REVIVALS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE: Successive and
simultaneous revivals of historical styles are symptomatic of a desire
for a stable and continuing tradition in the midst of the
revolutionary changes of the industrial age. The neo-Classical (Roman
and Greek) revivals were paralleled and followed by a romantic neo-
medieval revival; these styles continue throughout the century. The
revivals of Renaissance and Baroque are somewhat more limited.
THE PITTSBURGH COURTHOUSE AS EXEMPLAR OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY REVIVAL
ARCHITECTURE. One can enjoy the Pittsburgh Courthouse of H.H.
Richardson immensely just from looking at it, and it is very
rewarding. But to "unlock" the richness of the Courthouse, you would
need to think about it as the nineteenth century would have thought
about it: its architect Richardson, the Allegheny County Commissioners
who were the patrons of the building, the way the architect sought to
convey the function of the building, and about its iconography (the
meaning that is conveyed through its visual "text"). Columns, for
example, instantly evoke Greece and Rome, and what they stand for:
antiquity, justice, reason, imperial power. Gothic towers evoke the
Middle Ages: Christianity, faith, emotion, mystery, the supernatural.
(Hollywood probably learned how to use the latent symbolism of
architecture better than anyone.)
Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) exemplified a creative use of
historical style that became known as "Richardson Romanesque." His
plans reflected the differentiation of function in each unity;
particularly in his early works, spatial units were arranged in
imaginatively asymmetrical designs to open onto each other with
increasing freedom. At the Pittsburgh Courthouse, Richardson was more
strongly influenced by classical architecture, and he produced a fully
symmetrical oblong design. The plan reflects Renaissance palaces,
while the elevations (the wall designs) owe much to Romanesque and
Gothic precedent. Richardson's Romanesque vocabulary was generally
consistent with his basic principles of architectural planning:
aggregation of simple units and emphasis on the massiveness of
construction in stone. Richardson always stressed the positive
contribution of natural materials to the design: gigantic rough-hewn
granite blocks, brought to Pittsburgh pre-cut from Massachusetts.
When we understand the function of the Courthouse, Richardson's
aesthetic ideals, the physical and social context in which the
building was conceived, the idea or image of Justice held by post-
Civil-War America, and the technology of the building's construction,
then we are far along in the history and analysis of the monument. But
that analysis is in one way incomplete: nineteenth-century
architecture (but architecture in virtually every period, really) was
a public art. A major building, especially the most important building
in town, could not exist as an architectural orphan. An amateur
builder or an overbearing patron can always put up an eccentric
building that cares little about prevailing architectural style.
(Indeed, our own Frick Fine Arts Building is such an example: does it
look typical of buildings erected in 1965?) But every building by a
professional architect is part of a dialogue with what went before,
and possibly with what came after it. The Pittsburgh Courthouse is
probably the second most imitated building in the country, after
Independence Hall. Even Frank Lloyd Wright recalled it, in his 1959
design for the Marin County Civic Center in California.
So a complete understanding of the Courthouse means we have to go
outside Pittsburgh, even outside the United States, to understand
where the building "fits" as a nineteenth-century building. We can,
and must, apply FACIT analysis not merely to a building but to a whole
architectural style. Here we find three observations of interest:
1) The nineteenth century continually lamented the fact that it had no
style of its own: it seemed a prisoner of earlier styles, particularly
Greek-based and Gothic-based.
The nineteenth-century architect was liberated from purely local
materials: the Pittsburgh Courthouse uses nothing local: the exterior
granite is from Massachusetts, the interior limestone from Indiana,
all brought by railroad). No longer need the architect pay heed to the
local climate: heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, plumbing, and
lighting created a completely new artificial climate for the first
time in history. Local workmen could be supplanted by outside crews:
the builder of the Pittsburgh Courthouse came from New England, and
most of the material was prefabricated anyway. The invention of
photography, and the proliferation of books and magazines on
architecture meant that style had become universalized. "Local"
architecture had come to an end: what was to replace it?
Looked at this way, we see infinitely more to the Pittsburgh
Courthouse than what is visible from the corner of Forbes and Grant
streets.
2) The nineteenth century never came to terms with two revolutionary
building materials it had spawned: steel and glass. It used them, but
could not acknowledge them as "proper" architecture.
3) Freedom from architectural constraints. All architecture throughout
history had been constrained by local conditions: local building
materials, local workmen and their traditions, local taste, specifics
of the local climate (hot or cold, dusty or damp, daytime and
nighttime), local architectural iconography. But the nineteenth
century was the first period of architecture to begin to free itself
from such constraints.
Key works:
1. Sir Charles Barry & A.W.N. Pugin: Houses of Parliament, London,
designed 1836, built 1840--1860s [
153 plan;
304 aerial view]; figs.
720--722.
2. A.N.W. Pugin, Contrasts, 1841.
3. Sir Joseph Paxton: Crystal Palace, London, 1851 (moved and
enlarged; burned 1936) [
308 exterior appearance when opened;
307
interior view in 1851]; figs. 763, 764.
4. John Ruskin, Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849.
5. William Butterfield: All Saints', Margaret Street, London, 1850-59 [
305 exterior;
306 interior]; figs. 725, 726.
6. Charles Garnier: Opera, Paris, 1861-74 [
303 section;
302 exterior;
301 interior of grand stairhall]; figs. 708-713, colorplate 64
7. H. H. Richardson: Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail, Pittsburgh,
1884-1888 [
178 plan of third floor (as designated today);
171 view and
elevation;
186 view of west (main) facade;
172 north facade;
188 Toker
geometric analysis of facade].
Works in context:
Terms: