Frontier Architecture (c.

1850-90s)

Meanwhile, local vernacular architecture was appearing across the American West, partly because of
the Homestead Act of 1862, which gave millions of Americans the chance to own their own home, and
fundamentally altered the character of settlement patterns across the Great Plains and Southwest. The Act
offered a modest "homestead" – typically 160 acres - free of charge, to anyone who cultivated the land for a
minimum of 5 years and built a residence on the property. This incentive stimulated a pattern of isolated
farmsteads across the Midwest and West, instead of the villages and small towns prevalent in the east, and
most of Europe. Settlers and farmers used local materials to build their homes, including sod, logs, cobble,
stone and adobe bricks. Using vernacular designs, they built log cabins in wooded areas and sod houses on
the treeless plains and prairies. Further west and southwest, settlers used widely available clay to make
adobe bricks and roof tiles. With the greater availability of milled wood, ranch-style dwellings became more
common, along with frontier designs like Monterey Colonial architecture. In all, roughly 1.6 million
homesteads, occupying 270,000,000 acres, were allocated under the Homestead Act between 1862 and
1934. See also: Folk Art.

A non-vernacular design used in wooden houses was the Queen Anne Style, which evolved from Carpenter's
Gothic and Stick-Eastlake (see above). In lumber-rich areas of California, late 19th-century domestic
architecture used various timber designs, including the Queen Anne style, the most famous example of
which was the Carson Mansion, in Old Town Eureka on Humboldt Bay, designed by Samuel and Joseph
Cather Newsom. On the east coast, Queen Anne developed into Shingle Style architecture, marked by a
more relaxed rustic image. Examples include the William Watts Sherman House (1874-75) in Rhode Island,
and the Mary Fiske Stoughton House (1882-83) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, both designed by H.H.
Richardson; and the Newport Casino (1879–81), designed by Charles Follen McKim.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)

With the emergence of Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago maintained its reputation as the creative centre of
American architecture. At his birth, his mother was already convinced he would become 'the greatest
American architect'. He became one of the most fecund and productive architects of the 20th century:
when he died, aged ninety, he left more than 400 designs and constructed works, and with his ideas and
creations he made a decisive contribution to the direction taken by architecture in North America and
Europe.

His name is closely associated with the concept of 'organic architecture', essentially meaning an approach to
architecture based on the creation of harmonic relationships among the parts of a building, and between
the parts and the whole, that is expressed in fluid spaces in harmony with the surrounding environment,
and in the use of natural materials. During the first years of his career, Wright worked on the theme
of prairie houses: single-family dwellings designed in most cases for educated and well-to-do elite in the
suburbs of Chicago. These are notable for their long, horizontal volumes; they are most often built on level
ground and are covered by large roofs that slope only slightly but that project. They are illuminated by
continuous ribbons of windows.

In 1910, Wright's designs changed in response to a variety of influences, including Japanese art as well as
the traditions of pre-Columbian art, as is evident in the block houses he built on the hills of Los Angeles over
the course of the 1920s. For example, in his design of Millard House (1922-23), Pasadena, he employed a
new constructive system he called textile blocks: blocks of concrete decorated with geometric motifs, joined
to one another using steel attachments. The warm, dry climate of California meant Wright had to apply
different ideas from those he had used in the prairie houses of Illinois, and his California designs create
block buildings that are well protected from the exterior, with internal shaded patios and areas of water.

Before making his masterpiece of organic architecture, Fallingwater (1936-37), at Bear Run, Pennsylvania,
Wright worked on the elaboration of urban models, presenting alternatives to the traditional American
metropolis, such as Broadacre City, designed in 1934, based on the idea that each family would be given a
one-acre plot of land. New archetypes began appearing in his designs around 1925, including the circle and
the spiral, later destined to appear in his most famous works of the postwar period.

Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania

In 1936, the Pittsburgh department-store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann commissioned Wright to build a holiday
home on his family's vast holdings in Pennsylvania. Wright chose a woody site crossed by a stream, the
course of which runs over the irregular shape of large boulders. Wright decided to place what would
become the masterpiece of his organic architecture alongside the stream, on a rocky ledge directly over the
falling water.

The most striking aspect of this house is its close integration with the surrounding landscape. The plants,
water, and rocks enter the rooms, becoming part of the domestic setting. The house is composed of
horizontal planes, supported by four central stone pillars, that extend in every direction, ending in smooth
concrete projecting terraces that resemble overlapping trays. The rooms are separated from the
surrounding landscape by ribbons of continuous glass. A stairway in reinforced concrete leads from the
living room to the stream; a pathway through the woods leads over a small bridge to the entrance of the
house. The entrance opens directly onto the living room, which occupies the entire main floor, with one
terrace located directly over the stream, and another facing the mountain behind. As is common in Wright's
interiors, the centre of this space is the fireplace. The living-room floor is composed of irregularly shaped
slabs of stone, the walls are dressed in stone, the furniture, designed by Wright himself, is made of walnut.

The bedrooms are on the second floor; all the rooms have terraces facing different directions. The final
floor, smaller in size than the others, is a study and a bedroom, both of which also give onto a terrace.

The living room, arranged around the fireplace, is the central point of the house. Large expanses of glass put
the interior in close contact with the exterior woodland. Nature is also present in the interior, in the stone
flooring, the wooden furniture, the natural-fibre wall covering. Nature and artifice blend in an organic
construction, with every material serving a function: stone for vertical supports, reinforced concrete for
horizontal planes, glass and metal, painted red, framing the openings. Wright's original design called for the
concrete overhangs painted yellow ochre to be dressed in gold leaf so as to shine in the sun and reflect in
the water.

Other famous prewar architectural designs by Frank Lloyd Wright include those for: the administration
building of wax manufacturers S.C. Johnson & Son (1937) at Racine, Wisconsin; and Taliesin West at
Paradise Valley, near Phoenix, Arizona, (begun 1938).
Art Deco Skyscrapers (c.1920-40)

By way of background to the growth of Art Deco architecture in America, the period between the end of
World War I and the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 was a period of great building
development in the United States. The nation's road network and rail lines were increased, the outlying
areas of urban centres grew, and skyscrapers rose to change the skylines of major cities. During these years,
the European avant-garde movements used technological innovations and the new opportunities offered by
new building materials in the search for suitable forms to express the spirit of the times; in the United
States, however, the use of historical styles was still much in vogue. In 1922 the Chicago Tribune held a
competition for the design of its new headquarters; the 263 designs submitted in response presented a
wide range of styles. The first prize went to Raymond M. Hood and John Mead Howells for a neo-Gothic
building with a structural framework dressed in stone and topped with a crown of spires.

The Art Deco movement gave people the images and objects that reflected their desire for speed, luxury,
and modernity. Its architecture glorified the machine age and geometric forms as well as new materials and
technologies. The movement's highpoint was the French government-sponsored Exposition Internationale
des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (1925) in Paris, where the style was known as "Style Moderne".
It spread rapidly in the United States, becoming more modernistic and streamlined during the 1930s.

Art Deco building designs were inspired by a range of different influences, from abstract art to ziggurats, as
well as modern art movements like French Cubismand Italian Futurism. In contrast to the earlier fluid forms
of Art Nouveau, Art Deco design incorporated geometric shapes and stepped structures. Examples of
famous Art Deco skyscrapers in New York, which used steel structures dressed in granite, include: the
Chrysler Building (1928-30), designed by William van Alen (1883-1954); the Empire State Building (1929-31)
[then the tallest building in the world], by architects Shreve, Lamb & Harmon; McGraw-Hill Building (1929-
30), by Raymond Hood; the News Building (1929-30), by Raymond Hood with John Mead Howells;
Rockefeller Center (1932-39), by architects Reinhard & Hofmeister, Harrison & Macmurray,Hood &
Foulihoux.

Modernist Architecture in America (c.1925-60)

A late feature of modern art in general, Modernist Architecture was the attempt to create new
designs for the "modern man". It rejected all traditional styles based on older prototypes, and
proposed a new type of functional design which used modern materials and construction
techniques, to create a new aesthetic and sense of space. Unlike in Europe, where Modernism
emerged during the first decade of the 20th-century, modernist American architecture only
appeared in the mid-to-late 1920s, because America relied much more heavily on historical
models than Europe, whose avant-garde art movement was altogether stronger. (See, for
instance, the impact of the Armory Show of European modernism.) In addition, given the
importance of urban development in the economic recovery of the United States, and the
growth of numerous markets within America, it is hardly surprising that most modernist
developments during the 1930s involved large commercial buildings, notably skyscrapers. In
keeping with its anti-historical attitude, Modernist architecture favoured simplified forms, and
only the sort of essential ornamentation that reflected the theme and structure of the building.
Important architects in the history and development of the modernist movement in America,
included a number of refugees from Europe, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-
1969), Walter Gropius (1883-1969) the former director of the Bauhaus Design School, and Louis
Kahn (1901-74). Other important modernists included: Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard
Neutra (1892-1970), Eero Saarinen(1910-61), Louis Skidmore (1897-1962), Nathaniel
Owings (1903-84), John Merrill (1896-1975), Philip Johnson, I.M.Pei and Robert Venturi.

International Style

The International style of modern architecture was a particular (purist) style of modernism,
which appeared in Europe during the 1920s. It received its name from the "International
Exhibition of Modern Architecture" (1932), curated by the architectural historian Henry-Russell
Hitchcock (1903-1987) and the architect Philip Johnson (1906-2005), which was held at
the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. A book was published simultaneously with
the MOMA exhibit. The aim of Hitchcock and Johnson was to identify and promote a style that
encapsulated modern architecture. To achieve this, they had carefully vetted all the structures
showcased in the exhibition, to ensure that only those designs that met certain criteria were
included. Nearly all were European buildings, designed by the likes of Jacobus Oud, Walter
Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953), and Alvar Aalto (1898-
1976). Only two were American buildings - the Film Guild Cinema, New York City (1929),
designed by Frederick John Kiesler (1890-1965); and Lovell House, LA (1929), by Richard Neutra.

The criteria used by Hitchcock and Johnson to identify their archetypal style included the
following three design rules: (1) the expression of volume rather than mass; (2) the importance
of balance rather than preconceived symmetry; (3) the elimination of applied ornament. All the
buildings in the exhibition observed these design rules, and were therefore presented to the
show's American audience as examples of the "International Style".

The most commonly used materials used by International style architects were glass for the
facade, steel for exterior support, and concrete for interior supports and floors. Furthermore,
floor plans were deliberately functional and logical.

Although modernist architecture never became very popular for single-dwelling residential
buildings in the United States - despite the 1930s efforts of Hood, Lescaze, Edward Stone and
Neutra - it rapidly became the dominant style for skyscrapers, and for institutional and
commercial buildings. (See, for instance, the Second Chicago School of architecture, led by the
brilliant German-born Mies van der Rohe, one of the greatest architects to practise in America.
Later, it even supplanted the traditional historical styles in schools and churches; see, for
example, Eliel Saarinen's Christ Lutheran Church (1949-50) in Minneapolis. Moreover, in schools
of architecture it was the only acceptable design platform until the early 1980s.

Developments During the 1940s and 1950s

The Second World War was one of the most destabilizing events of the 20th century, with
important consequences also in the field of architecture. The conditions that had caused the
birth of modern architecture had lost force, and architects found themselves forced to seek new
solutions while at the same time heeding the importance of the architectural revolution of the
1920s. This concerned most of all the famous European architects, who reworked their language
to avoid sterile imitation, but did so without betraying the principles they had matured in the
prewar years, or their pre-eminent status in the industry. Gropius founded The Architects
Collaborative, the members of which designed the modernistic Harvard Graduate Center (1949-
50), while Mies van der Rohe became head of the architecture department at the Illinois
Institute of Technology at Chicago in 1938 and designed its new campus. True, the works
Gropius was responsible for in the United States, primarily schools and single-family homes, do
not share the expressive intensity of his prewar designs in Germany, but Mies van der Rohe
found Chicago - birthplace of the skyscraper and the steel framework - highly congenial to his
style.

Corporate Modernism

On the banks of Lake Michigan, Mies van der Rohe designed his first steel-and-glass skyscrapers.
With the collaboration of Philip Johnson, Mies designed one of the most influential buildings of
the postwar period, New York's Seagram Building (1954-58), an impressive skyscraper whose
sharp glass-and-steel silhouette became a highly imitated prototype. The thirty-eight-floor
building on Park Avenue was designed for the Canadian multinational Seagram & Sons. Hailed as
a masterpiece of corporate modernism, its curtain wall of bronze and glass forms a dense grid
that accentuates the building's stark verticality. It is embellished by the grey-amber tint of the
window glass and the green travertine dressing of the columns at the base. Mies van der Rohe's
style of simple minimalism and use of steel and glass were repeated by other architects,
like Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames (1907-78), whose language went through
progressive evolutions.

The Seagram Building epitomized the use of modern architecture by large corporate concerns,
and their search for distinctive emblems of prestige during the postwar period. The Connecticut
General Life Insurance Company commissioned Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, one of the
biggest firms of modern architects, to design their new Hartford headquarters (1955-57). Lever
Brothers had already hired the firm to design Lever House (1952), whose park-like plaza, glass-
curtain walls, and thin aluminum mullions had Mies van der Rohe's name all over them. The
austere, geometric aesthetic of the General Motors Technical Center (1948-56) in Michigan, was
another building that followed Miesian principles, as was the UN Headquarters Building(1947-
52), designed by Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and others. Other examples of 1950s modernism
include: the tower for the Aluminum Company of America at Pittsburgh (1954), designed
by Harrison and Abramovitz; and the Inland Steel Building at Chicago (1955-57), designed by
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the few to reject the rectilinear
geometry of these office buildings: see, by contrast, the faceted design of his concrete and
copper Price Tower (1955), Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Decorative Formalism

During the early 1950s, in a move away from 'functionalism' towards 'formalism', modern
architects became increasingly interested in the decorative qualities of different building
materials and exposed structural systems. In simple terms, they began using the formal
attributes of buildings for decorative, even expressive, purposes. An interesting example of this
new aesthetic was Frank Lloyd Wright's design for the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1943-
59), a building organized around a spiral ramp that constitutes the arrangement of the
museum's display as well as the generative element of its overall design. Other American
architects also used curvilinear structural geometry, as exemplified by the sports arena at
Raleigh (1952-53), designed by Matthew Nowicki (1910-49), where two parabolic arches, held
up by columns, and a stretched-skin roof enclose a massive space devoid of interior supports.
Eero Saarinen's TWA terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport (1956-62), was another
dynamic example of a monumental, single-form building, whose geometric shapes and
silhouettes reflected a new formal expressiveness, whose zenith was undoubtedly the Sydney
Opera House(1959-73), designed by Jorn Utzon. The more muted formalist style of Minoru
Yamasaki (1912-86) is illustrated by his 1,360 foot Twin Towers of the World Trade Center,
buildings 1 and 2, designed in 1965-66. Another example of formalist decoration was the John
Hancock Center (1967-70), designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, which made a feature of
the building's X-shaped support braces, designed by Fazlur Khan (1929-82), probably the
greatest skyscraper design-engineer of the 20th century. This trend of structural expressionism,
dynamic monumentalism - call it what you will - remains a presence in modern architecture:
witness the sleek rectangular patterns of SOM's Time Warner Center (2003-7), New York.

An interesting recipient of the Gold Medal of the American Institute of architects, in 1971, was
the Estonian-born Louis Isidore Kahn (1901-74). Kahn's career followed a different course from
many of those cited above. His training had taken place before the international style had taken
root in the United States. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he acquired the
elements of classical definition following the academic tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts:
symmetries, axiality, proper proportions, the hierarchy of parts. Contact with ancient Egyptian
architecture, as well as the values of Greek and Roman designwork, had led him to fashion a
personal language that used modern materials and technologies to explore and present
geometric forms, often monumental, that are related to history. His most important works from
the 1950s and 1960s period, include: the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (1951-53); the
Richards Medical Research Laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (1957-
65); the Salk Institute for Biological Studies at La Jolla, in California (1959-65); and the Kimbell
Art Museum in Fort Worth (1966-72), which some see as his masterpiece of these years.

Postmodernist Architecture (1970s-present)

The 1960s witnessed the beginnings of a general dissatisfaction with consequences of 20th
century architecture (notably) in the United States, where its shortcomings were outlined in two
influential publications: The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), by Jane Jacobs;
and Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), by Robert Venturi. While Jacobs
criticized the souless Utopianism of the Modern movement, Venturi bemoaned the fact that
because Modern structures lack any trace of historical elements, they also lack the meaningful
irony and complexity with which architecture is usually enriched.

One particularly unpopular and souless form of experimental modern architecture was known
as Brutalism (from the French "beton brut", meaning raw concrete), a term coined by British
designers Alison and Peter Smithson to describe the geometric concrete structures, often
erected in areas of social decay, by Utopian architects such as Le Corbusier (1887-1965). The
basic idea behind Brutalist architecture was to encourage functional patterns of living, by
eliminating all ornament and other visual distractions. The idea failed. Infamous examples of
Brutalist design in North America include: Yale Art and Architecture Building (1958-63), designed
by Paul Rudolph (1918-97); and Habitat '67, Montreal (1966-67) by Moshe Safdie.

What is Postmodernist Architecture?

Jacobs and Venturi were catalysts for a wave of opposition to Modernism, but they didn't invent
"Postmodernism". (see also: Postmodernist Art.) The term was actually coined by the American
theorist Charles Jenks in his book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977), which
describes the architectural tendencies that sprang up in the 60s in opposition to the dominant
dictates of rationalist modernism.

The point was, modern architecture had excluded traditional historic forms as well as decorative
elements from its repertory. Postmodernism wanted to "rehumanize" architecture by using a
mixture of styles, including features taken from classical designs as well as those from popular
culture. Playful irony, plus occasional surprises, even shocks, have all been an essential part of
the postmodernist approach to building design. After all, basic features of architecture, like
columns, arches, and tympana, often lose their original meaning when used out of context - say,
as decorative elements. Postmodernist architecture was following in the footsteps of Pop Art,
whose adherents - such as Andy Warhol (1928-87), Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97) and Claes
Oldenburg (b.1929) - were already rejuvenating the world of contemporary art through their
use of more meaningful popular imagery.

One should note however, that a large number of postmodernist architectsbegan their careers
as modernists, and thus many features of Modernism were carried over into postmodernism,
notably in the work of architects such as Robert Venturi, Michael Graves, Frank O.
Gehry and Richard Meier. (Please see also: Postmodernist artists.)

History of Postmodernist Architectural Design

Postmodernism in America is generally reckoned to have begun in 1972, with the demolition of
a series of 14-story slab blocks that had been erected less than 20 years earlier from designs
by Minoru Yamasaki as part of the award-winning Pruitt–Igoe housing project in St. Louis,
Missouri (1955). In reality, it was a stark, modernist concrete structure that became a magnet
for problems. Although numerous housing blocks had already been demolished in Europe, it
was in St. Louis that the American postmodernist era began.

During the 1970s, Robert Venturi and his partners Denise Scott Brown(b.1931) and John
Rauch (b.1930) reintroduced historical reference, wit and humanity into the designs of
numerous buildings, including: Vanna Venturi House, Pennsylvania (1961-64); the Guild House
Retirement Home, Philadelphia (1961-66); the Tucker House, Katonah, New York (1975); Allen
Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College (1976); and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San
Diego (1996). Michael Graves (b.1934) - one of the famous "New York Five", along with Peter
Eisenman (b.1932), Charles Gwathmey (1938-2009), John Hejduk (1929-2000) and Richard
Meier(b.1934) - designed the Portland Public Service Building in Oregon (1980-82), and Humana
Tower, Louisville, Kentucky (1986), both of which combine the mass of a regular skyscraper with
historical motifs. Similar to the Piazza d'Italia, New Orleans (1975-80), and Alumni Center,
University of California at Irvine (1983-85), designed by Charles Moore, these confident, upbeat
structures are designed to reassure the public that their cultural identity is no longer under
attack from anti-historical modern architecture.

During the 1970s and 1980s, following the example of Pop art, several American architects
adopted a populist style which occasionally featured classical elements. They included Philip
Johnson and John Burgee, who designed the AT&T Building, New York City (1978-84), complete
with a Chippendale skyline; and Robert Stern, who used a classical Jeffersonian design for his
Observatory Hill Dining Hall at the University of Virginia (1982-84), but Spanish Colonial features
for his Prospect Point Office Building, La Jolla, California (1983-85).

The career of the celebrated Chinese-American architect I.M.Pei spans almost the entire range
of modern architecture, including the International Style, Functionalism, Decorative Formalism
and Postmodernism. His innovative use of modern materials to re-express historical themes
reached a highpoint in his iconic glass pyramid (1983-88) which forms an entrance atrium at
the Louvre Museum in Paris, and a low point in the unfortunate John Hancock Building, Boston
(1967-76). Pei's other American projects include the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for
Atmospheric Research, Boulder (1961-67); the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art,
Washington DC (1968-78); the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston (1965-
79); and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland (1987-95).

Deconstructivism (1980s)

"Deconstructivism" is a particular style of postmodernist architecture that was developed in

Europe and the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. It can be defined as a design attitude
involving a pronounced deformation of Euclidean geometry that accords little weight to the
traditional principles of proportion. Recurrent characteristics of deconstructivism are
precariousness, disharmony, and irregularity. Conventional attributes of architecture
are deconstructed to create apparently incoherent forms that often challenge the laws of
gravity. The concept was first unveiled in 1988 at a show called "Deconstructive Architecture",
organized by Philip Johnson, which was held at New York's Museum of Modern Art. The
exhibition showcased the work of seven postmodernist architects, who were identified as the
leading advocates of the new style, including: Frank O. Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem
Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Bernard Tschumi and the Co-op Himmelblau group.

The real pioneer of deconstructivism, however, was Frank O. Gehry (b.1929), who performed
the first experiments in deconstructivist designwork in California at the end of the 1970s. These
involved a series of buildings in which he combined unusual materials in apparently unstable
and precarious structures. Later designs by Gehry include: the California Aerospace Museum,
Los Angeles (1982-84); the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles (1988-2003); Weisman
Museum, Minneapolis (1990-93); the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (1991-97); the amazing
Nationale Nederlanden Building, Prague (1992-97), also known as "Fred and Ginger"; and the
Experience Music Project, Seattle (1999-2000).