Cass Gilbert

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(b. Zanesville, Ohio, 24 Nov. 1859; d. Brockenhurst, England, 19 May 1934), architect of the Supreme Court Building. Gilbert grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and studied architecture for a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After serving as an assistant to Stanford White in New York City, Gilbert designed municipal and business buildings, churches, residences, railway stations, bridges, and the Minnesota, West Virginia, and Arkansas state capitols. Among his most noted works during the turn‐of‐the‐century period are the United States Custom House, the Federal Court Building, and the Woolworth Building, all in New York City. The Woolworth Building, at sixty‐six stories, was the tallest building in the world at its 1913 completion and remained so for almost two decades. His other designs include the Treasury Annex and U.S. Chamber of Commerce buildings in Washington, D.C., and the Detroit and St. Louis public libraries. The Supreme Court Building was under construction at the time of his death during a visit to England in 1934. The structure was completed under the supervision of his son, Cass Gilbert, Jr.

The senior Gilbert was a traditionalist, and chose to take no part in the modern functionalist movement that became preeminent in architecture early in the twentieth century. His eclectic designs, especially for public buildings such as the Supreme Court, combine tasteful solidity, grandeur, and a scale appropriate to their importance. Although some architectural critics now find his works uninviting and unoriginal, he was much honored in his lifetime. Gilbert is generally considered one of the most capable architects the United States has produced.

See also Architecture of the Supreme Court Building.

— Francis Helminski

(b Zanesville, OH, 24 Nov 1859; d Brockenhurst, Hants, 17 May 1934). American architect. He belonged to a group of turn-of-the-century architects who developed an American interpretation of the French Beaux-Arts tradition. He did not rigidly follow Beaux-Arts doctrine, however, choosing instead to support the American Academy in Rome, adopting the point of view of his mentors McKim, Mead & White and Daniel H. Burnham. Gilbert's work following the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893) is characterized by its Beaux-Arts monumentality and its reliance on diverse contemporary and historical precedents. He drew on their stylistic associations to forge memorable architectural images for institutional and corporate patrons.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

American architect. He designed the Minnesota State Capitol, St Paul, MN (1895–1903), a vast Beaux-Arts pile with a dome based on Michelangelo's at San Pietro, Rome, which made his reputation, gaining him commissions to design the US Custom House (1901–7) and the Florentine palazzo of the Union Club (1902), both in NYC. He later built a Gothic skyscraper on West Street, NYC (1905–7), the trial run for the huge Woolworth Building, NYC (1911–13), that was clad in light-weight fire-resistant faïence. The pyramidal composition of the New York Life Insurance Building (1925–8) was crowned with a vaguely Gothic spire. His later buildings were nearly all Classical.

Bibliography

• Christen & Flanders (eds.)(2001)
• Heilbrun (ed.) (2000)
• Ed.Ka (ed.) (1970)
• Pierson & Jordy(1970–86)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Cass Gilbert was the U.S. architect responsible for the traditional style and regal proportions seen in many of the nation's finest public buildings—including the Supreme Court Building, in Washington, D.C. His remarkable body of work included federal, state, municipal, educational, and religious structures as well as facilities designed for commercial, industrial, and private use. Gilbert believed strongly that architecture should serve the established political and social order; much of his work continues to serve its public purpose decades after its conception and completion.

Gilbert was born November 24, 1859, in Zanesville, Ohio, where his grandfather, Charles Champion Gilbert, was the first mayor. He attended school in Zanesville until the death of his father, Samuel Augustus Gilbert, in 1868. At that time, his mother, Elizabeth Fulton Wheeler, apprenticed him to an architectural firm in St. Paul, Minnesota. There, he completed his education and trained as a surveyor. In 1878, Gilbert enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied architecture for one year.

Income from occasional surveying work allowed Gilbert to embark, in 1879, on the customary grand tour of Europe, undertaken by many young men of his social standing and economic means. He traveled in England, France, and Italy and was exposed to many of the classic architectural styles that would later dominate his work.

Upon his return to the United States, Gilbert was employed as a draftsman by the New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White, where he was influenced by name partner and noted architect Stanford White. His association with this firm gave him an opportunity to hone his skills and to learn the business side of running an architectural enterprise. Seeing his promise, the firm sent him to St. Paul in 1881 to oversee a building project.

By December 1882, Gilbert had severed ties with McKim, Mead and formed a partnership with St. Paul architect James Knox Taylor. Together, Gilbert and Taylor pursued both institutional and residential work, but they were unable to succeed financially. The business partnership dissolved. Well organized and efficient, Gilbert found that he preferred to work alone; he did not form another professional partnership during his career. His architectural work from this period included the Dayton Avenue Church, St. Paul (1888); St. Martin's by the Lake, Minneapolis (1888); and the Lightner House, St. Paul (1893).

Gilbert did establish a personal partnership, on November 29, 1887, when he married Julia T. Finch. Their growing family—which ultimately included Emily, Elizabeth Wheeler, Julia Swift, and Cass, Jr.—added to the financial burdens of the struggling architect. To supplement his income from design work, Gilbert sold watercolors. He had begun painting during his European travels, and he was known locally as a talented artist.

In 1896, Gilbert landed the job that would launch him to national prominence: he was appointed architect for the Minnesota State Capitol Building, in St. Paul. The majestic domed structure that he created was immensely popular. Both its scale and detail were considered appropriate for its public purpose. His success convinced Gilbert that he was ready to compete in New York.

Shortly after moving to New York, Gilbert was among those invited to submit plans for the U.S. Custom House. He won the competition, but not without controversy. Other firms involved in the competition thought Taylor, then architect of the Treasury Building, in Washington, D.C., had unfairly influenced the choice of his former partner. Despite the controversy, Gilbert was eventually awarded other commissions, including the Union Club and the West Street Building, in New York, and the Essex County Courthouse, in Newark, New Jersey.

He also began to play a role in organizations associated with his profession, being elected president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908. At various points in his career, he was an active member of the Architectural League of New York, Academy of Design, National Institute of Arts and Letters, Academy of Arts and Letters, Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Institute of Canada, Architectural Society of Liverpool, Royal Academy of Arts, and French Legion of Honor.

Although Gilbert entered, and won, a number of competitions during his career, most of his work came from his professional associations and his power of persuasion. His pursuit of the contract for the Woolworth Building, in New York, is just one example of his tenacious nature. Hearing that Frank W. Woolworth was going abroad before naming an architect for his new building, Gilbert booked passage on the same boat; he had a signed contract in hand before the boat docked.

The Woolworth Building, with its tremendous height and inventive use of terra-cotta, was a huge success. It was the tallest building in the world and it towered over the New York skyline for almost twenty years. The building made Gilbert a celebrity and substantially increased the demand for his professional services. The Scott Memorial Fountain, Detroit (1914); Detroit Public Library (1917); Brooklyn Army Terminal (1918); St. Louis Public Library (1921); and a host of other schools, banks, libraries, museums, and municipal structures were commissioned in the years following his completion of the Woolworth Building in 1913.

In 1910, Gilbert was appointed to the National Commission of Fine Arts by President William Howard Taft. He was reappointed for another term by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. Through this association, Gilbert secured some of his most prestigious work, including the U.S. Treasury Annex (1918), Chamber of Commerce (1924), and, finally, the Supreme Court Building.

In 1928, Chief Justice and former president William Howard Taft became chairman of the Supreme Court Building Commission, created by Congress to build a permanent home for the nation's High Court. Taft remembered Gilbert's work on the National Commission of Fine Arts and selected him to design the new Court building.

The structure envisioned by Gilbert was a monumental temple of justice—one that evoked the power, authority, and solemnity of the Court. His design, which filled the square-block site, featured a neo-classical white marble structure with an enormous central hall housing the courtroom. Two symmetrical wings on either side of the central hall contained offices, libraries, and other Court functions. The focus of the Court chamber was an elevated bench, which looked out on seating for more than three hundred spectators.

The interior layout of the building separated the justices' private areas from the public areas, and was designed to facilitate grand entrances into the courtroom. The building's private areas contained three-room office suites, a robing room, underground parking and entrances, temperature- and humidity-controlled library and document storage facilities, and pressrooms.

Gilbert's architectural sketches were approved by the commission in 1929, and construction began in 1931. The building was not completed until after Gilbert's death in 1934; Gilbert's son, Cass, Jr., supervised the final stages of the project.

The Supreme Court Building opened its doors to the public on Monday, October 7, 1935. Initially, the building was criticized for both its size and its exterior embellishment. To a large extent, the size was dictated by the site: Gilbert strove to complement the scale of the adjacent Library of Congress and of other buildings in the Capitol complex. Charges of wasted space in the halls and corridors, and excessive seating in the courtroom, have diminished with time. The building's exterior embellishment featured prominent legal figures and themes and was executed by some of the finest artists and sculptors of the day. It is said that one of the toga-clad figures depicted on the building bears the likeness of the architect himself.

As a space designed for hearing arguments and holding public discussion, the large courtroom was also criticized for its poor acoustics. Time and improved sound technology have diminished this criticism. Today, the Supreme Court Building is considered the pinnacle of Gilbert's work and is one of the nation's finest public buildings.

While developing the Supreme Court Building, Gilbert also continued to work in New York and across the country. During this period, he designed the New York Life Insurance Building, the U.S. Courthouse in New York City, the George Washington Memorial Bridge, and the state capitol buildings in Arkansas and West Virginia.

Biographer Egerton Swartwout described Gilbert as "purposely impressive in manner and rather pompous at times." This description could as easily be applied to the public buildings Gilbert designed. Gilbert's work stayed true to the traditional themes that inspired him as a young man traveling in Europe. Though his Woolworth Building and other commercial structures contributed to the evolution of the modern skyscraper, Gilbert was not a fan of the modern functional architecture that emerged in the 1920s. The turmoil of World War I and the economic difficulties of the 1920s were said to have solidified Gilbert's commitment to classic traditional style.

Still much in demand by those who shared his architectural vision, Gilbert died suddenly May 17, 1934, on a golf holiday at Brockenhurst, England, at age seventy-five. He is buried in New York City. His personal and professional papers are housed at the Library of Congress—across the street from his Supreme Court Building.

not to be confused with American architect C.P.H. Gilbert

Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was a prominent American architect.^[1] An early proponent of skyscrapers in works like the Woolworth Building, Gilbert was also responsible for numerous museums (Saint Louis Art Museum) and libraries (Saint Louis Public Library), state capitol buildings (the Minnesota, Arkansas and West Virginia State Capitols, for example) as well as public architectural icons like the United States Supreme Court building. His public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation was heir to Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism.^[2] Gilbert's achievements were recognized in his lifetime; he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908-09.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Professional career 3 Name confusion with C.P.H. Gilbert 4 Historical impact 5 Notable works 6 Image gallery 6.1 Archives 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Architecture 8.2 Archival collections

Early life

Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio, the middle of three sons, and was named after the statesman Lewis Cass, to whom he was distantly related.^[1] Gilbert's father was a surveyor for what was then known as the United States Coast Survey. At the age of nine, Gilbert's family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where he was raised by his mother after his father died. After attending preparatory school in nearby Minneapolis, Gilbert dropped out of Macalester College, before beginning his architectural career at age 17 by joining the Abraham M. Radcliffe office in St. Paul. In 1878 Gilbert enrolled in the architecture program at MIT.^[3]

Professional career

Gilbert's Woolworth Building in New York City was the world's tallest building when it was built in 1913.

Gilbert later worked for a time with the firm of McKim, Mead, and White before starting a practice in St. Paul with James Knox Taylor. He was commissioned to design a number of railroad stations, including those in Anoka, Willmar, and the still extant Little Falls depot.^[1] He won a series of house and office-building commissions in Minnesota: the Endicott Building in St. Paul is still regarded as a gem, and many of his noteworthy houses still stand on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. His break-through commission was the design of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City (now housing the George Gustav Heye Center).^[1]

Name confusion with C.P.H. Gilbert

Cass Gilbert is often confused with Charles Pierrepont Henry "CPH" Gilbert, another prominent architect of the time. Cass Gilbert designed the famous Woolworth Building skyscraper on Broadway for Frank W. Woolworth, while Woolworth's personal mansion was designed by C.P.H. Gilbert. The Ukrainian Institute building on Manhattan's 5th Avenue is the work of C.P.H. Gilbert, and often incorrectly attributed to Cass Gilbert.^[4][5]

Historical impact

Gilbert is considered a skyscraper pioneer; when designing the Woolworth Building he moved into unproven ground — though he certainly was aware of the ground-breaking work done by Chicago architects on skyscrapers and once discussed merging firms with the legendary Daniel Burnham — and his technique of cladding a steel frame became the model for decades.^[1] Modernists embraced his work: Alfred Stieglitz immortalized the Woolworth Building in a famous series of photographs and John Marin painted it several times; even Frank Lloyd Wright praised the lines of the building, though he decried the ornamentation.

Gilbert was one of the first celebrity architects in America, designing skyscrapers in New York City and Cincinnati, campus buildings at Oberlin College and the University of Texas, state capitols in Minnesota and West Virginia, the support towers of the George Washington Bridge, various railroad stations (including the New Haven Union Station), and the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.. His reputation declined among some professionals during the age of Modernism, but he was on the design committee that guided and eventually approved the modernist design of Manhattan's groundbreaking Rockefeller Center: when considering Gilbert's body of works as whole, it is more eclectic than many critics admit. In particular, his Union Station in New Haven lacks the embellishments common of the Beaux-Arts period, and contains the simple lines common in Modernism.

Gilbert wrote to a colleague, "I sometimes wish I had never built the Woolworth Building because I fear it may be regarded as my only work and you and I both know that whatever it may be in dimension and in certain lines it is after all only skyscraper."^[6]

Gilbert's two buildings for the University of Texas campus in Austin, Sutton Hall (1918) and Battle Hall (1911), are widely recognized by architectural historians as among the finest works of architecture in the state. Designed in a Spanish-Mediterranean revival style, the two buildings became the stylistic basis for the later expansion of the university in the 1920s and 1930s and helped popularize the style throughout the state.

Notable works

• Saint Paul Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
  • Cretin Hall, Loras Hall, the Service Center, a classroom building, the refectory building, the administration building in 1894, and Grace Hall in 1913 were commissioned by James J. Hill. Only Cretin, Loras, the Service Center, and Grace still stand.
• Minnesota State Capitol, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1895–1905.
  • Designed in High Renaissance style, the building is not merely a replica of the United States Capitol. Local newspapers made a fuss when Gilbert sent to Georgia for marble, but the result, in which a hemispherical dome caps a high drum not unlike that of St. Peter's Basilica, crowning a building housing the bicameral legislature and the state supreme court, was so nobly handsome that West Virginia and Arkansas contracted for Gilbert capitols as well. Its brick dome is held in hoops of steel.
• St. Clement's Episcopal Church, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1895.
  • Designed in the traditional English country church style, with a lychgate and close, bell tower, and parish hall (renovated in 2006). Funded by a generous donation from Mrs. Theodore Eaton, widow of the rector of St. Clement's Episcopal Church in New York City. Includes original furniture, baptismal font, encaustic tile floor in choir, elaborate rood screen, linen-fold paneling, and parquet oak floor in sanctuary. The altar features Tiffany Studios stained glass window depicting the empty cross.
• The Broadway-Chambers Building (277 Broadway), Manhattan, 1899–1900.
  • Gilbert's first building in New York City.^[7]
• Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, Manhattan, 1902–1907.
  • Facing Bowling Green park in Lower Manhattan
• Saint Louis Art Museum (Palace of the Fine Arts), St. Louis, Missouri, 1904
  • Built for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and the only major building of the fair built as a permanent structure.
• 90 West Street, New York City, Manhattan, 1905–1907.
  • Severely damaged during the September 11, 2001 attacks, this building in lower Manhattan has since been completely restored.^[8]
• Metals Bank Building, Butte, Montana, 1906.
  • Commissioned by F. Augustus Heinze, this eight-story low-rise building has an internal steel frame. It was the second to be built in Butte after the 1901 Hirbour Building, which also has eight stories.
• A series of master plans for the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota, 1907.^[9][10]
• Spalding Building, Portland, Oregon, 1911.
  • A 12-story early skyscraper based on the construction principles of a classical column.
• Battle Hall, Austin, Texas, 1911.
  • For the University of Texas at Austin.
• St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis, Missouri, 1912
  • The main library for the city's public library system, in a severe classicizing style, has an oval central pavilion surrounded by four light courts. The outer facades of the free-standing building are of lightly rusticated Maine granite. The Olive Street front is disposed like a colossal arcade, with contrasting marble bas-relief panels. A projecting three-bay central block, like a pared-down triumphal arch, provides a monumental entrance. At the rear the Central Library faced a sunken garden. The interiors feature some light-transmitting glass floors. The ceiling of the Periodicals Room is modified from Michelangelo's ceiling in the Laurentian Library.^[11][12]
• Woolworth Building, Manhattan, 1913.
  • A Gothic Revival skyscraper clad in glazed terracotta panels, it was the tallest building in the world when built. Bas-reliefs in the lobby depict Woolworth and Gilbert with Woolworth holding nickels and dimes.
• PNC Tower, Cincinnati.
  • Originally built as the headquarters for the Union Central Life Insurance Company.
• Fountain, Ridgefield, Connecticut, 1914–16.
  • This fountain, at the intersection of Routes 35 and 33, was designed and donated to the town by Cass Gilbert, who lived in the town for a period. In 2004, a drunk driver crashed into the fountain and completely destroyed it; a replica has since been completed.
• Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, 1917.
  • Oberlin College.
• Chase Headquarters Building, Waterbury, Connecticut, 1917-1919.
  • This building was designed as the headquarters of the Chase Company and forms part of a unique concentration of Gilbert's architecture comprising the Waterbury City Hall, the Chase Bank Building, the company headquarters and the Elton Hotel.
• Brooklyn Army Terminal, Sunset Park area of Brooklyn, NY, 1918.
• The Detroit Public Library, main branch, 1921.
• The First Division Monument, President's Park, Washington DC, 1924.^[13]
• West Virginia State Capitol, Charleston, West Virginia, 1924–1932.
• The James Scott Memorial Fountain, Belle Isle, Detroit, MI, 1925.
• Plans for cladding the George Washington Bridge support towers, New York City, in masonry, 1926. Not carried out.
• New York Life Building, 1926.
• Embassy of the United States in Ottawa, Ottawa, 1932.
• United States Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C., 1932–1935.
  • Gilbert's last major project, guided to completion by his son, Cass Gilbert Jr. He died a year before it was completed. A vast Roman temple in the Corinthian order is penetrated by a cross range articulated with pilasters in very low relief. The central tablet in the richly sculpted frieze reads EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW. His design for the U.S. Supreme Court chambers was based upon his design for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals at the state capitol in Charleston. The pediment sculptures Liberty attended by order and Authority (great lawgivers Moses, Confucius, and Solon are on the West Portico) were executed by Hermon Atkins MacNeil.
• Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse, Manhattan, 1933.

Image gallery

Minnesota State Capitol, 1895–1905	New York Life Insurance Building, 1926.	St. Louis Art Museum (detail), built for the 1904 world's fair.	Detroit Public Library on Woodward Ave.
Spalding Building, 1911

Archives

Gilbert's drawings and correspondence are preserved at the New-York Historical Society, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Library of Congress.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Christen, Barbara S.; Flanders, Steven (2001). Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architect of the Public Domain. W.W. Norton. ISBN 0393730654. 
2. ^ Blodgett, Geoffrey (1999). Cass Gilbert: The Early Years. Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-87351-410-6. 
3. ^ Irish, Sharon (1999). Cass Gilbert, Architect. Monacelli. ISBN 1885254903. 
4. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE6DF163BF93AA35751C0A9659C8B63
5. ^ http://www.ukrainianinstitute.org/about.php
6. ^ Letter to Ralph Adams Cram, 1920 quoted in Goldberger, Paul (2001) Cass Gilbert, "Remembering the turn-of-the-century urban visionary", Architectural Digest, February issue, pp. 106-102
7. ^ "Broadway-Chambers Building". New York Architecture Images. http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SOH/SOH028.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-26. 
8. ^ "National Trust Presents National Preservation Honor Award to 90 West Street in Lower Manhattan". 2006-11-02. http://www.preservationnation.org. Retrieved 2007-08-22. 
9. ^ "University of Minnesota Campus Plan (1907-10)". Cass Gilbert Society. http://www.cassgilbertsociety.org/architect/buildings/uofm-campus-plan.html. Retrieved 2009-01-28. 
10. ^ "Cass Gilbert Plan". University of Minnesota Sesquicentennial History. 2000-06-01. http://www1.umn.edu/sesqui/history/features/buildings/feature06.html. Retrieved 2007-01-26. 
11. ^ "St. Louis Public Library". St. Louis Public Library Fact Sheer. http://www.explorestlouis.com/factSheets/fact_publib.asp?PageType=4. Retrieved 2007-01-26. 
12. ^ Stocker EB (1985). "St. Louis Public Library". Journal of Library History 20 (3): 310–12. http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/bookplates/20_3_StLouisPublic.htm. 
13. ^ "First Division Monument". National Park Service. 2006-09-08. http://www.nps.gov/whho/historyculture/first-division-monument.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-04. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cass Gilbert

• Cass Gilbert at the archINFORM database
• Cass Gilbert Society - buildings early in his career
• West Hails East- Cass Gilbert in Minnesota article by Sharon Irish

Architecture

• Architectural tour of the US Supreme Court Building
• Cass Gilbert Ohio Historical Marker
• History of the Buildings at the University of St. Thomas
• New York Architecture Images-Cass Gilbert

Archival collections

• Cass Gilbert Collection, 1897-1936 Archives Center, National Museum of American History
• Cass Gilbert Papers, Minnesota Historical Society.
• New York Historical Society: Guide to the Cass Gilbert collection, 2005 Abstract of the Gilbert papers.

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