Test Yourself: Write the letter next to the number to match man and work.

 

1. Sir Christopher Wren a. David, Rape of Proserpine — and churches, too

 

2. Giovanni Bernini b. formal, classic palaces and villas, he liked symmetry

 

3. Andrea Palladio c. is known for Fallingwater

 

4. Frank Lloyd Wright d. noted British architect of London structures

DID YOU KNOW?

The 210-foot tower of Duke Chapel, a majestic structure whose stained glass windows contain more than one million pieces of glass, and which dominates the neo-Gothic West Campus of Duke University, was designed by African-American architect Julian Abele (1881-1950) in the mid-1920s.

Unit 13

Stanford White

(1853-1906) An American architect whose work with C. F. McKim and William R. Meade influenced New York City architecture at the turn of the twentieth century. Still standing are his Washington Memorial Arch in Washington Square Park and the elegant Century Club. His special interests were in interior design and decorative arts.

 

words in context: The first Madison Square Garden in New York City was designed by Stanford White and his partners. White's building was more graceful than his life: He was shot and killed in Madison Square Garden by a jealous husband, Harry K. Thaw, over an affair White was having with Evelyn Nesbitt, Thaw's wife — an incident depicted in the film The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.

 

 

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

(1886-1969) Commonly referred to as Mies, this German-American architect was a founder of modern architecture. He took over as director of the Bauhaus from Walter Gropius; later he moved to Chicago to teach in what is now the Illinois Institute of Technology. He pioneered internal structures that could support buildings made entirely of glass, the structural skeletons of buildings being one of his major interests.

words in context: Known for his maxims, as well as for creating the vocabulary of modern architecture, Mies van der Rohe coined the phrases, "Less is more," "God is in the details," and "Form follows function."

 

Le Corbusier (1887-1965) Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, this Swiss architect worked in France; his book Towards a New Architecture (1923) had a revolutionary effect on international development of modern architecture. Drawing inspiration from industrial forms, he produced radical schemes for houses and apartments.

 

words in context: Le Corbu, as he was often known, built a villa near Paris in 1923 and another, Villa Savoie, Poissy, in 1929. His plan for a "vertical city" was partially realized in the Unité d'Habitation, Marseilles (1942-1952). Le Corbusier also designed the Visual Arts Center at Harvard University (1961-1962).

 

I. M. Pei

(1917-) A Chinese-American architect, Pei integrates structure and environment, favoring glass, stone, concrete, and steel. A champion of light, view, and public space, Pei is known for designing giant atriums — and for the design of the huge, glass Pyramids at the Louvre in Paris (1983).

words in context: Among the structures designed by I. M. Pei are the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1978), the West Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1981), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland (1996).

After studying the architects above, use their names in the sentences below.

 

1. Despite his tabloid personal life, will be remembered by those who admire the Washington Square Arch in New York's Greenwich Village.

 

2 His goal being bringing nature, people, and architecture together in a "higher unity," declared that "less is more."

 

3. Fallowing his principles in Towards a New Architecture designed a villa at Vaucresson, near Paris, in 1923.

 

4. favors glass, steel, stone, and concrete — and public space.

 

 

Test Yourself: Write the letter next to the number to match man and work.

1. Mies van der Rohe a. designed the Pyramids at the Louvre

 

2. Le Corbusier b. lived and died by the first Madison Square Garden

 

3 Stanford White c. designed the Visual Center at Harvard

 

4. I. M. Pei d. took over the Bauhaus from Gropius

 

On a separate sheet of paper, write a sentence using each of these names.

DID YOU KNOW?

Who designed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., setting the model for capitols throughout the United States?

ANSWER: Charles Bullfinch (1763-1884) of Massachusetts.

Unit 14

Eero Saarinen

(1910-1961) A Finnish-American architect who also was noted for his furniture design, particularly chairs. His concrete-domed structures were innovative and influential. His projects included The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1953-1956), Dulles International Airport (1958-1962), and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis (1959-1964), the last two were finished posthumously.

 

words in context: Eero Saarinen studied and worked with his father, architect Eliel (Gottlieb) Saarinen. Together, the two designed the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. The younger Saarinen also designed the swooping Trans World Airlines Terminal in New York City.

 

Frank Gehry

(1929-) A Canadian architect, who has vaulted to the top of every list of major architects since the turn or the twenty-first century with his design of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. A titanium structure composed of sleek, curving, sensuous, and fanciful shapes; the Bilbao captures and reflects the light from every angle. Using unconventional materials, he breaks the mold of architecture as we have known it.

 

words in context: Frank Gehry has been called more a sculptor than an architect, though his astonishing structures are considered technically masterful. In addition to the Bilbao, his work includes the Gehry House in Santa Monica, California (1978), and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (1997).

 

Robert Venturi

(1925-) An architectural theorist, Venturi is a postmodernist (a leader in a style that emerged in then 1970s, characterized by references to and evocative of past styles, especially of the classical tradition). Venturi's work is often colorful and witty. In his books, Complexities and Contradictions in Modern Architecture (1966) and Learning from Las Vegas (1972), he advocates an unorthodox, eclectic, and humorous new vocabulary of architecture, illustrating the validity and high spirits of advertising, roadside signs, and strip malls.

 

words in context: A&P parking lots have vitality and are a part of American culture, says Robert Venturi, whose colorful high-rises in Florida attest to his appreciation of "the kitsch of high capitalism."

 

Robert A. M. Stern

(1939-) Another postmodernist whose work favors architecture preceding the Bauhaus and International Style. His large, private homes with porches and many windows in East Hampton, New York, and other locations incorporate traditional styles along with light and open spaces.

 

words in context: Celebration, Florida, shows the handiwork of Robert A. M. Stern. This small community, created by the Walt Disney Company and coplanned by Stern, looks back to Main Street America — a tranquil, homey, pristine world that is an experiment in planned living.

After studying the architects above, use their names in the sentences below:

 

1. designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the Trans World Airlines terminal in New York City.

 

2. The work of harkens back to small-town America and planned communities. (His work could have been the model for the film, The Truman Show.)

3. wrote the book advocating that Americans look at their current architectural environment and find vital, vibrant, and amusing patterns in the kitsch around them.

4. The architect who is breaking the mold of architecture in the twenty-first century with his unconventional materials and sculptural forms is.

 

 

Test Yourself: Write the letter next to the number to match man and work.

 

1. Eero Saarinen a. look to him for a pristine, gated community

 

2. Robert Venturi b. architect of the astonishing Bilbao

 

3. Robert A.M. Stern c. his work reflects popular culture, wit, and color

 

4. Frank Gehry d. swooping arches and concrete domes

 

 

DID YOU KNOW?

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was not only a masterly painter and sculptor, but he was also a scientist, engineer, and architect. He worked on the Milan Cathedral and at least two others. He served as architect and engineer in Milan for Louis XII beginning in 1506. Leonardo also worked on several projects for the Vatican between 1513 and 1515.

Ii. art vocabulary