![]() Back in 1865, Norton, as the first professor of Fine Art at Harvard College, had asked Ware to design Harvard’s Memorial Hall twenty years later Norton, as the founding spirit of the American School, would ask Ware to design the School’s building in Athens. ![]() Charles Eliot Norton was the leading force behind the endeavor: the connection between Ware and Norton ha now come full circle” (Alexander-Shilland 1999, p. His sole documented design during his Columbia years was the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, completed in 1888. “Once at Columbia, Ware would rarely again be involved in the active practice of architecture. It is no surprise that the American School was featured in the periodical.Īfter the partnership of Ware & Van Brunt was terminated in 1881, Ware departed for New York to found an instructional program in architecture at Columbia. Ware also played an important role in the creation of AABN in 1876 and was a regular contributor to it. ![]() His reputation derived in part from his creations with partner Henry Van Brunt, but, to a larger degree, from his impact on students in the classroom, first at MIT and later at Columbia University (1881-1903). Ware as the building’s architect and praises the design for its “most harmonious lines and proportions, and … modest simplicity of decoration fitting in the presence of the unapproachable monuments of the Acropolis.” (It is today difficult to believe that the Parthenon was actually visible from the School in 1889, since the view has been blocked for decades by more recent constructions.) Although the name of William Robert Ware is no longer recognizable to alumni of the school, he was a highly esteemed architect at the time. The first essay about the building appeared in the Decemissue of the leading architectural publication of the period, the American Architect and Building News, under an odd title: “The American School at Athens, and Delphi.” The article, penned by Thomas Ludlow, names William R. William Robert Ware, the architect of the American School of Classical Studies at Athensīefore turning to a more detailed discussion of Belcher’s and McPherson’s glass creations, it will be useful to share with you a bit more about the architectural history of the Director’s residence, first built not only to house the director, but also the library and business offices of the American School, newly established in permanent quarters in Kolonaki. One suspects that Lord was drawing his information from the AABN article, but it puzzles me why he did not also credit the Belcher Glass Mosaic Company, since in that place the decorated glassworks of the School’s building had been attributed to both Belcher and McPherson. Macpherson a fine decorated window for the main staircase” (1947, p. It was once rumored to be a Tiffany creation, but in Louis Lord’s History of the American School, written more than fifty years after the construction of the building, McPherson was credited as the donor–“…and from Mr. I have always been fascinated by the tall, exquisite window that looms over the first landing in the white marble staircase that leads from the ground floor to the first floor of the Director’s residence. Davenport & Company and Norcross Brothers, handsome mantelpieces for the library and the dining room, respectively… and the list goes on. Cornell presented an iron staircase that still climbs from cellar to roof the Hopkins & Dickinson Manufacturing Company gave all the necessary hardware the Sanitas Company contributed plumbing fittings A.H. One comes away with the impression that everything but the stone walls was imported from America. In addition to describing the mission and goals of the School, the author drew attention to all the American firms and designers who contributed to the building’s furnishings. 263), a year after completion of the building destined to house the newly founded (1881) American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA). ![]() This description is taken from an article published in The American Architect and Building News ( AABN) in December of 1889 (no. The decorated window at the ASCSA Director’s residence.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |