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Richardsonian Romanesque

 
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Richardsonian Romanesque is a style
Architectural style

Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of form, wikt:technique, materials, time period, region, etc. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture....
 of Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival architecture

Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed in the late 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture Architectural style of architecture....
 named after architect
Architect

An architect is trained and licenced in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e....
 Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson

Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent United States architect of the 19th century whose work left a significant impact on Boston, Pittsburgh, Albany, New York and Chicago, among others....
, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston
Trinity Church, Boston

Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts....
 (1872–77). It first appeared in Richardson's Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane
H.H. Richardson Complex

'H.H. Richardson Complex' is a recently-coined name for the 'Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane', a large Medina red sandstone and brick hospital that stands on the grounds of the present day in Buffalo, New York....
 in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York

Buffalo , is the second largest city in the state of New York. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the county seat of Erie County, New York....
, designed in 1870.

very free, revival style
Historicism (art)

Historicism refers to artistic styles that draw their inspiration from copying historic styles or artisans. So, after neo-classicism , the 19th century saw a new historicist phase marked by a return to a more ancient classicism, in particular in architecture and in the genre of history painting....
 incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish and Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 Romanesque
Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is the term that is used to describe the architecture of Middle Ages Europe which evolved into the Gothic architecture style beginning in the 12th century....
 characteristics.






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Rromanesquedetroit
Richardsonian Romanesque is a style
Architectural style

Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of form, wikt:technique, materials, time period, region, etc. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture....
 of Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival architecture

Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed in the late 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture Architectural style of architecture....
 named after architect
Architect

An architect is trained and licenced in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e....
 Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson

Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent United States architect of the 19th century whose work left a significant impact on Boston, Pittsburgh, Albany, New York and Chicago, among others....
, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston
Trinity Church, Boston

Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts....
 (1872–77). It first appeared in Richardson's Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane
H.H. Richardson Complex

'H.H. Richardson Complex' is a recently-coined name for the 'Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane', a large Medina red sandstone and brick hospital that stands on the grounds of the present day in Buffalo, New York....
 in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York

Buffalo , is the second largest city in the state of New York. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the county seat of Erie County, New York....
, designed in 1870.

History and development

This very free, revival style
Historicism (art)

Historicism refers to artistic styles that draw their inspiration from copying historic styles or artisans. So, after neo-classicism , the 19th century saw a new historicist phase marked by a return to a more ancient classicism, in particular in architecture and in the genre of history painting....
 incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish and Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 Romanesque
Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is the term that is used to describe the architecture of Middle Ages Europe which evolved into the Gothic architecture style beginning in the 12th century....
 characteristics. It emphasizes clear, strong picturesque massing, round-headed "Romanesque" arches, often springing from clusters of short squat columns, recessed entrances, richly varied rustication, boldly blank stretches of walling contrasting with bands of windows, and cylindrical towers with conical caps embedded in the walling.

The style epitomizes work by the generation of architects practising in the 1880s— before the influx of Beaux-Arts style
Beaux-Arts architecture

Beaux-Arts architecture denotes the academic Neoclassical architecture architectural style that was taught at the ?cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris....
s— such as J. Cleaveland Cady
J. Cleaveland Cady

J Cleaveland Cady was a New York City-based architect whose most familiar surviving building is the south range of the American Museum of Natural History on New York's Upper West Side....
 of Cady, Bird and See in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, whose American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, USA, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world....
's original 77th Street range epitomizes "Richardsonian Romanesque." Some of the practitioners who most faithfully followed Richardson's proportion, massing and detailing had worked in his office. These include Wadsworth Longfellow and Frank Alden (Longfellow, Alden & Harlow of Boston & Pittsburgh); George Shepley and Charles Coolidge (Richardson's former employees, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge of Boston); and Herbert Burdett (Marling & Burdett of Buffalo). The style influenced the Chicago school
Chicago school (architecture)

Architecture of Chicago is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. The style is also known as Commercial style....
 of architecture and architects Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan

Louis Henri Sullivan was an United States architect, and has been called the "father of modern architecture." He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago school , was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come...
 and Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an United States architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works....
. In Finland
Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
, Eliel Saarinen
Eliel Saarinen

Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finland Architecture who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century.Saarinen was educated in Helsinki at the Helsinki University of Technology....
 was influenced by Richardson.

Dispersion

Research is currently ongoing to try to document the westward movement of the artisans and craftsmen, many immigrant Italians and Irish, who built in the Richardsonian Romanesque tradition. The style began in the East, in and around Boston and while it was losing favor there it was gaining popularity further west. Thus stone carvers and masons trained in the Richardsonian manner appear to have surfed the style west, until it died out in the early years of the 20th century.

As an example, four small bank buildings were built in Richardsonian Romanesque style in Osage County, Oklahoma
Osage County, Oklahoma

Osage County is the largest county in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Coterminous with the Osage Indian Reservation, it is the home of the Osage Nation....
, during 1904-1911.

Images

For pictures of H.H. Richardson’s own designs and some of the details, see Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson

Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent United States architect of the 19th century whose work left a significant impact on Boston, Pittsburgh, Albany, New York and Chicago, among others....
.

None of the following structures were designed by Richardson. They illustrate the strength of his architectural personality on progressive North American architecture from 1885 to 1905.

See also

  • Henry Hobson Richardson
    Henry Hobson Richardson

    Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent United States architect of the 19th century whose work left a significant impact on Boston, Pittsburgh, Albany, New York and Chicago, among others....


Footnotes


Notations

  • Kelsey, Mavis P. and Donald H. Dyal, The Courthouses of Texas: A Guide, Texas A&M University Press, College Station Texas 1993 ISBN 0890965471
  • Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture in America unpublished manuscript
  • Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Starkweather Memorial Chapel, Highland Cemetery, Ypsilanti, Michigan, Unpublished paper 1983
  • Larson, Paul C., Editor, with Susan Brown, The Spirit of H.H. Richardson on the Midwest Prairies, University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Iowa State University Press, Ames 1988
  • Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, H.H.Richardson: Complete Architectural Works, MIT Press, Cambridge MA 1984 ISBN 0262150239
  • Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, and Andersen, Dennis Alan, Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H. H. Richardson, University of Washington Press, Seattle WA 2003 ISBN 0-295-98238-1
  • Van Rensselaer, Mariana Griswold, Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works, Dover Publications, Inc. NY 1959 (Reprint of 1888 edition) ISBN 0486223205

External links

  • Richardsonian Romanesque