From the Vault In the Cause of Architecture,” written for RECORD and published beginning in 1908. View PDFs of the original pages, too!

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]]> https://www.architecturalrecord.com/rss/2133 en-us The Larkin Building in Buffalo This business building, the architectural creation of Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright of Chicago, is reproduced in many excellent photographs, some of which will be shown in this article and others in the March number of the Architectural Record.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11825 Mon, 01 Aug 2016 09:00:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11825-the-larkin-building-in-buffalo Image courtesy Architectural Record Image courtesy Architectural Record Image courtesy Architectural Record Image courtesy Architectural Record Image courtesy Architectural Record Image courtesy Architectural Record Image courtesy Architectural Record Image courtesy Architectural Record More Elegance at the House of Seagram: The Four Seasons Restaurant Big, splendid and very expensive (mere art lovers may buy a drink at the bar), the new restaurant in the Seagram building is called The Four Seasons.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11753 Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11753-more-elegance-at-the-house-of-seagram-the-four-seasons-restaurant Principal entrance from main lobby of building exhibits a painted stage curtain by Picasso originally done for the Diaghilev Ballet. Photo © Architectural Record Lobby Beneath Bar and Grill. Tapestry by Miro. Photo © Architectural Record Bar and Grill. Paneling is of carefully matched French walnut. Floor around bar is ebonized oak. Brass rod sculptures, suspended on fine wire, by Richard Lippold. Photo © Architectural Record The dining room has been planned around a quiet pool with a 17-ft ornamental fig tree at each corner. Suspended plants change with the seasons. All accessories and serving equipment were specially designed by Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable and custom made for the restaurant. Photo © Architectural Record Photo © Architectural Record Photo © Architectural Record Photo © Architectural Record Plan. Photo © Architectural Record Multi-Level House for a Rocky Hilltop The design for this handsome house bears unusually close relationship to its site: a small, wooded and rocky outcropping overlooking Long Island Sound.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11663 Sun, 01 May 2016 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11663-multi-level-house-for-a-rocky-hilltop Ulrich Franzen Residence for Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm K. Fleschner. Photo © Ezra Stoller Associates Ulrich Franzen The house has a concrete block frame, surfaced with brick; piers carry up past the glassed-in upper level, to lightly support the roof on steel pins. Photo © Ezra Stoller Associates Ulrich Franzen Residence for Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm K. Fleschner. Photo © Ezra Stoller Associates Ulrich Franzen While the house appears from the front facade be a simple two-story structure, the house actually has five levels. Photo © Ezra Stoller Associates Ulrich Franzen   The dining area is a tall space the full height of the building, which opens on the library and the master bedroom balcony. Photo © Ezra Stoller Associates Ulrich Franzen In the living room, steps up to the master bedroom are extended to form seats to flank the fireplace. Photo © Ezra Stoller Associates Ulrich Franzen Upper floor plan. Image courtesy Ulrich Franzen Ulrich Franzen Lower floor plan. Image courtesy Ulrich Franzen House of Rex Stout The July 1933 issue featured the house of Rex Stout, designed by former RECORD editor A. Lawrence Kocher with Gerhard Ziegler.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11584 Fri, 01 Apr 2016 09:00:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11584-house-of-rex-stout House of Rex Stout House of Rex Stout Photo © F.S. Lincoln House of Rex Stout Windows of conservatory with south exposure (at left) and living room windows and terrace (at right). Photos © F.S. Lincoln House of Rex Stout Interior of living room showing windows toward view (at left). There is indirect lighting with glass for diffusion flush with ceiling. Floors are of Teakwood. On the right, a view of garden court from conservatory. Photos © F.S. Lincoln House of Rex Stout Kitchen. Cabinets designed and executed by Rex Stout. Walls are of canary yellow lacquer; cabinet doors are chestnut wood, waxed. Floors are black linoleum. Photo © F.S. Lincoln House of Rex Stout Plan of the Rex Stout House House of Rex Stout Drawing of the Rex Stout House The Wild Men of Paris In 1910, Cubism was beginning to make itself known, though some of the artists that Gelett Burgess, a draftsman and illustrator by trade, writes of, such as Picasso, had already made something of a mark (the "Blue Period" was several years in the past). But this essay, which Burgess shopped around before having it purchased by Architectural Record, has become known as a seminal work on this group, even though it is not taken entirely seriously. 

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11445 Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11445-the-wild-men-of-paris Wild Men of Paris The May 1910 issue contained Gelett Burgess' article and a study for Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Wild Men of Paris Wild Men of Paris Wild Men of Paris Wild Men of Paris Wild Men of Paris Wild Men of Paris Wild Men of Paris Wild Men of Paris In the Cause of Architecture Radical though it be, the work here illustrated is dedicated to a cause conservative in the best sense of the word. At no point does it involve denial of the elemental law and order inherent in all great architecture; rather it is a declaration of love for the spirit of that law and order and a reverential recognition of the elements that made its ancient letter in its time value and beautiful.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11469 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 17:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11469-in-the-cause-of-architecture In the Cause of Architecture, March 1908 In the Cause of Architecture, II: “Style, therefore, will be the man, it is his. Let his forms alone.” “Nature has made creatures only; Art has made Men.” Nevertheless, or perhaps for that very reason every struggle for truth in the arts and for the freedom that should go with the truth has always had its own peculiar load of disciples, neophytes and quacks.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11500 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 16:57:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11500-in-the-cause-of-architecture-ii-style-therefore-will-be-the-man-it-is-his-let-his-forms-alone In the Cause of Architecture II: The Architect and the Machine The Machine is the architect’s tool – whether he likes it or not. Unless he masters it, the Machine has mastered him. The Machine? What is the machine?

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11515 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 16:45:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11515-in-the-cause-of-architecture-ii-the-architect-and-the-machine In the Cause of Architecture, II: Standardization, the Soul of the Machine http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11514 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 16:44:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11514-in-the-cause-of-architecture-ii-standardization-the-soul-of-the-machine In the Cause of Architecture, III: Steel Steel is THE epic of this age. Steel has entered our lives as a “material” to take upon itself the physical burden of our civilization.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11513 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 16:41:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11513-in-the-cause-of-architecture-iii-steel In the Cause of Architecture, IV: Fabrication and Imagination Time was when the hand wrought. Time is here when the process fabricates instead. Why make the fabrication a lie or allow it to become one when we try to make it “beautiful”?

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11512 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 16:40:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11512-in-the-cause-of-architecture-iv-fabrication-and-imagination In the Cause of Architecture, I: The Logic of the Plan PLAN! There is something elemental in the word itself. A pregnant plan has logic – is the logic of the building squarely stated. Unless it is the plan for a foolish Fair.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11511 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 16:35:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11511-in-the-cause-of-architecture-i-the-logic-of-the-plan In the Cause of Architecture, II. What “Styles” Mean to the Architect In what is now to arise from the plan as conceived and held in the mind of the architect, the matter of style may be considered as of elemental importance.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11463 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 16:32:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11463-in-the-cause-of-architecture-ii-what-styles-mean-to-the-architect The Grammar of Style The Grammar of Style, Barnsdall Residence, Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect Barnsdall Residence Barnsdall Residence Parapet detail, Barnsdall Residence, Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect. In the Cause of Architecture, III: The Meaning of Materials—Stone The country between Madison and Janesville, Wisconsin, is the old bed of an ancient glacier-drift. Vast, busy gravel-pits abound there, exposing heaps of yellow aggregate, once, and everywhere else, sleeping beneath the green fields. Great heaps, clean and golden, are always waiting there in the sun. And I never pass without emotion – without a vision of the long dust-whitened stretches of the cement-mills grinding to impalpable fineness the magic-powder that would “set” it all to shape and wish, both, endlessly subjects to my will.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11510 Sun, 24 Jan 2016 16:30:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11510-in-the-cause-of-architecture-iii-the-meaning-of-materialsstone In the Cause of Architecture, IV: The Meaning of Materials—Wood From the fantastic totem of the Alaskan – erected for its own sake as a great sculptured pole, seen in its primitive colors far above the snows – to the resilient bow of the American Indian, and from the enormous solid polished tree-trunks upholding the famous great temple-roofs of Japan to the delicate spreading veneers of rare, exotic woods on the surfaces of continental furniture, wood is allowed to be wood.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11509 Fri, 22 Jan 2016 16:06:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11509-in-the-cause-of-architecture-iv-the-meaning-of-materialswood In the Cause of Architecture, VI: The Meaning of Materials—Glass Perhaps the greatest difference eventually between ancient and modern buildings will be due to our modern machine-made glass. Glass, in any wide utilitarian sense, is new.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11508 Fri, 22 Jan 2016 16:06:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11508-in-the-cause-of-architecture-vi-the-meaning-of-materialsglass In the Cause of Architecture, VII: The Meaning of Materials—Concrete Cement may be, here as elsewhere, the secret stamina of the physical body of our new world.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11507 Fri, 22 Jan 2016 16:06:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11507-in-the-cause-of-architecture-vii-the-meaning-of-materialsconcrete In the Cause of Architecture, VIII: Sheet Metal and a Modern Instance The machine is at its best when rolling, cutting, stamping or folding whatever may be fed into it.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11506 Fri, 22 Jan 2016 15:30:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11506-in-the-cause-of-architecture-viii-sheet-metal-and-a-modern-instance In the Cause of Architecture, IX: The Terms http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11505 Fri, 22 Jan 2016 15:15:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11505-in-the-cause-of-architecture-ix-the-terms Ford Foundation: Innovation and Symbolism on 42nd Street http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11499 Fri, 22 Jan 2016 14:56:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11499-ford-foundation-innovation-and-symbolism-on-42nd-street Modernism Endangered Edward Durell stone discusses how the Conger Goodyear House came to be and how its design took shape.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11468 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11468-modernism-endangered Goodyear house floor plan Conger Goodyear House Architecture, the Expression of the Materials and Methods of Our Times Let us not confuse outward show, however impressive, with an essential truth which is still indistinct in the whirlpool of an epoch in the full tide of evolution.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11467 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11467-architecture-the-expression-of-the-materials-and-methods-of-our-times Palace of the Centrosogus, Moscow A Proposed Housing Development for Paris, Moscow A Villa at Sorches, Moscow Two Houses at Stuttgart, Moscow Gropius on Architecture Architectural Record has asked me to state both what troubles me most and what pleases me most in the status of architecture in the United States.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11466 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11466-gropius-on-architecture Shoe Last Factory1911-12 Shoe Last Factory Werkbund Exhibition 1914 Office Building at the Werkbund Exhibition. Machine Hall at the Werkbund Exhibition 1914 Machine Hall at the Werkbund Exhibition, Cologne. Chicago Tribune Tower 1922 Design for the Chicago Tribune Tower. Bauhaus Building 1924-25 Bauhaus Building, Dessau. Harvard Graduate Center 1949 Harvard Graduate Center, Harkness Commons Building. Office building, McCormick Estate 1953 Office Building, McCormick Estate, Chicago, designed 1953. Gropius on Education I have been asked by The Architectural Record to write a few words about my new task as professor in the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11465 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11465-gropius-on-education Gropius portrait Walter Gropius in front of his competition entry for the Chicago Tribune Competition. House for Benn Levy House for Benn Levy, Chelsea, London, Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry, architects. Interior, Benn Levy House Interior, Benn Levy House, Chelsea, London, Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry, architects. Competitions - The Vicissitudes of Architecture Leopald Eidlitz had more of a lasting impact through his writings than through his architecture.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11464 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11464-competitions---the-vicissitudes-of-architecture Dry Dock Savings Bank Dry Dock Savings Bank, New York City, 1875, Leopold Eidlitz, architect. Temple Emanu-El Temple Emanu-El, New York City, 1866–1868, Leopold Eidlitz, architect. Demolished in 1927. Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets with Temple Emanu-El, on the right. The structure, by Eidlitz in association with Henry Fernbach, was considered one of the finest synagogues in the world. It held nearly 2,000 worshippers. Leopold Eidlitz Senate Corridor Senate Corridor, New York State Capitol, Albany New York, completed 1880, Leopold Eidlitz, architect. Church of the Holy Trinity Church of the Holy Trinity, New York City, 1853, Leopold Eidlitz, architect. Lessons of the Chicago World's Fair Mr. Burnham used to trace, to the World's Fair at Chicago the beginning of the American city-planning: His own experiences with that enterprise taught him the lesson that cooperation among artists was absolutely essential in order to produce a really great result.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11462 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11462-lessons-of-the-chicago-worlds-fair Court of Honor The Court of Honor Looking Toward the Peristyle. Mr. Burnham's private office Mr. Burnham's Private Office in the Railway Exchange. Mr. Burnham's office Scene from the Window of Mr. Burnham's Office. Mr. Burnham's study A Corner in Mr. Burnham's Study at Evanston, Ill. Mr. Burnham's home Terrace at Mr. Burnham's Home in Evanston, Ill. Terrace pathway Covered Portion of the Pathway that Leads from Mr. Burnham's House to the Terrace. Our Four Big Bridges In truth, one who visits the Blackwell's Island and the Manhattan Bridges finds great matter for wonder and admiration at the enormous artistic advance they show upon the older bridges across the East River.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11461 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11461-our-four-big-bridges East River Bridge Fig. 1. The Old East River Bridge (1883). Old East River Bridge Fig 3. Old East River Bridge. A street crossing. Warehouses Fig. 4. Old East River Bridge Warehaouses in Manhattan approach. Williamsburg Bridge Fig. 5. The Williamsburg Bridge. Williamsburg Bridge Fig. 6. The Williamsburg Bridge. Base of the the tower. Williamsburg approach Manhattan Plaza proposal Fig. 8. Proposed Manhattan Plaza, Williamsburg Bridge. Williamsburg entrance Fig. 9. Entrance to Williamsburg Bridge. Queensborough Bridge Fig. 10. Queensborough Bridge from Manhattan. Queensborough Bridge Fig 11. Manhattan entrance, Queensborough Bridge. Queensborough Bridge Fig. 12. Manhattan approach, Queensborough Bridge. Manhattan Bridge 13. Manhattan Bridge. Manhattan Tower. Manhattan Tower Fig. 14. Side View of Manhattan Tower. Manhattan Bridge Fig. 16. Flank of anchorage, Manhattan Bridge. Manhattan Bridge Fig. 17. Front of anchorage, Manhattan Bridge, Old East River Bridge design Fig. 2. Old East River Bridge. Section of tower, showing saddle. Manhattan Bridge Fig. 15. Cable holder, Manhattan Bridge. Manhattan Bridge Fig. 18. Section of anchorage, Manhattan Bridge. Old East River Bridge Fig. 19. Section of anchorage, Old East River Bridge. Landscape Design in the Primeval Environment The American people had and largely still have a natural environment which is unsurpassed in both scale and variety. But only within the last decade or so have they begun to view it as anything other than an inexhaustible storehouse of material wealth-of minerals, timbers, and furs.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11460 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11460-landscape-design-in-the-primeval-environment Kids playing instruments Campground Kids playing sports Campgrounds Camper Forest teaching By the water Forest teaching Cabin in the woods Hiking Fishing Horses Landscape Design in the Rural Environment The irreducible requisite of any successful planning is that the forms developed will direct the flow of energy in the most economic and productive pattern.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11459 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11459-landscape-design-in-the-rural-environment Local roads These local roads are the first essential to any rural recreational system—good roads which provide quick, year-round, and economical access to recreation. Rural housing Rural housing is not only substandard technically but so scattered as seriously to impede the development of vigorous community recreation. Recreational types Recreational types of primary importance in the rural environment are those which emphasize group activity—the farmer has solitude enough. Roads The specialization in automotive transportation has led to a similar specialization in road design—the parkway, the trunk highway, the freeway. But these are of only secondary interest to the ruralite; most necessary to him is a good system of local-access roads (above) to carry him to school, to church, to market, and to play. Housing Although designed for landless migrants, the physical organization of many of FSA's western projects is something the farmer may well envy (above). If multiple or row-housing is strange to American traditions, there is the possiblity of grouping single-family houses into tight communities with outlying farms. Recreational types Since the "major labor experience" of the farmer is manual and much of it lonely, it is not surprising to find the "get-together" an American institution. Whether for singing, dancing, baseball, or theatricals, the emphasis is on group activity, competition. The need for trained organizing and supervising personnel is at least as great as in the city where such personnel is a recognized necessity. Recreational areas Recognition of rural recreational needs is too recent to permit of much agreement as to design standards. An outdoor theater in North Carolina is already famous for its folk festivals; and Mr. Rose has designed an outdoor theater in which multiple stages surround the audience, permitting great flexibility of use, elimination of elaborate equipment. Design The alleged "romantic informality" of the countryside is not borne out by the fields themselves. Here the face of nature is being quite as consciously reorganized by man for his increased welfare as in the city. These fields do not "blend" with nature—they are in great contrast with it. Whence, then, the theory that landscape and building design must go rustic in the rural areas? Landscape Design in the Urban Environment All organisms seek the natural environment most favorable to the complete development of their species, and where nature fails to meet the biologic necessities, adaptation of either environment or organism must occur for life to continue.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11458 Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11458-landscape-design-in-the-urban-environment Nature Nature, by its very scarcity, achieves a great cultural significance in the city. Thus, instead of vacant lots, the urbanite's environments should provide for such things as demonstrations of scientific advances in plant growing, botanical gardens for exotic or out of season flora, opportunities to grow plants, reproductions of botanically interesting plant "communities." Emphasis should be on scientific approach, encouraging active group participation in experiment wherever possible. Playlots Playlots are the base of the recreational pyramid. They should provide as a minimum a quiet, protected space for preschool children in each block, and parking for baby carriages, and benches for mothers. In some of the USHA projects, playlots are now combined with nurseries. Neighborhood parks Neighborhood parks, although common to most cities, are usually more decorative than useful. Elderly persons increasingly need space for games--croquet, horseshoes, shuffleboard, checkers--as well as the more usual reading, knitting, gossiping, beer-drinking, etc. Playgrounds Playgrounds for the most active of all age groups--6 to 15 years--are a generally recognized necessity. Yet the majority of urban children are still forced to use the street. Equipped, but crowded and exposed, while good planning, plant life, and privacy add measurably. Two-thirds of the children attending playgrounds live within 3 blocks; thus, intimate relation between dwelling and playground--uninterrupted by streets and highways--is essential. Playfields Playfields, for young people and adults, are often combined with high schools--though this is not essential or necessarily desirable. Space, equipment, and plant life are all essential to the success of the playfield; but design--such as indicated in the student project for the new USHA development in Boston--is decisive. Four Harvard students here analyzed the recreational needs of an actual population: freedom of choice, flexibility, and segregation of functions are achieved. Parks Park systems Park systems: The recreational environment of tomorrow is at least indicated by the park systems of today, but the variation is extremely wide. A map of Boston, plotting areas not within 1/4 mile of playgrounds, shows more than half the city without facilities. Moscow, on the other hand, has a park system which penetrates and connects the entire city. In New York (above) the parkways have been extended to make special areas available to the population, thus forming the skeleton of a recreational system; but other elements are still too few.