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Columns on front of Angell Hall
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This style is named after the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where some of America's most prominent turn-of-the-century architects had studied. Established in the Napoleonic era, the Ecole des Beaux Arts replaced the Academy of Painting and Sculpture founded by Louis XIV in 1648, and the Academy of Architecture founded in 1675.
This style, characterized by its grandiosity, was widely applied in America from about 1880 to 1930. The Ecole favored the study of Greek and Roman buildings, composition, symmetry and elaborate two-dimensional wash or watercolor renderings of the buildings. Due to its idealized origins, Beaux-Arts Classicism is the style of many well-known colossal public buildings, such as courthouses, libraries (New York Public Library), museums, and railroad terminals (Grand Central Terminal in New York City).
| Fluted doric columns on porch of Angell Hall. |
Buildings in this style can usually be recognized by their large and grandiose composition with an exuberance of detail and variety of stone finishes. The façade is massive and symmetrical with a projecting central pavilion. Colossal columns (especially Corinthian or Ionic) grouped in pairs are one of the most common features of the Beaux-Arts Classicism, along with monumental flights of steps, and free-standing statuary.
In large buildings is typical a five part composition, with a climatic central mass dominating the wings and their terminal features. Fronts are often found broken into advancing and receding planes, and a general tendency to multiply re-entrant angles sometimes affects even the treatment of the quoins.
Roofs can be flat, low-pitched hipped, or mansard. Windows may be framed by free-standing columns, balustraded sill, and pedimented entablature on top. Pronounced cornices and enriched entablatures are topped with a tall parapet, balustrade, or monumental attic story.
Bibliography
- Harris, Cyril M. Harris. American Architecture: an Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.
- Poppeliers, John C. What style is it? Washington, D.C. : Preservation Press, Historic American Buildings Survey/National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1983.
- Whiffen, Marcus. American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press, 1969.
Buildings Exhibiting These Features