DOI issue:
No. 180 (February, 1912)
DOI article:Price, C. Matlack: A renaissance of city architecture
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43448#0454
A Renaissance of City Architecture
RECENT TREATMENTS OF CITY FACADES
TWO RESIDENCES AND A COMMERCIAL BUILDING
HARRY ALLAN JACOBS
ARCHITECT
A RENAISSANCE OF CITY ARCHI-
TECTURE
BY C. MATLACK PRICE
City architecture in New York has
undergone many evolutions in the past two dec-
ades, and has been expressed in several styles of
considerable suitability and intrinsic beauty.
Messrs. McKim, Mead & White broke away
from the prevalent brown-stone front, and showed
the city that there were several other treatments
possible for a facade, which opened the way for
“Francis I” and Renaissance and later for modern
French and even early Dutch solutions of the prob-
lem, by other architects. Chief among the inno-
vations of this firm was the revival of the Colonial
city house in brick and stone, with iron railings
and white sash. This type of architecture, possi-
bly through its similarity to certain buildings in
Cambridge, became known as the “Harvard
Style.” The city streets became an interesting
architectural gallery of these several styles until
the addition of a new and particularly happy type
lately introduced by Mr. Harry Allan Jacobs.
This style may be characterized as an American
adaptation of Italian Renaissance, free from any
academic formality or any personal mannerism,
yet thoroughly expressive of the highest ideals of
American architecture. Inasmuch as most archi-
tecture of this country must necessarily consist of
adaptations of certain styles which have marked
the development of European architecture, the
most logical individual criticism of our architec-
ture must consist of a careful consideration of the
cleverness or stupidity which may have entered
into any given adaptation.
And this element of cleverness in adaptation is.
the most significant particular to note in connec-
tion with Mr. Jacobs’s version of the city house
problem, quite apart from the evident intrinsic
beauty achieved.
Although this work in the Italian vein is becom-
ing eminently characteristic of Mr. Jacobs’s style,
he has not allowed himself to fall under the criti-
xcvi
RECENT TREATMENTS OF CITY FACADES
TWO RESIDENCES AND A COMMERCIAL BUILDING
HARRY ALLAN JACOBS
ARCHITECT
A RENAISSANCE OF CITY ARCHI-
TECTURE
BY C. MATLACK PRICE
City architecture in New York has
undergone many evolutions in the past two dec-
ades, and has been expressed in several styles of
considerable suitability and intrinsic beauty.
Messrs. McKim, Mead & White broke away
from the prevalent brown-stone front, and showed
the city that there were several other treatments
possible for a facade, which opened the way for
“Francis I” and Renaissance and later for modern
French and even early Dutch solutions of the prob-
lem, by other architects. Chief among the inno-
vations of this firm was the revival of the Colonial
city house in brick and stone, with iron railings
and white sash. This type of architecture, possi-
bly through its similarity to certain buildings in
Cambridge, became known as the “Harvard
Style.” The city streets became an interesting
architectural gallery of these several styles until
the addition of a new and particularly happy type
lately introduced by Mr. Harry Allan Jacobs.
This style may be characterized as an American
adaptation of Italian Renaissance, free from any
academic formality or any personal mannerism,
yet thoroughly expressive of the highest ideals of
American architecture. Inasmuch as most archi-
tecture of this country must necessarily consist of
adaptations of certain styles which have marked
the development of European architecture, the
most logical individual criticism of our architec-
ture must consist of a careful consideration of the
cleverness or stupidity which may have entered
into any given adaptation.
And this element of cleverness in adaptation is.
the most significant particular to note in connec-
tion with Mr. Jacobs’s version of the city house
problem, quite apart from the evident intrinsic
beauty achieved.
Although this work in the Italian vein is becom-
ing eminently characteristic of Mr. Jacobs’s style,
he has not allowed himself to fall under the criti-
xcvi