In the United States the Gothic Revival made its appearance as early as 1839-40, in the work of two English architects, Richard M. Upjohn and James Renwick. The former was entrusted with the rebuilding of Trinity Church, New York and later erected the State Capitol of Connecticut, while Renwick is responsible for Grace Church and S. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York.
With the advent, to be noted later, of architects trained in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the Gothic vogue declined. But in the past ten years it has taken on a new life of remarkable achievement, under the leadership of the New York and Boston firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, which recently has been dissolved, the late partners now working independently. The vitality which they have succeeded in giving to their work in the number of examples distributed over the country may be traced to two causes.
The first is revealed in a little book, “The Gothic Quest,” written by Ralph Adams Cram. It breathes the passion of a Pugin; it is inspired with such religious faith and devotion as the builders of the old cathedrals and churches must have possessed. Hence its author’s conviction that the architectural forms, evolved as an expression of that faith and in accordance with the needs of the worship it inspired, are the only fit embodiments for the continuance of that faith and worship. To Mr. Cram, in fact, the Gothic does not represent merely a style to be professionally employed; but a living concrete expression of the soul. Furthermore, the thorough mastery of Gothic forms has been directed, not as in the beginning of the Gothic Revival, to a reproduction of old models, but to an application of the old principles of Gothic design to the changed conditions of modern times. There is, accordingly, in the designs of these architects no evidence of the “dead hand.” They belong to and serve the present, while preserving a link of tradition with the past. By few, indeed, if any, has the Gothic been revived with so much material and spiritual vitality.
CHAPTER II
THE MODERN SITUATION
Following the trend of modern civilisation, architecture to-day, in so far as it is not continuing to imitate the past, is becoming, on the one hand, more cosmopolitan and, on the other, more individualistic. The free-trade in ideas, encouraged by travel and through the interchange of architectural magazines, is obliterating the distinctions of nationality. Moreover, the immense variety and the newness of problems that now confront the architect are tending toward a personal solution of them. They demand invention on his part and stimulate him to individual expression.
The Student’s Attitude.—Hitherto in this book we have studied the historic styles of architecture, in their origins and revivals; but, if it has served its purpose of awakening interest in the art, we shall for the future think less of styles and acquire the habit of studying a building very much as we study an individual. We do not estimate an individual, in the first analysis, at any rate, by comparing him with some worthy of history, but by his fitness to the present—the front he presents to society at large and his value in the specific part that he plays in the common life. Has he, for example, dignity and some other charm of character? Are his motives sincere? Does he possess the qualities that make his work not only well-intentioned but practically efficient, and so forth?
Similarly, we shall estimate a building not as a thing
Courtesy The Encyclopædia Britannica Company