Progressive Architecture in The Architectural Record: An Annotated Bibliography, 1891-1925

Description and illustrations of the hotel and theater portions of the building complex by one of the architects.

Response to criticisms of the article appearing in November, 1907, “questioning the value of training obtained by the American student in the Ècole des Beaux Arts.”

Editorial comment on the success of the National Farmer’s Bank of Owatonna, Minnesota, as due in equal parts to architect and client. Plate of bank exterior [p. 65].

“Whereas it is the purpose of this paper to examine the two arts in a comparative way, as far as necessary limits will allow, with the aim of proving that there exists between them a consistent and organic union.”

“The aim of all art is to grasp and interpret beauty, and to impress upon its particular work certain human feelings, emotions and ideals.”

Economic and aesthetic possibilities in concrete. Illustrated with photographs of houses and commercial structures made entirely of concrete.

“The opinion is common in regard to modern architecture that, because of its polyglot mixture of past styles, it has no character of its own.” Architecture reincarnates.

Bragdon places Louis Sullivan in context of H. H. Richardson and Beaux Arts influences. Illustrated with photographs of the St. Nicolas Hotel (St. Louis, Missouri), and Condict Building (New York, New York). Part one focuses on the decade 1880-1890.

The World Columbian Exposition era.

New York and Chicago as competitors in the evolution of this “tall office” building form.

Basis for his book. Illustrated with photographs of work by Louis Sullivan [Guaranty-Prudential Building (Buffalo, New York)].

What concerned architects in support of the war effort.

“Organic architecture is ever a flower of the religious spirit…”

Photograph of front elevation. Figure 63.

“Being a Description – With Commentary – of a New Type of Theatre Building designed by Norman Bel Geddes.”

"Being a Description of the Permanent Setting by Norman Bel Geddes for Max Reinhardt’s Spectacle, ‘The Miracle.’” Illustrated with plans, drawings, and photographs.

“A great deal has been said and written regarding the theories of proportion developed by the late Jay Hambridge and named by him Dynamic Symmetry.” Logarithmic spirals.

An apologia for the influence of the French academy in the evolution of American architecture, in response to the earlier article by J. Barney Stewart.

Plan, with interior and exterior photographs.

Discusses fabric and furnishings, with an exploration of Arts and Crafts designs. Illustrated with catalog sheets from The Craftsman, among other suppliers.

Editorial note about whether automobiles have influence on where people choose to build, notably on hilltops.

Discussing the nature of Middle West parks, and illustrating work by D. H. Burnham & Co. [Armour Square, Hamilton Park, Sherman Park, and park building in Bessemer, South Chicago], Jens Jensen [Garfield Park, Humbolt Park], Schmidt, Garden and Martin [Humboldt Park], and W. C. Zimmerman [Douglas Park, Garfield Park].

A discussion of criticism in the ranks of artists and architects, with comment about the differences and agreements between critics such as Russell Sturgis and Peter B. Wight. Refers to an article by Wight in Scribner’s “Field of Art,” “What is Evolution in Architecture?"

Part of the editorial section, “Current Comment.” Refers to article by Norman Hapgood, “Democracy in Art,” which appeared in Collier’s Weekly. Talks about maudlin public taste and the idea of American art representing the achievements of a great people.

15 images of the Adams residence (Indianapolis, Indiana) and the Percy residence (Galesburg, Illinois).

From the “Notes and Comments” editorial section. “The more one becomes familiar with the buildings which have been erected in California of late years, the more one comes to appreciate the architectural value for its own purpose of the California bungalow.”

Includes description and illustration of California Hall, for which William Gray Purcell was clerk of the works for architect John Galen Howard.

The clime of California causes architectural response. Illustrated with photographs of works by Irving J. Gill [George W. Fulford residence, San Diego], Earnest Batchelder [Earnest Batchelder residence, Pasadena], Greene and Greene [Pratt residence (Nordhoff), J. H. Thorsen residence (Berkeley), D. R. Gamble residence (Pasadena), J. W. McNeill residence (Pasadena), Hollister residence (Pasadena), Claypole residence (Pasadena), Freeman Ford residence (Pasadena), and J. N. Culbertson residence (Pasadena)].

Article about Greene and Greene. Illustrations of the Tichenor, Hollister, Willett, Libby, Claypole, Bandini, Halsted, Camp, and Reeve houses.

Text and illustrations [interior and exterior] of Waterman house (Parkersburg, West Virginia) and Magnus house (Winnetka, Illinois).

Sets the critical tone for the publication. “Art has only one revelation, but many forms. Whether it be Poetry, Music, Sculpture, Architecture, the spirit that speaks is the same. They make alike a similar demand upon us for truth, integrity of purpose, seriousness, nobility. They are eminently aristocratic, not with the aristocratic spirit of a regime with its rise-Sir-Knight formula, but in the loftiness of the higher nobility whose allegiance is given to truth.”

“An improvement in our condition [as consumers of Architecture] will not come from a turning to new copy-books, a following of new fads, but from a heightening and a refining of national feeling.”

Dialog between Architect, Classicist, Goth, Romanesquer, Archeaologist, and Eclectic. Illustrated with presentation rendering of “New German Opera House" [Schiller Theater and Building], by Adler and Sullivan.

“The prime vicissitude of architecture at the present time has been shown to be the want of definite ideas, which must always be the motive of such a monument.”

“When the history of ideas in this country in the nineteenth century shall be written, the invention of an ‘American style’ of Architecture will be pointed out as an illustration of the same delusion which animated people in the Middle Ages concerning the philosopher’s stone.”

More in the vein of “As a matter of fact, far from detracting from the interest or value of architecture, to view it as a result of a natural evolution instead of as the exclusive outpouring of the human imagination…”

History and physical description of the Architecture section of the Parisian academy.

The atelier and project system at the Parisian academy.

Teaching methodology at the Parisian academy.

“What then has been the influence of the French School as exercised through our men who have been educated there…?”

“A revolution is in full progress among us…Thus we are about the enter upon a course which will make possible the evolution of a national style of our own, and perhaps set the fashion for the world.” Includes plate of Soldier’s Monument (New Britain, Connecticut), by Flagg [pure Neo-Classical].

The development of architecture occurred historically hand in hand with craftwork, and modern practice needs to get back in touch with the roots.

A philosophical discussion of the purposes and needs of modern architecture, the concept of style, and the distinctions of historical work.

“We may put the inquiries into forms like these: 1) Why have we no styles of our own as previous ages had? 2) Can a historic style be truthfully and logically employed without inconsistency? 3) Can several historic styles be concurrently employed without inconsistency? 4) Is there hope of developing a distinct system of architectural forms appropriate to our age and civilization?” Questions 1 and 2 discussed in the first part. Illustrated with plates of Chicago buildings, including the Auditorium, Fine Arts Academy, and Rookery Building.

Questions 3 and 4 from first segment discussed in part two. “Our worthiest performances, whether Romanesque or Renaissance in detail, are strongly American in character, and I cannot help thinking them finger-posts (if I may here change my metaphor) pointing to a still more truly American architecture which in some future time, nearer or more remote, shall be worthy of the age and of the people that give it existence.”

Hamlin was head of the School of Architecture at Columbia University.

The profession and the New West (meaning Middle West), including the development of the skyscraper, architectural education in the United States, and the importance of professional architectural periodicals in the process of evolution in American architecture.

Discussed works by Schmidt, Garden, and Martin, including illustrations of the Chicago Athletic Club Addition, Chapin and Gore Building, Brooks Casino, Majestic Bar, Schoenhofen Brewery, an Apartment House, and the Michael Reese Hospital (all Chicago, Illinois).

Hoto was structural engineer for the hotel. Illustrated with photographs.

“The true Architect is no copyist, no stiff-thumbed duplicator of other’s details and ideas, but he who carefully studies the needs of the case before him, and plans, constructs and designs from a conviction that arises not so much from genius as from study and intelligent training, a kind of architectural conscience that abhors as a deformity, superfluous, misapplied or misplaced materials and inartistic lines and colors.” BUT: “To sum up, then, the architectural fads of the day are of two classes. One that comes from the indiscriminate copying of successful men’s work and reproducing details culled from striking and ornate buildings; the other from the false idea that unique and fanciful combinations constitute design.”

Illustrated with renderings and photographs of works, including Wainwright Building (St. Louis, Missouri), Guaranty Building (Buffalo, New York), Trust and Savings Building (St. Louis, Missouri), Stock Exchange (Chicago, Illinois), Sullivan residence (Chicago, Illinois), Charnley residence (Chicago, Illinois), Auditorium Hotel Japanese Room (Chicago, Illinois), Transportation Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Getty Tomb (Chicago, Illinois), and a large terra cotta model.

Describes the exhibition, noting entries by Perkins, Fellows, and Hamilton, George Nimmons, Frank Lloyd Wright, Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie, Spencer and Powers, George W. Maher, Walter Burley Griffin, and Louis Sullivan. Illustrates renderings of George Nimmons [Decorative Tile Panel, Franklin Press Building], Louis Sullivan [Sketch for Opera Auditorium, Chicago], Walter Burley Griffin [Chicago Subdivision Master Plan], Frank Lloyd Wright [Hotel, Lake Geneva; Hotel Madison, Madison, Wisconsin], and Perkins, Fellows, and Hamilton [University of Nanking, China].

Illustrated with works by Maher, including the University Building (Evanston, Illinois), John Farson residence (Oak Park, Illinois), and Harry Rubens residence (Glencoe, Illinois).

The alma mater of William Gray Purcell, considered.

Text, drawings, and photographs.

“Architecture is not merely an important branch of what we call the fine arts, it is the root of them. For all graphic and plastic arts depends for their primal qualities on principles that are fundamentally architectural.”

Reappraisal of Ruskin’s contribution to architecture.

“First and foremost in the comprehension which the layman so earnestly desires must come the notion that an architectural composition is a unit, just as is a composition in music, or in language, or in sculpture, that in this unity every part must be relevant, must have some function to perform.”

Features, among others, the illustrations of work by Ferdinand Boberg [Stockholm Post Office and Nordische Kreditbank].

Editorial comment on the “Proposed Skyscraper for High School,” by Dwight H. Perkins.

Art Nouveau gives way to Art Moderne.

Response to J. Stewart Barney’s article in November, 1908. “It is unnecessary to go into a reply in detail to show the absurdity of statements made in [that article]…"

Wight passed away in Pasadena, California.

Authorship attributed, not confirmed. “In a letter received from one of the younger architects who have contributed illustrations to Mr. Wight’s paper on ‘Country House Architecture in the Middle West’…”

Text, with drawings and photographs illustrating Merchants National Bank (Grinnell, Iowa), The Home Building Association (Newark, Ohio), and Land and Loan Office (Algona, Iowa).

Includes photograph of Sullivan.

"More noteworthy yet is the attitude of the French critics of the World’s Fair, at Chicago. In that, all of the large buildings, except one, were avowedly designed upon the system supposed to be inculcated by the Ècole des Beaux Arts…One great building stood apart, the Transportation Building done by the gifted Sullivan, a man of original thought in other directions as well as in architecture.”

“To a busy architect nothing can be more ridiculous than the clamor of ignorant laymen for an “original style of architecture…” Signed “A. Classic.”

Notice from the editor of The Architectural Record: “It is not our practice to admit commercial reading into these pages of the magazine, but, in the case of the circular that follows, we have deviated from our fixed policy because of the substantial benefits the “Classical Design and Detail Co.” offers to the architectural profession and to the cause of classical art. We are sure nobody will deny that the present conditions of practice demand the formation of a concern like the one just incorporated, which certainly fills most satisfactorily ‘a long-felt want.’” An assembly line contractor for the production of working drawings in the neoclassical style.

Features work by Irving J. Gill, including photographs of Bella Vista Terrace (Sierra Madre) and the Darst houses (San Diego).

Butterfield Lecture delivered at Union College, Schenectady, New York, March 9, 1894. “The artistic insensibility of the modern engineer is not more fatal to architectural progress than the artistic irrelevancy of the modern architect.

Published as “A Critique of the Works of Adler and Sullivan.”

“Meanwhile the aesthetic, as distinguished from the scientific attractiveness of the Bayard Building without doubt resides in the decoration which has been lavished upon it, and which is of a quality that no other designer could have commanded. I am unable to agree with Mr. Sturgis’s condemnation of the crowning feature of the building in a recent number of this magazine, as “most unfortunate.”

Presentation rendering of Schlesinger and Mayer Store [“Dry Goods Store”], by Louis Sullivan (p. 425); and presentation rendering of McCormick Building [aka Gage Building], by Louis Sullivan (p. 424).

Pictorial that relates snow flake crystal, frost patterns, and diatom structures to the ornamental examples by Louis Sullivan. Illustrated with various terracotta friezes and the bronze gates of the Getty Tomb. Two textual captions: “The fitness of these natural forms to iron and other metallic work hardly needs to be pointed out. A comparison of these figures with Mr. Louis Sullivan’s famous gates of the Getty Tomb, represented on the page opposite, is both interesting and instructive.” [p. 442] “The lower of these two figures [the Getty gates] is given not an an implication that Mr. Sullivan was indebted to nature for his motif, but to show how closely a great designer may approximate to nature’s work without copying.” [p. 443]

Works by Louis Sullivan illustrated: the Wainwright Memorial [Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, 1893]; and the Ryerson Tomb [Graceland Cemetery, Chicago].

Contains drawings and renderings for Heurtley residence (Oak Park, Illinois), Ladies Home Journal house, E. C. Waller residence (River Forest, Illinois), Winslow residence (River Forest, Illinois), McAffe residence (Chicago, Illinois), and Clark residence (Peoria, Illinois).

Discusses the writings of Schuyler, who died in 1914. Bibliography [p. 267].

Reports the recent competition for a model farm house, won by Hewitt and Brown, and the efforts of Maurice I. Flagg, Director of the Commission.

Commentary on the work of William Morris, particularly drawing on “The Art of William Morris: A Record,” by Aymnar Vallance; and “William Morris, His Art, His Writings, and His Public Life,” also by Vallance.

“Let it be admitted that the true system of architectural design is not to ask for originality, but to build on the lines laid down by one’s predecessors and let originality come if it will.” Illustrations include the rendering for the Bayard Building by Louis Sullivan [fig. 6], which Sturgis criticizes. Montgomery Schuyler responds in the following citation.

Text, plan, and photographs concerning the Larkin Building by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Editorial piece on a proposal by Earnest Flagg for the revision of the New York building code because of developments in construction of the skyscraper.

Announcement for the F. W. Bird Company competition, entered by Purcell and Feick.

Illustrated with the Saarinen design, as well as the winning entry.

Extensive text, plans, and photographs of the hotel by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Perspective photograph, attributed to “Bankers, Architectural and Engineering Company, Lawrence A. Fournier, Architect.” Note: Listed in the Elmslie job files as his work, and also carried as a number on the Purcell and Elmslie accounting system.

Implications of the emergence of the hotel unharmed from the earthquake.

Text and illustrations, including work by Spencer and Powers [J. A. Davis residence (Knoxville, Tennessee)]; George W. Maher [E. L. King residence, aka “Rockledge,” Winona, Minnesota]; Purcell and Elmslie [“Mark Ross residence” (Amy Hamilton Hunter residence, Flossmore, Illinois); and Tallmadge and Watson [Stephan Foster residence (Winnetka, Illinois)].

Terra cotta as a substitute for stone, or as a “distinct building material.”

Contains an introductory essay about Wagner by Hamlin, and Wagner’s comments about the development of a city plan for Vienna, Austria. Drawings and photographs of various Wagner works, including an entrance to the Imperial War Museum, Dam and Gates at Nundorf, Monument to Culture at Kaiser Franz-Joseph Municipal Museum, Steinhof Church, a house in Vienna, and a project for a University Library.

Warehouse and factory architecture. Includes illustrations of work by Nimmons and Fellows [Kling Brothers & Co. Clothing Factory, Railway Terminal and Warehouse Building, W. M. Hoyt Wholesale Grocery Company, and Federal Cigar Company Building]; Schmidt, Garden, and Martin [Montgomery Ward and Company Mail Order Store and Warehouse]; and Pond and Pond [Tulane Building, and Chicago Telephone Company Toll and Long Distance Building].

Illustrated with photographs and/or plans of Albert G. Lane Technical High School, Bernhard Moos School, Stephen K. Hayt Elementary School, George W. Tilton School, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn School, William Penn School, Rodgers School, and Jesse Spalding School for Crippled Children.

Text and photographs of F. W. Itte and Phillip Itte residence (Chicago, Illinois); Mary H. Bovee residence (Evanston, Illinois); J. B. Moulton residence (Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois); and W. S. Orth residence (Kenilworth, Illinois).

Henry B. Babson residence (Riverside, Illinois), by Louis Sullivan [and George Grant Elmslie]; and Avery Coonley residence, by Frank Lloyd Wright. Interior and exterior photographs of both structures.

Illustrated with drawings and photographs of works by Louis Sullivan [Henry B. Babson residence (Riverside, Illinois)], Frank Lloyd Wright [Taliesin I (Spring Green, Wisconsin)], Purcell and Elmslie [Edward W. Decker summer residence (Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota)], Tallmadge and Watson [Gustavus Babson residence (Oak Park, Illinois), James A. Green residence (Kenilworth, Illinois)], George W. Maher [J. Hall Taylor residence (Oak Park, Illinois), Sidney Ossoski residence (Chicago, Illinois)], John S. Van Bergen [C. Percy Skillin residence (Wilmette, Illinois)], and Charles E. White, Jr. [E. H. Fahrney residence (Oak Park, Illinois)].

Wight matures his recognition of the “prairie spirit,” and now adds landscape architecture as an element to be assessed. Drawings and photographs of work by William Drummond [William Drummond residence (River Forest, Illinois), John A. Klesert residence (River Forest, Illinois)], Von Holst and Fyfe, Marion Mahony Griffin associated architects [Adolph Mueller residence (Decatur, Illinois), Robert Mueller residence (Decatur, Illinois)], Tallmadge and Watson [Percy W. Andrews residence (Wilmette, Illinois), Charles Von Weller residence (Glencoe, Illinois)], and Charles E. White, Jr. [Curtis B. Camp residence (Oak Park, Illinois)].

Drawings, with interior and exterior photographs of this Egyptoid form showing marble walls, floors and ceilings, together with Tiffany windows.

Drawing and photographs of E. L. King residence [“Rockledge”] (Winona, Minnesota), Sears Public School (Kenilworth, Illinois), Administration Building, and J. R. Watkins Medical Company (Winona, Minnesota).

Review of the exhibition, with commentary about differences from earlier shows. “The Progressive school of the Middle West did not make so interesting a showing as formerly….”

Amid an account of most major buildings built in the city is mention of the Dooley Block, by Louis H. Sullivan. Illustrated with photograph [figure 4].

The Wright view, featuring extensive photographs and/or plans, including the Larkin Building (Buffalo, New York), Dana residence (Springfield, Illinois), Hickox residence (Kankakee, Illinois), B. Harley Bradley residence (Kankakee, Illinois), P. A. Beachey residence (Oak Park, Illinois), H. J. Ullman residence (Oak Park, Illinois), W. H. Winslow residence (Oak Park, Illinois), Thomas residence (Oak Park, Illinois), Arthur Heurtley residence (Oak Park, Illinois), F. F. Tomek residence, E. L. Martin residence (Oak Park, Illinois), W. A. Glasner residence (Glencoe, Illinois), Ward W. Willetts residence (Highland Park, Illinois), Robert Clark residence (Peoria, Illinois), Hillside Home School (Taliesin Estate, Spring Green, Wisconsin), Walter S. Gerts Summer Lodge (Birch Brook, Michigan), Charles S. Ross Summer Cottage (Lake Delavan, Wisconsin), George E. Gerts Summer Cottage (Birch Brook, Michigan), W. R. Heath residence (Buffalo, New York), Helen W. Husser residence (Buena Park, Chicago, Illinois), S. M. B. Hunt residence (La Grange, Illinois), D. D. Martin residence (Buffalo, New York), Browne’s Bookstore (Chicago, Illinois), Frank Lloyd Wright Home-Studio (Oak Park, Illinois), H. H. Cheney residence (Oak Park, Illinois), Unity Church (Oak Park, Illinois), Inexpensive Concrete house for the Ladies Home Journal, Richard W. Bock Studio design, Thomas P. Hardy residence (Racine, Wisconsin), W. S. Gerts residence (Glencoe, Illinois), Elizabeth Stone residence (Glencoe, Illinois), B. J. Westcott residence (Springfield, Illinois), George W. Millard residence (Highland Park, Illinois), and “Flower in the Crannied Wall” figure by Richard W. Bock.

Part elevation of Chicago Avenue front.

“He was not a creative architect, but he was a great man.”

Exterior photographs of Ralph D. Griffin residence (Edwardsville, Illinois), and exterior photograph and rendering of Harry E. Gunn residence (Chicago, Illinois).

Editorial note summarizing the physical layout of the city by Griffin in relation to major topographical features.

Description of the city plan, including renderings and site plan.

Burnham’s account of how the Fair came into being. Illustrated with photographs of his estate in Evanston, Illinois.

Exterior photographs of Taliesin I.

An essay on the relationship of art and architecture. No illustrations.

Homage.