Scholarship News From Around the Country

A message from our President, Paul Gunther

Paul Gunther

There is no doubt that after the general goal of extending programmatic outreach from all of our present nodes of operation, our Beaux-Arts Atelier has emerged as our most important education priority.  The inaugural class of 2012 graduates next month, following their term-ending drawing intensive in Rome; the class of 2013 is selected and will be announced to all of our constituents next month. One strategic outcome of the BAA is that its success is in turn building momentum for the overall continuing education calendar across the country, just as it is encouraging new institutional accredited partnerships about which you’ll be hearing more in coming weeks.

The foremost tactical goal in coming years is to cement the Atelier in place permanently and the best path to that vital end is the creation of scholarships.  At the end of the day that’s where the action lies.

Richard Driehaus propelled us on this front with his magnificent ten-year Driehaus Scholar program. Taconic Builders stepped up next along with Alfred and Jane Ross with namesake scholarships.

More recently the Northern California Chapter has very graciously voted to create an annual chapter scholarship reserved for a deserving Atelier student hailing from their region. The opportunity now yields to recruitment for next year with the chapter’s guiding hand. Please help spread the word, as all of us here will do.

Now the Utah Chapter, via its founding president Robert Baird, has announced a scholarship beginning immediately for Class of 2013 Utah-based student, Corey Strange. Again a wonderful precedent in the Beehive State.

And the latest tuition-assistance offering, at the 31st annual Arthur Ross Awards for Excellence in the Classical Tradition that took place this past Monday in Charles Follen McKim’s masterpiece University Club, I had the distinct honor of announcing that Roy Zeluck, in memory of his late brother and spirited business partner, Kevin, has created the Marc Appleton/Roy Zeluck Scholars Program.  The occasion was especially fitting as Marc was receiving the 2012 Board of Directors Honor; the announcement was thus a fitting lagniappe.

This new Appleton/Zeluck Fund consists of a $10,000 annual scholarship starting with the class of 2014, incoming next year, for an outstanding student candidate from Southern California to be recruited and recommended by a special chapter committee.

Over time, these scholars returning home will be able to teach ICAA classes based upon the unparalleled rigor of their yearlong Beaux-Arts Atelier training.  The inexorable decentralization of ICAA teaching is an organic and hopeful result.

All of us are grateful to Roy and to Kevin’s surviving example and the dynamic tribute they are making in honor of their friend and partner in building, Marc Appleton. It is thrilling news.

Join me please in praising these generous pioneers.

Please know that additional tuition funds are very much needed and can be awarded charitably by name and jurisdiction, among other criteria that the donor might wish to designate. It is the essential lifeblood of our unique teaching role in confronting the cultural amnesia that threatens the very fabric of who we are as a people best unified by shared values descending from common experiences and understanding.

And so take advantage of the sophisticated array of opportunities in the weeks ahead as the Institute’s monthly calendar describes.

Posted by Paul on May 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

CLASSICAL COMMENTS: EUSTYLE

Calder Loth

Calder Loth

by Calder Loth
Senior Architectural Historian for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and a member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s Advisory Council.

Pantheon portico

Figure 1. Pantheon portico, Rome; an ancient example of eustyle intercolumniation (Loth)

In The Ten Books on Architecture, the famous (and only surviving) ancient treatise on architecture, its author, Vitruvius, discusses how the character of a temple portico can be affected by the spacing of its columns.  Vitruvius defines closely spaced columns pycnostyle, which means the column shafts are spaced one and a half column diameters apart. This gives a portico a very static appearance. The widest spacing is araeostyle, which is four diameters apart. Vitruvius tells us araeostyle is impossible with masonry construction because the spans are too great for stone architraves. Areaostyle spacing is practical only when architraves are composed of wooden beams. Other types of intercolumniation are systyle (two diameters apart) and diastyle (three diameters apart). In all four spacing types, the columns have equal-width spaces between them.

Vitruvius then informs us that the ideal intercolumniation system is eustyle. As defined by Vitruvius, a eustyle portico has bays that are two and a quarter diameters in width except for the center bay, which is three diameters wide.  Vitruvius proclaimed the superior quality of eustyle spacing, stating, “In this way, the temple will have a beautiful configuration with no obstruction at the entrance.”[1]  The term eustyle is derived from the Latin prefix eu, meaning good (as in euphoria—feeling good), and the Latin stilus, a narrow cylindrical object; i.e., a column shaft. The principle of eustyle spacing can be applied to porticos of four (tetrastyle), six (hexastyle), and eight (octastyle) or more columns.

Pantheon portico (detail)

Figure 2. Pantheon portico (detail), ‘The Four Books’ (Isaac Ware edition, 1738) Book 4, plate LI

In perusing Book 4 of Andrea Palladio’s Quattro Libri (Four Books on Architecture), we might note that the majority of the ancient porticoed temples in Palladio’s reconstruction drawings incorporate some form of eustyle spacing.  Among them is the Pantheon, where Palladio notes that the portico’s center bay, in Vincentine feet and inches,[2] is  9’3½” wide, while the outer bays are 8’2½”wide. (Figure 2) Even though the temples Palladio measured and illustrated normally employ a slightly wider center bay, not all strictly follow Vitruvius’s spacing formula. Indeed, in some of the temple elevations, such as that for the Temple of Saturn, the dimension variation is so subtle that we need to look very carefully to see the effect. (Figure 3) Except for the Ionic temples of Portunus[3] and Saturn,[4]  all of the porticoed temples Palladio included in Book 4 are in the Corinthian order, the preferred order for major buildings of the Roman imperial period. Read more »

Posted by Calder on May 3, 2012 | 1 Comment

PROFESSOR DAVID WATKIN VISITS ICAA CHAPTERS

In mid-March, Dr. David Watkin, architectural historian and professor emeritus at Cambridge University, visited five ICAA chapter locations to present Classical Language Past and Present.

Watkin

Prof. David Watkin presents "Classical Language Past & Present" in Los Angeles

Dr. Watkin considers classicism an architecture of imitation combined with invention in which the orders are timeless through their relation to the human body and through their ornament derived from plant forms. He weaves a web of resonances linking past architects such as Ictinus, Vitruvius, Bramante, Scamozzi, Schinkel, Hansen, Soane, Cockerell, McKim, and Mead and White with current architects like Krier, Porphyrios, Greenberg, Quinlan and Francis Terry, John Simpson, Robert Adam, George Saumarez Smith, and the brilliant classical sculptor, Alexander Stoddart.

Stephen Suzman & David Watkin

David Watkin and Stephen Suzman (Northern California Chapter)

His lecture drew on his personal association with many of the present day architects whose work he has defended in public planning enquiries and written about in books and articles. The story involves a life-long battle against the British establishment which is Modernist in terms of both architecture and, ironically, of conservation.

Emily Eerdmans, David Watkin, Andrew Tullis (Southern California Chapter)

Watkin & Guest

A guest visits with Dr. Watkin (Northern California Chapter)

Dr. Watkin’s U.S. tour began in Los Angeles with the Southern California Chapter. Continuing on to San Francisco for an evening lecture with the Northern California Chapter, Dr. Watkin then went on to present his lecture to the Chicago-Midwest Chapter, the New England Chapter, and the Florida Chapter.

Posted by Kelly Price on April 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meiere

Hildreth Meière

Hildreth Meière working on a front piece

Hildreth Meière (1892-1961) is an important figure in our cultural and artistic history whose legacy is receiving much-deserved attention in Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meiere, an exhibition at New York’s Museum of Biblical Art.  Meière was an accomplished Art Deco muralist and mosaicist whose work adorns some of the most impressive structures in our country – but few know her name. She received her first major commissions from leading architect and mentor Bertram G. Goodhue and went on to complete over 100 projects over the course of her career at the Nebraska State Capitol, the National Academy of Sciences, in DC, and Prudential Plaza, in Newark, NJ. Meière left her mark on New York City’s vast landscape as well, creating an exterior relief sculpture for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the medallions on the façade of Radio City Music Hall, and the decorative coloring of the Red Banking Room at One Wall Street.  She was a consummate artist who gained the respect of the greatest muralists and architects of her day. This resulted in her being the first woman honored with The Fine Arts Medal of the American Institute of Architects and the first woman appointed to the New York City Art Commission.

Dance

Radio City Music Hall medallions: Dance

Radio City: Drama

Radio City Music Hall medallions: Drama

Red Banking Room

Red Banking Room

This is the first presentation of Walls Speak to focus exclusively on Meière’s magnificent work for synagogues and churches. Her work currently decorates the apses, altars, windows, and vaults of some of the most beautiful and sacred spaces in the New York metro area, including Temple Emanu-El, St. Bartholomew’s Church, and St. Michael’s Passionist Monastery Church.  Visitors to the show will rediscover a major American muralist whose cutting-edge approach to design, material, and technique propelled her to prominence at a time when few female artists had gained acceptance and whose artistry richly enhanced houses of worship.

Temple Emanu-El

Temple Emanu-El

St. Bartholomew’s Church

St. Bartholomew’s Church

Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meiere is on display until May 20, 2012. For more details about the exhibition and the Museum of Biblical Art, please visit www.mobia.org.

Images courtesy of the Museum of Biblical Art

Posted by Kelly Price on April 9, 2012 | 3 Comments

CLASSICAL COMMENTS: THE PARTHENON AND ITS DERIVATIVES

Calder Loth

Calder Loth

 

by Calder Loth
Senior Architectural Historian for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and a member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s Advisory Council.

Parthenon

Figure 1. The Parthenon undergoing long-term repair. (Loth)

The Parthenon is universally regarded as one of the greatest works of architecture ever created. Designed by the architects Iktinos and Callicrates, the temple was completed in 438 B.C. By the 5th century A.D. it was being used for Christian worship. The Turks converted it to a mosque following their victory over the Byzantine Empire in 1453. Despite these adaptations, the Parthenon’s exterior survived essentially intact, and continued as a functioning roofed structure for another two centuries. In 1687, during the Venetian siege of Athens, the Turkish military commandeered the Parthenon for ammunition storage. When the Venetians bombarded the Acropolis, a shell hit the Parthenon, exploded the ammunition, and left the building a roofless ruin. (Figure 2) The Turks later constructed a small mosque within the ruin.

Parthenon Destruction

Figure 2. Destruction of the Parthenon, 1687 (detail); F. Fanelli, ‘Athene Attica’ (1707), plate I.

In their 1750s expedition to Greece, British architects James Stuart and Nicholas Revett recorded the Parthenon’s ruined condition with its mosque. (Figure 3) They published this image along with plans, elevations, and details of the Parthenon in 1789, in the second volume of their monumental work, The Antiquities of Athens. The illustrations included an elevation showing the temple’s west facade in a restored state. (Figure 4) Revealing the Parthenon’s original sublime beauty, Stuart and Revett’s elevation inspired numerous adaptations over next century and a half. Offered here is a brief survey of selected architectural works displaying the influence of the Parthenon on their design. Read more »

Posted by Calder on April 5, 2012 | 3 Comments

News on the Advocacy Front

Paul Gunther

A message from our President, Paul Gunther

The recent chorus of ICAA constituent responses to the pending memorial to General Dwight D. Eisenhower along the Mall in Washington DC was led by the Washington Mid Atlantic Chapter in concert with the National Civic Art Society. Together they announced a design competition alternative to the official and closed one sanctioned by the General Services Administration at the behest of the official Memorial Commission.

Unlike so many major national design competitions, which, despite official regulations to the contrary, are de facto off-limits to classicists by virtue of the well-known prejudices of the pre-settled jury, there was no question that any and all tradition-and contextually-primed submissions would be greeted with requisite respect.

And so the debate continues….

What this matter brings to mind is the fact that while advocacy work cannot be the focus of our labors nationwide at this juncture due to the mission-driven emphasis on education for practitioners, students, and an appreciative clientele alike, it is nonetheless a role that we can and do fill occasionally. This is possible thanks to your support and engagement and is undertaken therefore when we believe the stakes are highest not only for the specific site or project at hand, but also when it seems that policy ramifications transcend the individual advocacy effort. In sum, broad impact is the present watchword.

BKSK Rendering

Photo Rendering of Proposed Design for 30 Henry Street, BKSK Architects

That is why at the beginning of the year the ICAA weighed in with like-minded others before New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission for a building proposed by BKSK Architects at 30 Henry Street in the seminal Brooklyn Heights Historic District. The crux of our opinion was,

The Institute’s point of view stems from what we believe is the proposed building’s contextual integrity combined with “of its time” distinction from the existing historic fabric. This building in terms of overall volume, materials, and subtle contrast of each to any structure either contiguous or nearby renders it duly contemporary. Denial of such a solution overlooks the diversity of contemporary design as sought by the marketplace and as practiced by those who over the last generation have rediscovered the possibilities of traditional precedent including, of course, the now 100-year old advent of modernism. All styles evolve over time in accordance with available materials, methodologies, functional technologies, and resident needs; the design pending at 30 Henry Street illustrates the fact well…

As according statues preclude any formal or stylistic preference or preordained exclusions for proposed construction in landmark districts, the BKSK solution strikes an ideal balance between continuity and modern accommodation as well as future resident demand and overall community strengthening.

This is a building of the 21st century in embrace of all its creative diversity and non-hierarchical effusiveness. Distinction instead of dissonance inflects its nod to the past. The Historic District will be the lasting beneficiary accordingly.

The Commissioners reported that it was one of the most rigorous and honest discussions ever held, especially in the face of decades-old tropes confusing modernist typologies with modernity itself. And as a result the BKSK plan was approved. This is a case where we believe advocacy intervention helped set a precedent for forthcoming ecumenism of style vocabulary among Landmark enforcers nationwide.

We encourage sharing of possible advocacy position ideas with the chapters as well as with the headquarters office, bearing in mind this current and necessary focus only on widespread ramifications.

~~~~~~
P.S.  I hope you’ve had a chance to read Dean Lykoudis’s interview with Richard H. Driehaus on the 10th anniversary of his Awards program in the Spring/Summer issue of The Forum.  Note too that David Bagnall’s fine illustrated story of his restoration of Chicago’s Samuel M. Nickerson House, An American Palace (University of Chicago Press), is now available and well worth adding to your design library. To secure a copy and all our Classical America Series’ titles visit the Classicist Bookshop online.

Posted by Paul on April 4, 2012 | Leave a comment