1. ARCH 416
Spring ‘15
Class 08 Colonial Architecture

2. First Hour Test
a week from today, Monday, Feb. 23rd
at regular class time, but not in regular class room
on Compass
an opportunity to synthesize material from class, textbook
and readings; begin to form a picture US architecture
precontact (c.1100)
colonial (Massachusetts and Virginia) c. 1700
after Revolution (Jefferson) c. 1800

3. what is on the test?
Roth, pp. 13-149 (Chapters 1 to 4) baseline history: what
happened when; history as “one damn thing after another”
Class lectures 1-9 (PPTs on Compass for review)
hermeneutic conception of history: the concerns of the
present draw relevance out of the past
Readings:
Stewart Brand: concepts that will help us think about the
realities of architecture

4. Roth Chapter 1
Figures 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 (see also on Compass the more
detailed color climate maps I posted)
be aware of the wide range of climates and conditions that
are present in the USA
read all of “The First Americans” text, but for monuments,
only 1.10, 1.11, and 1.12
We did not study the second section, “The Historical or
Postcontact Cultures,” (exception of 1.16) and this
material is not on the test. (Adobe construction will appear
later on.)
The First American Architecture, 12th century

5. Additional Reading
Jared DIAMOND, “The Ancient Ones: The Anasazi and
Their Neighbors,” in Collapse: How Societies Choose to
Fail or Succeed (New York: Penguin Books, 2005): 136-
56.
Much more detailed account of the rises and falls of
Chaco Canyon than is available in Roth, with particular
attention to the role of climate.

6. Roth, Chapter 2
Spanish Settlements [no]
French Settlements [no]
Swedish Settlements [yes; pp. 45-6] the log cabin
Dutch Settlements [no]
English Settlements [only pp. 54-6 on town planning in New
England]
Town Planning in 17th Century [yes; pp. 61-5]
2.38 Town of Boston, 1630
2.39 Plan of New Haven, 1638
2.40 Plan of Philadelphia, 1682
Europeans in the New World, 17th century: Transplanted Vernaculars

7. John Michael Vlach, Plantation Landscapes of the
Antebellum South”

8. Roth, Chapter 3
pp. 69-84
Georgian Colonial Town Planning [yes]
Early Georgian Architecture, 1690-1750 [yes]
3.10 and 3.11 George Wythe House, 1755
3.24 Wren Hall, College of William and Mary, 1702
3.25 Massachusetts Hall, Harvard College, 1720
Late Georgian Architecture [no] except
Peter Harrison [pp. 98-101]
3.51 Redwood Library, Newport, RI 1750
3.52 Touro Synagogue, Newport, RI 1763
Georgian Architecture 1690 to 1785 (early 18th c.)

9. Roth, Chapter 4
pp. 107-137
Eclecticism [yes]
Planning the National Capitol [yes]
Samuel McIntire [no]
Charles Bulfinch [yes]
Asher Benjamin [yes]
Benjamin Henry Latrobe [yes]
Other Influences [yes]
Thomas Jefferson [yes]**
New Architecture for a New Nation, 1785-1820

10. agenda
test preparation
Georgian architecture

11. building types
architectural specialization today:
residential vs. commercial
what kind of residential?
what kind of commercial?
we would expect these to get more complex and more
differentiated over time

12. building types
this is one reason we regard the cities at Cahokia, IL and
Chaco Canyon, NM as sophisticated
differentiated building types
houses, storage rooms, kivas, great kiva (Chaco Canyon)
dwellings, temples, ceremonial plaza, tombs (Cahokia)
differentiation, specialization, social stratification all
accompany one another as social wealth increases

14. building types
colonial period, there is not a lot of differentiation
for example, the “meeting house” in colonial New England
served for every kind of gathering: civil, religious, juridical,
etc.

15. view of Plimoth, MA
earliest settlement in NE

17. Plimoth Meetinghouse: a multitude of uses, including defense

22. New Haven, 1768

24. postcard, 1955

25. typology by function
private vs. public buildings
by private I mean anything pertaining to individuals.
by public I mean resources held in common for the good
of the whole society.
the ratio between these has changed.

26. private use
private
religious structures [are often the oldest remaining structures on some of
most expensive, centrally located land within the city]
church
synagogue
mosque
housing [more and more population in absolute terms, also density]
single family
multifamily
apartment building
workplace [dedicated workplaces replace ‘”cottage industries” and quarters]
factories
mills
office buildings
financial institutions

27. postcard, 1955

28. public use
government buildings
legal (such as state house, courthouse)
punitive (jails, poorhouses, workhouses)
medical (asylums, hospitals)
educational (schools, colleges, universities)
transport/communication (post offices, rail stations)
later on:
cultural
museums
libraries
theaters
parks

29. symbolically these are different
structures as well
they can also borrow symbolically from each other,
e.g., (department store as temple of shopping)
banks using the classical vocabulary to indicate solidity and
permanence
as Roth points out, “Architectural associationalism first
appeared about 1730 in 18th century Europe, in
landscaped gardens where freestanding isolated pavilions
recalled Roman gates, Chinese pagodas, Greek Temples,
or ruined Gothic abbeys as objects of contemplation.” (p.
107)

31. Stourhead, Wiltshire, England, c. 1735

35. So, think about types in functional terms (purpose-built
structures) but also in symbolic terms (as representing
different ideas and values within a society). The overlaps
can also speak to shifting values and priorities (for
example, similarities between schools and prisons).
Both will contribute to the program of a given building.
Jefferson was one of the first in the US to think
consciously about the symbolic choices.

36. “Around 1785 this generalized associationalist phase led to
more complex references to specific styles whose images
were historically and symbolically associated with the
function of a proposed new building—Gothic for churches,
Roman for governmental structures, Egyptian for mortuary
structures, for example.” (p. 107)

37. So, if you consider the architecture of Williamsburg (second
state capital after Jamestown and before Richmond)
Note: this was where Jefferson himself was educated, at William
and Mary.
What you find is Georgian architecture (this was also the choice
at Harvard, as you remember from last time)
It makes sense that the colonies would build in the style that
prevailed in their mother country.
But Jefferson wanted to declare independence in more ways
than one.

38. The “Georgian” in Williamsburg
Governor’s Palace, Williamsburg, VA 1706-1722

39. Capitol Building, Williamsburg, VA, begun 1704

40. George Wythe House (illustrated in Roth)

41. The Georgian
in Boston

42. The Massachusetts Town House: seat of colony government 1713–1776
The Massachusetts State House: seat of state government 1776–1798
Boston’s City Hall 1830–1841
Period of commercial use 1841–1881
The Bostonian Society and the museum 1881–present

43. State House as it was in 1801 on State Street, Boston

46. Plan of Faneuil Hall area

47. 1827 etching

50. Interior, showing second floor
galleries added in Charles Bulfinch’s
renovation

52. 1873, building used for community events

56. Quincy Market, The Rouse Corporation, 1979

57. The Georgian in Philadelphia

60. Virginia State Capitol
In 1785, while in France, Jefferson received a letter from the
Virginia Board of Public Buildings requesting a plan for the Capitol.
Jefferson hired French architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau to make
drawings based upon the Maison Carrée and had them sent back
to the USA.
In Jefferson’s opinion, the Maison Carrée was “one of the most
beautiful, if not the most beautiful and precious morsel of
architecture left us by antiquity.”

61. Jean-Pierre Fouquet, scale model of the Virginia State Capitol, 1786

62. JEAN–PIERRE FOUQUET (1752-
1829)
French artisan who specialized in
architectural modelmaking.
Plaster of Paris at a scale of 1:60
(one inch to every five feet).
Reinforced with internal iron rods,
precise rendering of architectural
details.

63. Virginia State Capitol
In 1787, Jefferson visited the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, a
temple dating to the Roman era.
In Jefferson’s opinion, the Maison Carrée was “one of the
most beautiful, if not the most beautiful and precious morsel
of architecture left us by antiquity.”

64. Early photograph of the Virginia State Capitol. Note Jefferson’s substitution
of Ionic for Corinthian columns.

65. The Maison Carrée, Nîmes, France
built by Augustus’s closest lieutenant during his reign
completed 16 BCE and dedicated to Augustus’s sons
In continuous use, it’s the Roman structure in the best repair anywhere in the world.

66. Richmond, VA after the Civil War. The Virginia State Capitol was not destroyed.

67. Virginia State Capitol with two wings added in 1904.

68. Thomas Jefferson & Charles-Louis Clérisseau, Virginia State Capitol, Richmond VA
(original central portion, 1780-1801)

69. Virginia State Capitol, as it appears today, with new entrance to accommodate
contemporary security procedures.

70. choice of classical architecture
rejection of authoritarian English motherland (Gothic)
embrace of “democratic” Greece and Rome
attention to architecture as a symbolic practice, not just a
functional one
public buildings should represent our aspirations as a
democratic public
improving taste of US public

71. “But how is a taste in this beautiful art to be formed in our
countrymen, unless we avail ourselves of every occasion
when public buildings are to be erected, of presenting to
them models for their study and imitation?”
—Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison

72. how do we create government buildings appropriate to the
unique mission of this new country?
Jefferson’s answer: look to Classical models which are the best
suited to democratic virtue