it on the other hand there are those like most of my fellow classicists that like to give greater primacy to place in our design thinking by regarding the local historic architectural character as something not just of the past but a character of a place that can be utilized and built upon not simply copied but used as precedent and adapted to be solutions to current architectural design problems all while still retaining a harmonious architectural identity the propagation of a style or character can operate within his own logic across both time and place an architectural character might become dominant at some point in time fade away and then reappear at a later point creating a spectrum of architecture that does not easily fall into discrete categories and as sims puts it while the architectural identities of regions and communities will indeed change over time time does not determine that identity while i hope to show you that the grecian movement is a broad and useful topic to study i also hope that you will see how it is a great example of place-based architecture using the adaptability of the classical language to both reinforce and expand the existing character and building culture of a place once we get through some background and some fun details we'll briefly pull it all together showing a few examples of what i'm referring to and how 19th century designers adapted existing traditions using the grecian language okay now onto some background when referring to the grecian movement in the states we are referring to an artistic movement that became prominent in the first half of the 19th century that was inspired by details and forms from ancient greece it was a complete artistic movement and it is now often considered a national architecture connecting places as culturally different as new orleans and boston and buildings as different as a smoke house and a state capital overall allowing for a homogeneous national architectural language despite its numerous regional variations these images are to represent what i meant by a complete artistic movement showing how it affected architecture furniture clothing painting and other decorative arts the movement got its big kickstart with the publishing of the antiquities of athens by stuart and rivets in 1762 thanks to the financial support of this group of gentlemen the society of de la tante a london dining club stuart and rivets were able to travel to greece to produce a series of extremely detailed architectural drawings and perspective scenes before this time greece was pretty much locked up to europeans but with the ease of diplomatic relations some travel was now allowed providing access to these structures with the publication of antibodies of athens the gradian language slowly entered into the european architectural vocabulary and while the book was indeed available in the united states it was a rare source in the country's early years nonetheless the knowledge initially started to spread through other sources such as british books by peter peter nicholson that began to re-engrave key details such as this one from the antiquities of athens making them more easily accessible to architects particularly in america an important note is that these new resources were becoming available at a key moment in our american history america is growing rapidly gaining significant wealth cities are growing at fast rates providing architectural opportunities at really every scale aside from architecture there was a large interest in the classical our education system at this time was based on classical literature and knowledge america was also looking forward to a new more modern architecture and away from its colonial past so one that would eventually change our built environment from buildings such as this independence hall to this the second bank of the us this can also be seen in the competition for the u.s capitol building where proposals such as the two at the top both with their own merits and complications took inspiration from england's past compared to the design at the bottom with more modern take on classicism at first this language would be expressed as roman classicism the classicism of jefferson such as seen at his uva and the capitol building of virginia as these new classical traditions gain his footing for the country's buildings particularly new civic commissions the grecian movements had an entry point into the american architectural story there's a lot more to this of course but i'll keep it brief to get into the more technical side of how and what like i mentioned access to the antiquities of athens was hard to come by most of the spread of the grecian language was thanks to more attainable pattern books particularly those by asher benjamin and bernard lever slowly grecian details entered into these readily available books more and more until both amsterdam and menards were pretty much entirely focused on grecian inspired work by looking at the contents of the american pattern books themselves you can see this transition i grabbed some books from my personal collection to show this this is a copy of asha benjamin's first book the country builders assistance from the very late 1700s it's the first architecture book written and published by an american it mentions quirked moldings here a greek detail and subject taken from peter nicholson's books but no direct reference or real discussion of greek architecture and you can see from the plates on the right it's architecture that's typical of the late 1700s pre-greek classicism now here is my copy of the second american architecture book published almost a decade later in 1805. the orders in this book are still roman based there's no big discussion of the region but at the very back a single plate shown on the right showing benjamin latrobe's bank of pennsylvania which we will see later and the simple description stating it uses an ionic order taken from an ancient greek temple these are two separate editions of the american builder's companion by asher benjamin i have these two editions just to show this transition the earlier edition on the left there's still no direct mention but as these details and farms are becoming more and more popular he made a change in his sixth edition 1827 on the right you can see here he proudly and boldly advertises and grecian architecture including seven new plates on the greek dork and ionic for the first time in his books after this most of these pattern books focused almost entirely on grecian details the modern builders guide and beauties of modern architecture for example are pages and pages of grecian architecture that would help guide american architects and builders in their designs so while what i mentioned before were a few reasons that allowed grecian architecture to get its foot in the door these books are one of the keys into why recent details can be found in just about every 19th century little town they are why it was really able to flourish to the extent that it did and also to such a high level of design in these books one would find the drawings of the grecian orders yes but also creative ways to use creation details in a more contemporary setting here is just one of many examples for a front door lovingly called a frontier piece you'll find window details mantle details molding profiles ceiling medallions all sorts of designs here is an example of a pocket door detail with a built version on the right and in the same home a smaller version of a door taken from another plate and here one of my personal favorites a really great version of the corinthian capital that was originally constructed for the grecian courageous monument of the sycredis for an utterly simplified recap of this we have the courage monument of the secretives in athens originally a monument dedicated to the championship of the local boys choir represented here stewart and rivets with the backing of the society of de la tonti recorded the monument as it stood in athens in the mid 1700s you can see it tucks in the back corner published its details in the antiquities of athens which eventually made its way into american pattern books and used by architects and builders throughout the country you can find details of this monument all over the u.s or even as in its entirety modified here to be part of the crowning element of the tennessee state capitol now the grecian movement wouldn't be all that exciting if the story was as simple as that the copying of greek forms and details straight through pattern books to our own greek temple estate side but when one starts studying the creation movement you'll soon realize the degree of originality and the fluidity designers possess during this time when utilizing the knowledge oftentimes builders yes simply use detailed street of pattern books but architects saw these details and forms as elements on how to improve their own design process as a source of learning to add precedent to their expanding toolkit to solve modern design problems the difference in creativity between architects and builders during this time may seem like an obvious statement today but the role of the professional architect is just beginning to be established in the states compared to the apprentice builder say quoting a 19th century architect the popular idea that to design a building in greece and taste is nothing more than to copy a grecian building is altogether erroneous even the greeks themselves never made two buildings alike if architects would often or think as the greeks thought than do as the greeks did our columnar architecture would possess a higher degree of originality and its character and expression would gradually conform to the local circumstances of the country and the republican spirit of its institutions there's a key point in this on why grecian architecture was so successful in the us while the country had an opening both culturally and economically and the pattern books were the means in spreading the information the key point to me on why it really flourished is that the development of the professional architect in america coincided with the interest of current archaeology in greece by utilizing these new and beautiful details in creative appropriate and successful ways they raise the level of their work and distinguish both themselves and the entire profession to follow this thought i would like to take a look at a number of elements that became popular with this movement to give a glimpse on how the professional architect utilized the grecian precedent in creative ways these are also some of the elements i have found useful in practice to reference for inspiration and can of course be emulated and furthered to help solve current design problems the first perhaps one of my favorite runs through all the rest and that's the grecian moldings now this is a big topic so i'm just going to touch on it here before stewart and rivet made access to detailed drawings of ancient greek details moldings were pretty much entirely based off of roman versions from treatises such as vaniola platio this tradition of moldings was based off of simple curves consisting of a single center point a circle so this capital for instance contains simple easily constructed curves even a double curved profile such as the uppermost profile is broken down into two curves each with their own singular center point curves based on circles greek moldings on the other hand are elliptical or parabolic in form and require several several radii to define it so for instance if we have these let's say more roman curves that form the capital that we just saw an example of grecian details would be more based on curves such as these this allows for lots of variation in the possibilities of a profile by altering these curves these are just four random examples showing how this can be done it allows the designer to adjust the profile for what the specific case calls for greek details also often employed quirked moldings where the curve of the profile turns back in on itself providing both a strong highlight of light shining on it at the peak of the profile and a deep shadow in the recess if we apply these ideas to a typical cornice profile such as this one that we can consider to be more roman we can alter the profiles to adjust the cornice perhaps pulling it in this direction adding a sense of strength or shortening it providing for a more elongated overall form here are just a few examples of cornish profiles from benjamin just to show some of the variety you can develop from these ideas you can see the varying profiles complex curves quirks all provide a variety of shade and shadow that simple radius moldings cannot provide another big topic are the greek orders that made their way into the pattern books there are tons of variations but i'll just point out a few basic details that will help you spot them the greek dork which you see on the right compared to a version of the roman dork on the left these are both plates from american pattern books by the way show some of these differences the greek capital on the right again quite different and based on profiles types that we just discussed with a parabolic economist versus the one on the left that's based on a simple circle greek dork does not have a base while the roman version usually does in antiquity the greek was nearly always fluted where the roman could be fluted or not can really go either way also on the roman model if we look at the left we see this molding called the astral if we compare it to the accretion dork on the right it is replaced by this thin groove called the hypotrocalion if you look at that photo again of fluted greek dork on the second bank of the u.s we can see the capital the parabolic economist the lack of a base and the groove below the neck there are other differences and many variations of the greek dork let's move along to my personal favorite the greek ionic again i pulled two plates from american pattern books just to show what they were seeing at that time greek on the right the more roman model eskimos version on the left from these we can see that the greek ionic has very large volumes between them you get this swag or dip connecting the values this is another telltale sign for a creation model where if we look at the left you can see it's just a linear goes straight across between the values and also if we look closely we'll see some of those molding profiles based on parabolas and there'll be more in the entablature this is an example from the north carolina state house you can see the large volutes the swag or dip connecting them and complex molding profiles the corinthian order in the american grecian movement is somewhat more unique on the right we have that courageous monument and secret use version that we've seen previously it's a very lively design if you compare the campus leaves you see that on the right the greek version it has only one row looking at the sleeves those little flowers peeking out which is a great detail on the left in the roman version there's two rows of acanthus leaves if we look at that mold again this is kind of similar to the dork on the left roman version we have an astral and on the right greek version we have that thin groove at the base of the capital and this is probably my favorite detail on this the flutes on the shaft of the column at the very top flare out like leaves terminating the shafts in a rather rather elegant way here is a residential example where you can see the single row of the canvas leaves the groove at the base of the capital and the flutes terminating as leaves towards the top of the shaft my favorite example of this is a civic version in the new orleans custom types this is the marble hall which is unfortunately very rarely seen if we zoom into the capitals you can see how they're wonderfully carved with lots of great detail with symbols of trade incorporated into them the tower of the women's capital is another version of a corinthian that we can give thanks to stuart and rivet for recording you can find this in a number of places it's quite common um still fairly popular today as well this is a polychromatic version in the mississippi state house in the american pattern books you will also find new orders created by the authors with various degrees of originality this is one by benjamin that he referred to as a new order in the greek matter for american use its column proportions are taller than normal the cornice is flatter with greater projection an original entablature that is somewhat ionic and a column with a greek dork capital but in this case with a base with a single taurus menard developed this modified ionic order with more delicate and enriched capital in his words with perhaps a little false modesty he states that it has neither the proportions nor general features of the antique ionic order nor is it pretended it is in general equal to it but it is hoped that it may not be wholly inferior lastly a form of a corinthian that menard claims ownership over and describes that it is a design composed of antique specimens this capital is fairly common and is a direct cue to the use of the fever's books in the design now jumping to the scale of full buildings let's take a broad view to look at overall building forms while you may initially think these would simply be greek temples you will find a huge array of new and creative building forms being developed during this period still referencing precedent but meeting new uses are old programs in new ways here is the astral library by aj davis to me is a very creative elevation with the central door the glass screens and filling the columns and particularly like the books and the pediment this is a little arsenal in new orleans by dakin a great example of a strong acidic facade built into the urban fabric a proposed university building on the left and the new york exchange on the right this is the astor hotel in new york by davis the ohio state capitol building the philadelphia exchange utilizing the couragic monument as inspiration at a number of scales on the same building the tremont house the first large scale building to be constructed as a hotel with an extremely influential plan and design that impacted a number of other hotels across the country such as the saint charles hotel in new orleans this was the largest hotel in the country when it was built architects like those who designed these buildings definitely used the pattern books freely for smaller commissions but for more important works departure from any exact copying of greek forms and details was the rule rather than the exception using the details creatively and altering as needed to suit the program and design challenges this hotel also brings us into the use of the dome which is just one example of combining greek and roman farms here's another example yet another aster hotel with a stone great lanterns and it's free use of water is at multiple scales again the ohio state state house with this interior dome expressed in a more cylindrical form the north carolina state capitol building which if you ever have a chance to visit definitely go inside it's a sight to see the tropes bank of pennsylvania with its low dome barely peeking out basically an interior experience the bank of louisville with its elliptical dome not expressed on the outside at all solely in interior moment in this case and the new york city customs house with the dome similarly designed is mostly an interior space it's actually even lower in the built work um many of you have probably visited now if we look at the side of this building we'll see another elements that i would like to highlight and that's the use of the greek anta here they are pilaster-like elements marching down with thin capitals adapted from the original greek version going back to stuart and vest drawings to look at a ancient greek version we see the elevation of these two entei you can see how their capitals differ from the freestanding columns now if we look in plan you can see that they're just slightly projecting peers terminating the walls they're not engaged pilasters or freestanding columns you see the detail on the right of the capital so in this example with the profile on the right of particular notes is how this so-called beak mold returns up with the recess creating a very deep and sharp shadow line underneath the capital to me this is one of the more useful details to use in practice whether on capitals like this in cornices or really any other detail now as i mentioned the ante or more typically these slightly projecting appears at the end of a wall during this period the ante took on a broader role with the anson moldings serving as capitals of both engaged and freestanding pilesters so going back to the customs house we see here you can see that the projection of the ante is much greater than that of traditional engaged pilasters it emulates the powerful depth and the deep shadows of colonnade with freestanding columns greatly emphasizing the rhythmical character and the strong order that this building has aj davis employed this feature quite readily here's another example in philadelphia back to the ohio state capitol note again the difference with a typical piloster the capitals of the pilaster would normally match that of the column and you can see that strong crisp shadow line on the ansa capital produced by that molding profile that great little arsenal in new orleans with extremely deep pilasters and the windows that fill the entire area in between them expanding floors similarly to that aj davis library we saw and the close-up of the capital on the left showing the recess that creates that strong shadow line some of the renderings that we saw using both the depth of the piloster and the glass to accentuate the anti-pilasters is almost freestanding this is aj davis's cross block terrace development with a lot of strength provided by both the freestanding and the engaged anti similar concept to his astor hotel design and lastly for this this little courthouse which i think is a lot of fun in virginia with anti-capitals marching around this building brings us to a facade type that you can find in most every 19th century city and small town the dive style in antis with these two freestanding columns at the entry flanks on either side by pilosters and i really mean these are everywhere here's one in richmond savannah using the corinthian order a very powerful dork in alabama and three blocks down the street is another using the greek ionic and in new york city the mariners temple another elevation tool utilizing the greek anta is what we'll call the granite pure buildings the ante in this type are only at the first level deep reveals and fill with doors or windows they're often mixed use with the granite peers serving as the screen for the shops below these are very common in new orleans philadelphia they're along stone street in new york they're a great way to bring a smaller scale to the street flexibility for the shop fronts and provide a very ordered rhythmic sidewalk for those who are not familiar with new orleans these are the pintable apartments that form the up river and down river border of jackson square to me it's one of the best public spaces in the country typical of new orleans the building which has those antipilaxers as the base is further layered with an iowa ironwork gallery which creatively adapts classical columns elongating them drastically with a thin temperature to match the characteristics of the metal compared to the proportions used in stone for the ansa pilosters you won't find these proportions specified in any pattern books but it's a logic that is somewhat innate to the classical tradition now one of my favorite elements that was used extensively is the raking or stepped blocking course or parapet so what i'm looking at here is this triangular portion above the entablature which would traditionally be a full pediment here it is a much flatter element that sits on top of the cornice peeking towards the center providing emphasis similar to impediment now this is an extreme example a more typical one can be seen here on this great little shotgun this is a stepping parapet highlight that there and you can also on this one see some italian detailing coming into play with the brackets and such lots of variation go into their scale where they step if they peek towards the center here are some examples on larger homes the left in south carolina the right in indiana with decorative ecriteria at the corners and other scroll elements you can also find this on interior elements such as doors and fireplaces this here is an example by astra benjamin the bank of louisville where the upper cornice somewhat turns into this element at the center with that bold enthemian to me this is one of the most creative buildings it's by james deacon who worked for and with aj davis it has the greek ionic capitals that we mentioned that were modified from the original grecian versions sitting in ansys between these unmolded masonry piers that are battered with a little egyptian influence giving the building emphasis as well as a solution to how the cornice returns without overlapping the neighboring buildings and perhaps my favorite example of this this little granite portal with the central step and simple molds alongside a townhouse in new orleans the last specific element i'd like to mention which you have seen many times now is the use of the endemium these are examples from the pattern books basically they're a designed element consisting of a series of radiating petals that was developed by the greeks and recorded by stuart and rivet on the left is a single palmetto version and on the right is an example of an alternating palmette and lotus motif which is pretty common to demonstrate a few examples of this use i'm going to use a south carolina interior at milford which has details that are very heavily inspired by menard's beauties of modern architecture so just in this view alone we have the anthemia motif in the courage of monument capitals and the anti-capitals on the side with that alternating pattern on the panels of the window surround a stylized version on the furniture in the ceiling medallion cresting the top of the windows door and tablatures in the newer but appropriate carpet on the fireplace mantel and dotting the top of the cornice surrounding the entire room if we zoom in to the door surround we can see that his inspiration came from plate 19 with that alternating pattern running across the top of the surround and with a fanciful endymion rising up at the center and peeking up at the edges serving as ecriteria for the door looking at the ceiling medallion it's inspired by plate 21. this is actually one of my favorite elements in the book i think it's one of menard's more successful details now that we've gone through some various elements we'd like to take a look at how this language affected the existing vernacular of a region to do so surprise surprise i've chosen one i'm quite familiar with being from the area but also one that differs from most of the country louisiana's colonial history varies greatly from most of the united states with its french spanish african german and many other influences it can often be more accurately understood in its early history as a caribbean city versus an american city with that it's earliest architecture is quite unique you see the homes are raised on piers thin columns on the main level it's very similar to a lot of things that are going on throughout the caribbean these are two more urban examples in the french quarter to give you a sense of the city's early character now even with such a strong vernacular tradition when the grecian wave hit new orleans truly became a grecian city and its architecture changed dramatically this is gallaudet hall the city hall the new orleans mint the arsenal a couple of town houses a large home in the garden district and of personal favorites now this home is along sanchez avenue it's now part of a school and a couple of urban creole cottages with their grecian doorways even with this great shift it still maintained a character that is unique to louisiana there are many homes like this one that could have been updated with grecian doorways are also built as is it's honestly very hard to tell here's another example basically an earlier form except for stores around and if that wasn't crippling enough this home in the marinade with this brief detailing updates to existing structures stifling one way this occurred a large transformation can be seen at evergreen shown below where it originally had an earlier more traditionally creole appearance like the home above that type of transformation over time can be seen here at destrehan where is slowly adapted to eventually take on its current appearance to me the more interesting examples that express the idea of architecture adapting to a new language but those that are designed as such forms that are built as is and not renovated this is bokage and to me it's one of the better examples of traditions changing over time showing the adaptability of the classical language on the left is madame john's legacy it's a home in the corner that is a great example of a character that would have been popular during louisiana's colonial period its thin columns raised up on a lower level and the plan below with rooms flowing into rooms a creole plan without hauls a gallery across the front and in the rear a central porch a very typical element in louisiana called a cabinet gallery with two little rooms on either side the cabinets on the right because it's a wildly different architectural treatment but very similar in overall form and plan via at a larger scale it's raised on a racist jose with the front gallery the creole hall list plan with the rear cabernet gallery however in bokage the two central rooms are treated very similarly to a typical american double parlor here's a view of them here and if you didn't know any better this could easily be a side hall town house in the northeast now let's break this down a little we mentioned how aj davis extensively used the greek anta in his designs such as at the side of the new york city customs house again seen here highlighting the entrance by emphasizing the center with two enhances columns and utilizing the stepped blocking course above davis's prodigy james dakin eventually made it down to new orleans where he designed that little arsenal that i'm sure by now if you realize i really love with very deep anti and a strong stepped blocking course when faced with the commission dakin was able to utilize his creativity to merge the traditions providing an example that is recognizable and lives as a louisiana clone but in a more modern grecian taste you see the use the greek ante here elongated the unique use of various slender anti emphasizing the center somewhat like enhances columns the steps and raking blocking course above and many many other details on the back side of bokage similarly the use of enantis ante keep the tradition of the cabinet gallery similar to that in the home seen below now if we look at the cause on the right these doors and the windows are added later so you need to use your imagination to envision the open porch and compare it to the earlier home below at a smaller scale on the left you see this small home that is one room wide and quite long this thin long form will eventually turn into what is now called a shotgun home a form ubiquitous in new orleans on the right a later shotgun that adapted this form taking on some of the latest trends and taking this even further this great and very classical shotgun briefly touching on another example is the peripheral form where the columns surround the entire structure on the left you see a more typical early louisiana example on the right a later example which used double story greek ansa pilasters much in the same way as davis's astor hotel now to end these examples a personal favorite of mine this tomb designed by james dakin that pulls together so many of these ideas and influences it's a small piece but an important one we have the proliferation of the ansa capital as deep engaged pilasters made popular by davis we have a touch of the egyptian influence that davis's people taken picked up for a number of his commissions such as his bank louisville from new york to louisville eventually down to new orleans dakin designed that little arsenal with very similar qualities following the success of his bank combining all of these he completed his design for the tomb with the battered walls the central emphasis using the in-ances ansa pilasters and at the very top a little battered walled in antis four-sided tempe yeto very similar to his bank of louisville with these examples what i hope to show you is that the grecian movements in the new orleans region both modified and was modified by building types developed from a variety of sources under the influence of new orleans specific climate conditions and characteristic living waves french spanish african american german native american and many other influences all contributed to the final result despite this variety in historical background and despite the many political agencies the creation movement proved its vitality and its adaptability by furnishing forms into which this combined inheritance could flow it's a great example of how traditions can be updated and changed in a culturally respectful and regionally appropriate way as in other parts of america the best of the periods architects were interested not in creating greek temples but merely in finding out the best answers for the pressing building problems of the growing communities furthering along through the 19th century the creation movement did lose its prominence as other styles appeared nonetheless architects continued to find greek architecture a useful resource for their designs here in pittsburgh the graduate library opened up in the 1870s the courthouse in hartford connecticut opened in 1929 with its use at the ante that became popular for this type of civic building just two blocks away from me is the academy of medicine here in atlanta built in 1941 and today architects still find inspiration in grecian forums and details here is a shout out of stan dixon's office the firm that i'm at here in atlanta a great mountain house taking inspiration in the details of the portico and the columns and railing off the back to frame the views of the mountains and a home here in atlanta on the left and on another project a fun newel post looking at a greek dork but here with chamfered sides this is just a sampling of some of the many firms recognizing the usefulness of the language in their residential work both rural and more urban and also in civic work with the examples here being governmental and academic commissions as we reach the end of the presentation let's discuss some of the resources that i found useful during the design process that you can reference either for your own designs or just for further study now just as then to me one of the most useful resources are the 19th century architectural pattern books they are still an invaluable resource builders and designers will not only find inspiration from the plates themselves but will still find the text to be filled with useful information on how to lay upstairs draw the profiles and a lot more they're a good number to reference but these shown here are a few of my favorites some of these are available as inexpensive reprints that you can find on amazon or ebay sometimes people ask what are the differences between the fever and benjamin there is of course a lot of overlap but there are some differences you begin to notice benjamin's work is often on the stronger side and somewhat more simple using the dork more frequently than higher orders he often uses flat bands and recesses that gave his work somewhat of a character similar to john sohn's work in england because of the simplicity he's often referred to as more for the country builder versus the higher style architect but with that be careful to mistake simplicity for inferiority some of the best aspects of the grecian movements and those that many people connect with is the simplicity and clarity and design and what can we achieve with just a few carefully thought out molds and design moves narc's books on the other hand lean more towards the ionic and corinthian and tend to be a little more complex he uses a lot of rosettes and ethemian and somewhat a contrast to these often uses plain wide bands to border door surrounds mantels etc we've seen some of these in the interior at milford and the bank of louisville that we saw earlier i'd also recommend that you browse some of peter nicholson's books while not necessarily geared specifically for an american audience they were extremely influential and contain a number of inspiring plates lastly i would also recommend you look at more modern books by carl schmidt such as greek revival details and greek revival architecture in the rochester area where he records details and molding profiles in really very useful ways but if you are new to these resources i would still highly recommend you start with these historic pattern books shown here to understand the specifics of what 19th century designers were referencing you can also find digital copies online such as on google books or i personally prefer using the hoty trust h-a-t-h-i trust which is what i have shown here with the beauties of modern architecture the great thing is that you can download whole books or just a pdf of a single page that you would like to reference you can also find copies of the antiquities of athens to reference stuart mervet's drawings directly or you can get a personal copy from amazon by the princeton architectural press perhaps one of the most useful tools for studying press and from a distance is the historic american building survey it's a collection of photographs and measured drawings of historic structures across the country just google historic american building survey and you'll find the library of congress link that will take you here i can't tell you how many hours i've spent on this site just going down a rabbit hole looking at buildings so for example this is the page for the merchant's house museum in new york formerly the seabury treadwell house on it you'll find plans elevations photos details all sorts of things to reference as precedents whether you're trying to find a molding profile see how large door casing is whatever your goal you can see here just some of the amount of detail you can find to conclude i'd like to end back on this little arsenal building that has always intrigued me and what it was able to accomplish in such a small tight urban setting i hope you all will find this information useful to you in the future i love to discuss these things so if you'd ever like to reach out just reach me via email or instagram any questions comments or discussions thank you

Channel: ClassicistORG

Views: 3,818

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: classical, classical architecture, classicism, classicist, architecture, aesthetics, institute of classical architecture and art, greek architecture, greek revival, jacques levet, new orleans

Id: qdZFJk6kreQ

Length: 52min 27sec (3147 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 22 2021