Hart Wood
Encyclopedia
Hart Wood was an American
architect
who flourished during the "Golden Age" of Hawaiian architecture
. He was one of the principal proponents of a distinctive "Hawaiian style" of architecture
appropriate to the local environment and reflective of the cultural heritage of the islands. He was one the three founders (in 1926) of the Honolulu Chapter of the American Institute of Architects
, and the only one of its fourteen charter members to be elected a Fellow of the AIA
. He served as territorial architect during World War II
.
.
Hart's grandfather Samuel Wood, father Thomas Hart Benton Wood, and uncle Louis M. H. Wood were all in the building trades. His Uncle Louis had studied architecture at Cornell University
, sought work in Chicago
after the Great Fire
of 1871, then settled in Kansas in 1873, working until 1887 with architect John G. Haskell
, whose commissions included the Kansas State Capitol
, Chase County Courthouse
, and buildings for Kansas University, Washburn University
, Haskell Institute, and federal schools for tribes in the neighboring Indian Territory
. Thomas moved his family west in the early 1880s, settling for a time in Hays, Kansas
. By 1890, both brothers had moved to a booming Denver, Colorado
, awash with architects and civic art clubs and rapidly filling with Richardsonian Romanesque
buildings downtown.
Hart began his architectural career in Denver, finding work in 1898 as a draftsman for the firm of Willis A. Marean and Albert J. Norton, who later designed the Colorado Governor's Mansion
(1908). In 1900, he joined Frank E. Edbrooke & Company, who had designed the Brown Palace Hotel (1892). By 1902, he had moved to California, where he spent a year drafting plans for new campus building of Stanford University
, where conservative Richardsonian Romanesque detail adorned newly evolving California Mission Revival Style architecture
under the guidance of Boston-based Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge. At Stanford, he was also exposed to the landscape architecture
of Frederick Law Olmstead. He then spent a year working for the young firm of Meyer and O'Brien before joining the firm of Bliss and Faville just in time to work on their most famous project, the St. Francis Hotel
, and other major buildings arising from the ashes of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, including the Neoclassical architecture
of the Bank of California and the more Beaux-Arts style of the Union Savings Bank (1909), the Columbia (now Geary) Theater (1909), and the Masonic Temple (1912).
In 1904, he moved to the more rural East Bay area around Oakland, California
, home to distinctive architects including Bernard Maybeck
, known for designing individualistic rustic homes. Wood married Jessie Spangler on November 21, 1906 in Berkeley, California
. In 1910, he founded the Oakland Architectural Club and served as its first president (1910–1912). Other members included John Galen Howard
, Louis Christian Mullgardt
, and Oswald Spier. In 1911 he became a licensed architect, no longer just a draftsman, and the following year designed his own home on a steep hillside in Piedmont, California
, a modest but well-crafted, wood-shingled house with rustic features worthy of Maybeck, including porch columns of bark-sheathed redwood. Also in 1912 Bliss and Faville was chosen as one of five San Francisco architectural firms to work on the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. As their chief draftsman, Wood was heavily involved, especially in designing the exposition's landscaping and Great Wall. He also worked with John McLaren, the horticulturist who designed Golden Gate Park
, on a unique long, towering fence frame covered with iceplants along the main entrance of the exposition.
The onset of World War I
in 1914 severely reduced both new architectural commissions and access to high-quality European tools of the trade. Wood left Bliss and Faville to work briefly for another firm known for Beaux-Arts architecture, that of Lewis P. Hobart
, before going into partnership with Horace G. Simpson in 1915. In between scarce commissions, the new partners published a series of articles in Architect and Engineer of California on planned communities
of the kind envisioned by the Garden city movement
. One article extolled the virtues of "English cottage" (Tudor Revival) styles for suburban living, a style they employed to good effect in designing houses and landscaping lots in the newly expanding suburb
of Burlingame, California
(billed as a "City of Trees
") and in a wooded residential subdivision for its workers commissioned by Pacific Electric Metals Company of Bay Point, California
, east of Berkeley. However, so little work was available during the war years that the two dissolved their partnership in 1917, and Wood worked in a shipyard to make ends meet.
, who had secured two residential and two commercial commissions in Honolulu. Dickey had an architecture degree from MIT, and was grandson of William P. Alexander, an early missionary to Hawaii. The partnership lasted until 1928 and produced many notable buildings, such as the Alexander & Baldwin Building (1929) and Honolulu Hale
(1929)—the latter in collaboration with every other major architect in town.
Among his most striking designs are two churches. The First Church of Christ Scientist (1923), where he was a member, employs local materials, adapts some Hawaiian building techniques, and lies athwart cooling tradewinds in a shady tropical landscape. (He employed a similar design in 1922 for the main body of the Albert Spencer Wilcox Building
in Lihue, completed in 1924.) The First Chinese Church of Christ (1929) artfully blends bell tower with pagoda, stained glass with colorful glazed tiles, and crosses with traditional Chinese geometric patterns. Similar Chinese motifs can also be seen in the work of other architects that Wood influenced, such as in J. Alvin Shadinger's interior design for the R.N. Linn House
(1928).
Wood designed one of the first stores in Waikiki, the Gump Building (1929). Among the more notable of the many private residences he designed are those for Dr. James Morgan, Dr. Robert Faus
(1924), Frederick Ohrt
(1925), Georges de S. Canavarro
(1926), and Robert Pew (whose house was known as "Wei Lan Tien") (1931).
Commissions from various sugar plantations helped keep him afloat during the Great Depression
. On Kauai he designed the Waimea Community Center (now Boys & Girls Clubhouse) (1933) and houses for the Waimea Plantation doctor and Kekaha Plantation skilled workers (1934). On Oahu
he designed the Ewa Plantation administration building (1934), and on Lānai
the Dole Plantation manager's house (1936).
Frederick Ohrt became a regular client after being appointed head of the new Board of Water Supply in 1930. He hired Wood to design pumping stations at Pacific Heights (1933), Makiki (1935), and Kalihi Uka (1935); and an aerator in Nuuanu (1936). In fact, Wood's last major project was the Board of Water Supply Building (1958).
Many of the buildings he designed are on the State and National Register of Historic Places
, including three of the Honolulu Tudor–French Norman Cottages
built during 1923–1932. He died in Honolulu on October 6, 1957.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who flourished during the "Golden Age" of Hawaiian architecture
Hawaiian architecture
Hawaiian architecture is a distinctive style of architectural arts developed and employed primarily in the Hawaiian Islands of the present-day United States — buildings and various other structures indicative of the people of Hawaii and the environment and culture in which they live...
. He was one of the principal proponents of a distinctive "Hawaiian style" of architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
appropriate to the local environment and reflective of the cultural heritage of the islands. He was one the three founders (in 1926) of the Honolulu Chapter of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
, and the only one of its fourteen charter members to be elected a Fellow of the AIA
FAIA
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects is a postnomial, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects...
. He served as territorial architect during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Early years
Hart Wood was born December 26, 1880 in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
.
Hart's grandfather Samuel Wood, father Thomas Hart Benton Wood, and uncle Louis M. H. Wood were all in the building trades. His Uncle Louis had studied architecture at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, sought work in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
after the Great Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
of 1871, then settled in Kansas in 1873, working until 1887 with architect John G. Haskell
John G. Haskell
John Gideon Haskell is an architect who designed portions of the Kansas State Capitol and other public buildings in the state....
, whose commissions included the Kansas State Capitol
Kansas State Capitol
The Kansas State Capitol, known also as the Kansas Statehouse, is the building housing the executive and legislative branches of government for the U.S. state of Kansas. It is located in the city of Topeka which has served as the capital of Kansas since it became a state in 1861...
, Chase County Courthouse
Chase County Courthouse (Cottonwood Falls, Kansas)
The Chase County Courthouse in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas was built in 1873. It is an Italian Renaissance Revival and Italianate style building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The architect was John G. Haskell who was among the architects of the Kansas State Capitol....
, and buildings for Kansas University, Washburn University
Washburn University
Washburn University is a co-educational, public institution of higher learning in Topeka, Kansas, USA. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,400 undergraduate students and...
, Haskell Institute, and federal schools for tribes in the neighboring Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
. Thomas moved his family west in the early 1880s, settling for a time in Hays, Kansas
Hays, Kansas
Hays is a city in and the county seat of Ellis County, Kansas, United States. The largest city in northwestern Kansas, it is the economic and cultural center of the region. It is also a college town, home to Fort Hays State University...
. By 1890, both brothers had moved to a booming Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, awash with architects and civic art clubs and rapidly filling with Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...
buildings downtown.
Hart began his architectural career in Denver, finding work in 1898 as a draftsman for the firm of Willis A. Marean and Albert J. Norton, who later designed the Colorado Governor's Mansion
Colorado Governor's Mansion
The Colorado Governor's Mansion, also known as the Cheesman-Boettcher Mansion, is a historic U.S. residence in Denver, Colorado. It is located at 400 East 8th Avenue. On December 3, 1969, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places....
(1908). In 1900, he joined Frank E. Edbrooke & Company, who had designed the Brown Palace Hotel (1892). By 1902, he had moved to California, where he spent a year drafting plans for new campus building of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, where conservative Richardsonian Romanesque detail adorned newly evolving California Mission Revival Style architecture
Mission Revival Style architecture
The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California....
under the guidance of Boston-based Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge. At Stanford, he was also exposed to the landscape architecture
Landscape architecture
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...
of Frederick Law Olmstead. He then spent a year working for the young firm of Meyer and O'Brien before joining the firm of Bliss and Faville just in time to work on their most famous project, the St. Francis Hotel
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis is a historic luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built just before the San Francisco Earthquake, in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913,...
, and other major buildings arising from the ashes of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, including the Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
of the Bank of California and the more Beaux-Arts style of the Union Savings Bank (1909), the Columbia (now Geary) Theater (1909), and the Masonic Temple (1912).
In 1904, he moved to the more rural East Bay area around Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, home to distinctive architects including Bernard Maybeck
Bernard Maybeck
Bernard Ralph Maybeck was a architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was a professor at University of California, Berkeley...
, known for designing individualistic rustic homes. Wood married Jessie Spangler on November 21, 1906 in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. In 1910, he founded the Oakland Architectural Club and served as its first president (1910–1912). Other members included John Galen Howard
John Galen Howard
John Galen Howard was an American architect.He is best known for his work as the supervising architect of the Master Plan for the University of California, Berkeley campus, and for founding the University of California's architecture program...
, Louis Christian Mullgardt
Louis Christian Mullgardt
Louis Christian Mullgardt was an American architect. Among his notable works are the San Francisco Juvenile Court and Detention Home, the Durant School in Oakland, Court of the Ages at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, and the M. H...
, and Oswald Spier. In 1911 he became a licensed architect, no longer just a draftsman, and the following year designed his own home on a steep hillside in Piedmont, California
Piedmont, California
Piedmont is a small, affluent city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is surrounded by the city of Oakland. The population was 10,667 at the 2010 census. Piedmont was incorporated in 1907 and was developed significantly in the 1920s and 1930s...
, a modest but well-crafted, wood-shingled house with rustic features worthy of Maybeck, including porch columns of bark-sheathed redwood. Also in 1912 Bliss and Faville was chosen as one of five San Francisco architectural firms to work on the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. As their chief draftsman, Wood was heavily involved, especially in designing the exposition's landscaping and Great Wall. He also worked with John McLaren, the horticulturist who designed Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
, on a unique long, towering fence frame covered with iceplants along the main entrance of the exposition.
The onset of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914 severely reduced both new architectural commissions and access to high-quality European tools of the trade. Wood left Bliss and Faville to work briefly for another firm known for Beaux-Arts architecture, that of Lewis P. Hobart
Lewis P. Hobart
Lewis Parsons Hobart was an American architect whose designs included San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, several California Academy of Sciences buildings, and the 511 Federal Building in Portland, Oregon....
, before going into partnership with Horace G. Simpson in 1915. In between scarce commissions, the new partners published a series of articles in Architect and Engineer of California on planned communities
Planned community
A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...
of the kind envisioned by the Garden city movement
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
. One article extolled the virtues of "English cottage" (Tudor Revival) styles for suburban living, a style they employed to good effect in designing houses and landscaping lots in the newly expanding suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Burlingame, California
Burlingame, California
Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame. It is renowned for its many surviving examples of Victorian architecture, its affluence, and...
(billed as a "City of Trees
City of Trees
City of Trees is a nickname for several world cities:*Adelaide, South Australia, Australia*Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States - also known as "Tree Town"*Atlanta, Georgia, United States - also known as "The City in a Forest"*Boise, Idaho, United States...
") and in a wooded residential subdivision for its workers commissioned by Pacific Electric Metals Company of Bay Point, California
Port Chicago, California
Port Chicago was a town on the southern banks of Suisun Bay, in Contra Costa County, California. It was located east-northeast of Martinez, at an elevation of 13 feet...
, east of Berkeley. However, so little work was available during the war years that the two dissolved their partnership in 1917, and Wood worked in a shipyard to make ends meet.
Hawaii Years
Wood first arrived in Hawaii in 1919, at the age of 38 and with a new partner he had met in Oakland: Charles William DickeyCharles William Dickey
Charles William “C.W.” Dickey was an American architect famous for developing a distinctive style of Hawaiian architecture...
, who had secured two residential and two commercial commissions in Honolulu. Dickey had an architecture degree from MIT, and was grandson of William P. Alexander, an early missionary to Hawaii. The partnership lasted until 1928 and produced many notable buildings, such as the Alexander & Baldwin Building (1929) and Honolulu Hale
Honolulu Hale
Honolulu Hale , located on 530 South King Street in downtown Honolulu in the City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii, is the official seat of government of the city and county, site of the chambers of the Mayor of Honolulu and the Honolulu City Council.In the Hawaiian language, hale means house or building...
(1929)—the latter in collaboration with every other major architect in town.
Among his most striking designs are two churches. The First Church of Christ Scientist (1923), where he was a member, employs local materials, adapts some Hawaiian building techniques, and lies athwart cooling tradewinds in a shady tropical landscape. (He employed a similar design in 1922 for the main body of the Albert Spencer Wilcox Building
Albert Spencer Wilcox Building
The Albert Spencer Wilcox Building, was originally a library and then converted to the Kauai Museum, which displays exhibits on the history of the island of Kauai in Hawaii.-Library:...
in Lihue, completed in 1924.) The First Chinese Church of Christ (1929) artfully blends bell tower with pagoda, stained glass with colorful glazed tiles, and crosses with traditional Chinese geometric patterns. Similar Chinese motifs can also be seen in the work of other architects that Wood influenced, such as in J. Alvin Shadinger's interior design for the R.N. Linn House
R.N. Linn House
The R. N. Linn House, also known as the Robert A. and Eleanor C. Nordyke Residence, at 2013 Kakela Drive in Honolulu, Hawaii, was built in 1928 in the style of architecture then emerging in Hawaii during the 1920s...
(1928).
Wood designed one of the first stores in Waikiki, the Gump Building (1929). Among the more notable of the many private residences he designed are those for Dr. James Morgan, Dr. Robert Faus
Honolulu Tudor–French Norman Cottages
During the boom years of the 1920s, as immigration and tourism to the Territory of Hawaii from the West Coast of the United States increased sharply, many new private homes for the growing middle class showed the design influence of the California bungalows or Mock Tudor English cottages so popular...
(1924), Frederick Ohrt
Honolulu Tudor–French Norman Cottages
During the boom years of the 1920s, as immigration and tourism to the Territory of Hawaii from the West Coast of the United States increased sharply, many new private homes for the growing middle class showed the design influence of the California bungalows or Mock Tudor English cottages so popular...
(1925), Georges de S. Canavarro
Georges de S. Canavarro House
The Georges de S. Canavarro House, also known as the Canavarro Castle, at 2756 Rooke Ave., Honolulu, Hawaii, was built in 1924–1927 for Georges de Souza Canavarro, son of the longtime Consul-General of Portugal in Hawaii, Antonio de Souza Canavarro...
(1926), and Robert Pew (whose house was known as "Wei Lan Tien") (1931).
Commissions from various sugar plantations helped keep him afloat during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. On Kauai he designed the Waimea Community Center (now Boys & Girls Clubhouse) (1933) and houses for the Waimea Plantation doctor and Kekaha Plantation skilled workers (1934). On Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
he designed the Ewa Plantation administration building (1934), and on Lānai
Lanai
Lānai or Lanai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The only town is Lānai City, a small settlement....
the Dole Plantation manager's house (1936).
Frederick Ohrt became a regular client after being appointed head of the new Board of Water Supply in 1930. He hired Wood to design pumping stations at Pacific Heights (1933), Makiki (1935), and Kalihi Uka (1935); and an aerator in Nuuanu (1936). In fact, Wood's last major project was the Board of Water Supply Building (1958).
Many of the buildings he designed are on the State and National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, including three of the Honolulu Tudor–French Norman Cottages
Honolulu Tudor–French Norman Cottages
During the boom years of the 1920s, as immigration and tourism to the Territory of Hawaii from the West Coast of the United States increased sharply, many new private homes for the growing middle class showed the design influence of the California bungalows or Mock Tudor English cottages so popular...
built during 1923–1932. He died in Honolulu on October 6, 1957.