Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 - May 17, 1934) was a prominent American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers in works such as the Woolworth Building, Gilbert is also responsible for various museums and libraries (the Saint Louis Public Library), the Parliament building (Minnesota, Arkansas and the State of West Virginia, for example) as well as public architecture icons such as the United States Supreme Court building. Its public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect an optimistic American sense that this nation is the heir of Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance humanism. Gilbert's achievements are recognized in his life; he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908-09.
Gilbert is a conservative who believes that architecture should reflect historical traditions and established social order. The design of the new Supreme Court building (1935), with its classic lines and small size, contrasts with the enormous federal buildings along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which he does not like.
Heilbrun says "Gilbert's pioneering buildings injected vitality into the design of skyscrapers, and his 'Gothic skyscraper,' symbolized by the Woolworth Building, greatly affected architects during the first decade of the twentieth century." Christen and Flanders note that his reputation among architectural critics turned into an eclipse during the times of modernism, but has since recovered for "respecting the integrity and classical beauty of his works."
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Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in the middle of three sons, and was named after the statesman Lewis Cass, who was very close to him. Gilbert's father, General Samuel A. Gilbert is a veteran of the Union Civil War and surveyor for the Coastal Survey of the United States. His uncle is Union Gen. Charles Champion Gilbert. When he was nine, the Gilbert family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was raised by his mother after his father died. He attended prep school but left Macalester College. He began his architectural career at the age of 17 by joining the office of Abraham M. Radcliffe at St. Paul. In 1878, Gilbert enrolled in an architectural program at MIT.
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Minnesota Career
Gilbert then worked for time with the McKim, Mead, and White firms before starting the practice at St. Paul with James Knox Taylor. He was assigned to design a number of railway stations, including at Anoka, Willmar and the remaining Little Falls depots, all in Minnesota. As a Minnesota architect, he is renowned for his dome designs at the Minnesota State Capitol and St Center downtown. Paul Endicott. His goal was to move to New York City and earn a national reputation, but he remained in Minnesota from 1882 to 1898. Many of his Minnesota buildings still stand, including more than a dozen private homes (mainly on St. Paul's Summit Avenue), some churches featuring textures and rich colors, resort summer homes, and warehouses.
National reputation
The completion of the Minnesota capital gave Gilbert his national reputation and in 1898 he permanently moved his base to New York. The breakthrough commission was the design of Custom House Alexander Hamilton US in New York City (now housing George Gustav Heye Center). Gilbert served at the US Fine Arts Commission from 1910 to 1916. In 1906 he was elected to the National Design Academy as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1908. Gilbert served as President of the Academy from 1926 to 1933.
Historical Impact
Gilbert is a pioneer of skyscrapers; when designing the Woolworth Building, he moved to unproven land - though he certainly was aware of the work done by Chicago architects in skyscrapers and had discussed combining the company with the legendary Daniel Burnham - and his technique coated the steel frame into a model for some decades. The modernists embraced his work: John Marin painted it several times; even Frank Lloyd Wright praised the lines of the building, though he denounced his ornamentation.
Gilbert was one of America's first celebrity architects, designing skyscrapers in New York City and Cincinnati, campus buildings at Oberlin College and the University of Texas at Austin, state buildings in Minnesota and West Virginia, the tower of the George Washington Bridge, various train stations (including New Haven Union Station, 1920), and the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. His reputation declined among several professionals during the Modernist era, but he was on the design committee that guided and finally approved the modernist design of the innovative Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. Gilbert's overall body is more eclectic than many critics have claimed. In particular, its Union Station in New Haven lacks the general embellishments of the Beaux-Arts period, and contains simple lines common to Modernism.
Gilbert wrote to a colleague, "I sometimes wish I never built the Woolworth Building because I was afraid it could be regarded as my only job and you and I both knew that anything was possible in dimensions and in the lines certain it was after all just a skyscraper. "
Two Gilbert buildings at the University of Texas on the Austin campus, Sutton Hall (1918) and Battle Hall (1911), are recognized by architect historians as one of the country's finest architectural works. Designed in a Spanish-Mediterranean revival style, the two buildings became the basis of style for the later expansion of the university in the 1920s and 1930s and helped popularize the style throughout Texas.
Archive
Cass Gilbert is often confused with Charles Pierrepont's Henry Gilbert, the other eminent architect of the time. Cass Gilbert designed the famous Woolworth Building skyscraper on Broadway for Frank W. Woolworth, while Woolworth's private home was designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. The Building of the Ukrainian Institute in Manhattan 5th Avenue is the work of C. P. H. Gilbert, and is often wrongly attributed to Cass Gilbert.
Cass Gilbert should also not be confused with his son, architect Cass Gilbert, Jr.
References
Note
Further reading
- Christen, Barbara S. and Flanders, Steven (editor). Cass Gilbert, Living and Work: Architects of Public Domains New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.
- Moutschen, Joseph. Architecture amÃÆ' Â © ricaine - Une interview de l'architecte qui a construit la plus haute maison du monde (Cass Gilbert); in L'Equerre: Janvier 1930 p.Ã, 177; FÃÆ' Â © vrier 1930 p.Ã, 187; Mars 1930, p.Ã, 196; L'Equerre, 1928-1939; Foure-Tout Edition, 2010, pp.Ã, 1350; ISBN 978-2-930525-12-9
External links
- Cass Gilbert in MNopedia, Minnesota Encyclopedia
- Cass Gilbert in the archinFORM database
- Cass Gilbert Society
- Architecture
- The US Supreme Court Architecture Tour
- New York Architecture Picture-Cass Gilbert
- Archive collection
- Cass Gilbert Collection, 1897-1936 Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Cass Gilbert Papers, Minnesota Historical Society.
- A guide to the Cass Gilbert collection, 2005 Abstract Gilbert paper from the New-York Historical Society
- Collection of Cass Gilbert, University Archive, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
- Architectural Draw Cass Gilbert selected from the Detroit Public Library at Wayne State University Library contains 19 presentation pictures by Cass Gilbert of the Detroit Public Library, which he designed in 1921.
- Cass Gilbert Archival card catalog. Organized by the Image Department & amp; Archive, Avery Architectural & amp; Library of Fine Arts, Columbia University.
- Choice of Architecture and Selected Cass Gilbert Plan for Woolworth Building at Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery contains about 200 works
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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