The Rise of Modernism: Art of the Later 19th Century
    
       
  Industrialization, Urbanization, And Expanding Global Consciousness :: The Development of Modernism :: Fin-De-Siècle Culture ::Other Architecture in The Later 19th Century
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  OTHER ARCHITECTURE IN THE LATER 19TH CENTURY

The Beginnings of a New Style

Iron and steel, which permitted the construction of larger, stronger, and more fire-resistant structures, were increasingly used in buildings in the later nineteenth century.

A soaring metal skeleton:

Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel's elegant 984-foot metal Eiffel Tower rests on four supports connected by gracefully arching open-frame skirts.		    
       
  29-57: ALEXANDRE-GUSTAVE EIFFEL, Eiffel Tower, Paris, 1889 (photo: 1889-1890). Wrought iron, 984’ high.
  1. Eiffel Tower
  2. Detail of Base
  3. Eiffel Tower
  4. Eiffel Tower

A massive masonry mart:

Henry Hobson Richardson's design for the Marshall Field wholesale store in Chicago employs a tripartite elevation with massive courses of masonry that serve to stress the long sweep of the building's lines and emphasize its ponderous weight. Large glazed arcades have the effect of opening up the walls of the building.

29-58: HENRY HOBSON RICHARDSON, Marshall Field wholesale store (demolished), Chicago, 1885-1887.

  1. Marshall Field store
  2. Marshall Field store
"form follows function":

Louis Henry Sullivan's design for the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York, expresses the interior's subdivision on the exterior, and the skeletal nature of the supporting structure. Windows occupy most of the space between the terracotta-clad vertical members.		  
       
  29-59: LOUIS SULLIVAN, Guaranty (Prudential) Building, Buffalo, 1894-1896.
  1. Guaranty Building
  2. Detail
  3. Detail
  4. Guaranty Building
  5. Guaranty Building
Turning a building inside out:

Sullivan unified the exterior and interior design of the Carson, Pirie, Scott Building in Chicago, and made the structural skeleton clearly visible on the exterior. The lowest two levels of the building are ornamented in cast iron.

29-60: LOUIS SULLIVAN, Carson, Pirie, Scott Building, Chicago, 1899-1904.
  1. Carson, Pirie, Scott Building
  2. Detail
  3. Carson, Pirie, Scott Building
A "palace" in America?:

Richard Morris Hunt's design for Cornelius Vanderbilt II's opulent palace The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island, resembles a sixteenth-century Italian palazzo. The large interior rooms are sumptuously decorated.

29-61: RICHARD MORRIS HUNT, The Breakers, Newport, Rhode Island, 1892.
  1. The Breakers
  2. The Breakers
Floral stained-glass lamps:

The design of Louis Comfort Tiffany's lotus table lamp is based on the curvilinear floral forms of the lotus. It is constructed of leaded glass, mosaic, and bronze.

29-62: LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY, Lotus table lamp, ca. 1905. Leaded Favrile glass, mosaic, and bronze, 2' 10 1/2" high. Private collection.
  1. Similar Examples
    
       
 
 
       
       
  Industrialization, Urbanization, And Expanding Global Consciousness :: The Development of Modernism :: Fin-De-Siècle Culture ::Other Architecture in The Later 19th Century