American Architecture
Series
Henry Hobson Richardson
Biography of American Architect, Noted
for "Richardsonian Romanesque".
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American Architecture
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H.H. Richardson (1838-86)Contents • Biography American Architecture Series |
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ART AND DESIGN RARE BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE |
One of the great American architects whose buildings helped to transform 19th century architectural design in the United States, H.H. Richardson ranks alongside Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) and Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) in his contribution to American art: indeed, some historians consider him to be America's best 19th-century architect. His designs, based on Romanesque art, triggered a decade of Romanesque Revival in America, and his buildings had a significant impact on the Chicago School of architecture and its pioneering skyscraper designs. Although his initial fame came from his design of Trinity Church, Boston, his main achievements in architectural design occurred in four building types: commercial buildings, commuter train station buildings, public libraries, and private houses. Of these, his two greatest works of 19th century architecture were the Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail (1883-88), and the Marshall Field Wholesale Store (1885-87) in Chicago. His assistants included many leaders of the next generation of American architects, such as Charles McKim (1847-1909), Stanford White (1853-1906), George Shepley (1860-1903) and John Galen Howard (1864-1931). HH Richardson is today ranked among the greatest architects of 19th century America. |
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Education and Architectural Training Born and raised in Louisiana, Henry Hobson Richardson studied civil engineering at Harvard College and Tulane University, after which he became only the second American student, after Richard Morris Hunt (1827-95), to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (c.1861-65). Here, he worked under Theodore Labrouste and J.I.Hittorf. Paradoxically, the architectural style that Richardson would adopt and refine over time, however, was not the Beaux-Arts, Gothic Revival or neoclassical architecture of his contemporaries, but a more medievalist style, influenced by the Arts & Crafts designer William Morris (1834-96), the art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), the French medievalist architect Viollet-le-Duc (1814-79), and in particular the Romanesque architecture of southern France. It would be christened "Richardsonian Romanesque". (Conversely, the Ohio-born architect Cass Gilbert, 1859-1934, who became the leading exponent of Beaux-Arts architecture in America, did not attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.) Meantime, he returned to the United States in 1865 and opened his professional practice in New York in 1866. That November he won his first commission, for Unity Church (1866-68), Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1867 Richardson went into partnership with Charles Dexter Gambrill, who acted as business manager for the firm. Richardson's early buildings followed the then-current revival style of Gothic architecture and Second Empire. But beginning in 1869, he began to explore designs with forms derived from Romanesque sources. First, he designed the New York State Asylum in Buffalo, a huge structure built out of Medina sandstone which is known today as the H.H. Richardson Complex. This was followed by projects such as Brattle Square Church (1869-73), Boston, and his first masterpiece - Trinity Church, Boston. Trinity Church: Richardsonian Romanesque The embodiment of Richardson Romanesque, Trinity Church Boston (1872-77) was built in association with the engineering firm of the Norcross Brothers, with whom Richardson would collaborate many times over the next decades. Its combination of large crossing tower, deep-set arches and the thickness of its structures is reminiscent of traditional Romanesque styles. Based on the layout of a Greek cross, and influenced by the floor plan used in Salamanca Cathedral in Spain, and St Mark's Cathedral, Venice, the craftsmanship and detail of its interior owes a great deal to the Arts and Crafts movement. It was here that Richardson began his long working relationship with the French-born sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens (1848-1907). The publicity surrounding Trinity Church, particularly after its completion in 1877, propelled him to the front rank of American architects. For example, out of ten buildings cited by American architects as the best in 1885, half were designed by Richardson: besides Trinity Church, they included: Sever Hall at Harvard, Albany City Hall, the New York State Capitol in Albany, and the Town Hall in North Easton, Massachusetts. In 1878 Richardson dissolved the partnership and moved his office to Brookline, Massachusetts. Over the next eight years he refined his architectural style through the simplification of form and the elimination of extraneous ornament and historical detail. His buildings - monumentally heavy, yet simple in line - incorporated semicircular arches, towers and rusticated brick facades. Among the notable projects from this phase of his career are his buildings at Sever Hall, Harvard University (1878-80) - which featured 60 different types of carved bricks and two unique turrets - and Austin Hall (1881-84); a series of small libraries, primarily those in the Boston suburbs of Woburn, North Easton, Quincy and Maiden, and a series of railroad stations (inspired by Japanese designs), including nine for the Boston and Albany Railroad Company, many of which were landscaped by Richardson's regular collaborator, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903). In addition, Richardson designed several commercial structures, such as the Cheney Building (1875-76), Hartford, and three stores in Boston for the Ames family. He also collaborated on the design for the New York State Capitol (1876-86), Albany, and was responsible for the dramatic Senate Chamber, western stair and multiple judicial and executive chambers. Richardson's houses were marked by significant departures in domestic design. His initial exploration of living hall planning culminated in the William Watts Sherman House (1874-76), Newport, the first Queen Anne design in America. His later country houses, beginning with the Dr. John Bryant House (1880-81), Cohasset, Massachusetts, further developed living hall planning and represented a critical phase of the mature "Shingle Style". Richardson's urban houses, usually of brick or stone, also took advantage of the planning innovations of his country houses. His most influential urban houses included the John Hay and Henry Adams houses, Washington DC (1884-86), and the John J. Glessner House in Chicago (1885-87), which had a significant impact on Frank Lloyd Wright and his "Prairie School" houses. His most famous suburban and country houses were the Mary Fisk Stoughton House (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1882-83) and the Henry Potter House (St. Louis, 1886-87). Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail Richardson's career culminated in the design of the Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail (1883-88), Pittsburgh, and the Marshall Field Wholesale Store (1885-87), Chicago. The Allegheny Courthouse was a sophisticated design resolution of complex functional requirements. The jail, in the shape of an asymmetrical cross, is connected to the courthouse across the street by the Bridge of Sighs. These structures epitomized the growing sense of gravity, sobriety and stateliness that is the hallmark of his best work. Marshall Field Wholesale Store Although constructed out of stone without using a steel frame - in contrast to the cutting-edge Home Insurance Building in Chicago (1884-85) designed by William Le Baron Jenney (1832-1907) - Richardson's Marshall Field Wholesale Store (1885–1887, demolished 1930) had a major impact on the development of modern building facades. Its design influenced leading architects including Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others. Borrowing features from both Romanesque and Renaissance art, as well as his own earlier works, Richardson created a massive but integrated warehouse, emphasizing symmetry and material components rather than superficial ornamentation. The building featured multi-storied windows crowned by semicircular window arches, in order to create a unified, harmonious and monumental structure, which occupied an entire city block. Richardson's health was never particularly good, and, beseiged with commissions later in his career, he came under severe pressure and died of chronic kidney disorder at the relatively young age of 47. His office was continued under the name Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge by his three chief assistants, who saw that his remaining buildings were completed as he had intended. These projects included the Allegheny County Courthouse, the Marshall Field Wholesale Store and the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Building. Twentieth Century Architecture For details of 20th century building designs, see 20th century architecture as well as the following resources: • Second
Chicago School of Architecture (c.1940-75) |
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