McKim, Mead, and White as a Design Inspiration

This was probably the most prolific design firm of the early 20th Century, the firm that perfected the Great American version of Classicism so revered by today's historicists. Charles McKim studied at the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in France, and the rigorous decorative/historicist sensibility of the school is a key influence in most of the firm's projects.

The body of work they produced was extremely influential in its time, arguably much more so than that of Frank Lloyd Wright who was working contemporaneously. We owe the stylistic heritage of much of the urban fabric of American downtowns and the "Old World" grandeur of American public buildings of this era to this influence. Architects trained in the offices of McKim, Mead, & White fanned-out across the country in the first half of the Century, and the stylistic progeny of this firm can be experienced almost anywhere in America to the present day. I spent 3 years at Columbia University studying for my Master of Architecture degree in Avery Hall, designed in 1912 by you-know-who...


http://eng.archinform.net/arch/1368.htm
http://www.vintagedesigns.com/architecture/aa/mkm/assrt/
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/beauxarts.html
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Boston_Public_Library.html
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Isaac_Bell_House.html
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/University_Club.html
http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/W._G._Low_House.html/cid_1138864245_240014v.gbi
http://www.vintagedesigns.com/id/mkm/wh/index.htm
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Rhode_Island_State_Capito.html

Bernard Maybeck as a Design Inspiration

I love the work of Bernard Maybeck... its a wonderful example of how someone with a strong design vision can embrace the gifts of Architectural History and still create a fresh and innovative body of work. Like a great composer arranging the voices of familiar instruments to create a breathtaking new composition.

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/First_Church_of_Christ.html
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1199p0r5/
http://www.lovethepalace.org/
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Chick_House.html/