No branch of art covers a wider field than architecture; no branch ministers more to the comfort, luxury, and convenience of the people; yet none receives less attention and encouragement from public sources in America.” While those salient points might have been written yesterday, they were penned by a group of young architects on January 18, 1881, who set out to redress a list of grievances. The group, which included Cass Gilbert, was called the Architectural League. Initially rooted in New York City, it has grown and prospered, sharing the story about architecture with the larger culture. We celebrate its 125th anniversary this year.
While associations such as the AIA primarily and justly concern themselves with professional matters, the league has always held the art of architecture at its core: Earliest meetings consisted of sketching sessions that would ultimately result in exhibitions of members’ work. Along the way, the organization expanded its brief to include lectures, symposia, competitions, and social events, never abandoning the understanding of its central mission. Hugh Ferriss, architect and delineator extraordinaire, captured an essential organizational goal in 1944: “I should think this League would be proud to assist in the reintegration of two of Man’s greatest impulses: the impulse to make things work and the impulse to make them beautiful.”
Rosalie Genevro, the organization’s executive director, echoes Ferriss’s statement when she explains that the league “talks about New York, not as an advocacy group, but in thinking about how to make New York more beautiful.” Along the way, the league has examined new forms of housing, discussed the role of skyscrapers, considered what makes a productive park project—all of which “resonate with the early years,” she says. The discussions often prove as crucial as the work, leavening all our thinking for subsequent projects.
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