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Arts & Entertainment > Architecture
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What kind of information materials are available?
CD: Texts available on CD version.Texts available in multiple languages.

Background
American Institute of Architecture
American Society of Landscape Architecture
The Architect of the Capitol
Architecture Research Institute
Arts and Crafts Society
Frederick Law Olmsted: Founder of American Landscape Architecture
Heritage Preservation
Historic Federal Buildings Database
History of the United States Capitol
National Trust for Historic Preservation
PBS Arts - Architecture
Project for Public Spaces

State Capitol Building Histories

Exhibits - Digital Images
American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 (American Memory, Library of Congress)
Architecture and Interior Design for the 20th Century America
(American Memory, Library of Congress)
Building California: Technology and the Landscape (California Historical Society)
Building Views: Architectural Construction
Built in America (American Memory, Library of Congress)
Construction of the Empire State Building (New York Public Library)
A Digital Archive of American Architecture (Boston College)
Frank Gehry - Architect
(Guggenheim Museum)
Great Buildings Collection
The Life and Works of Frank Lloyd Wright (PBS)
National Building Museum: Online Exhibits
Panoramic Maps, 1847-1929 (American Memory, Library of Congress)
Skyscraper Museum
Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New World (Library of Congress)


For High School Students
Be an Architect (Sanford)
Build a Bridge (PBS)
Internet Public Library Kidspace: Architecture

Link Lists

About.com: Architecture
Architecture Links (Boston College)
Internet Public Library: Architecture

 
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The avant-garde Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by architect Frank Gehry, is the future home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

American architecture is exceptionally complex, both in the multiple traditions from which it has drawn and in the variations of style. When the first European settlers arrived, Native Americans had already developed their own architectural traditions, for example the pueblo, hogan, longhouse, and tipi.

18th century architecture was designed along the rule of reason and practical planning. Different styles developed, influenced by the traditions of the immigrants and local conditions. In the mid-19th century, a Romantic spirit was expressed in many competing stylistic revivals, for example the Greek Revival with symmetrical pillared forms and the Gothic Revival with pointed, crocketed and asymmetrical forms.

The 19th century witnessed an extraordinary rate of urbanization. Despite the absence of any form of public regulation, distinct districts appeared, including elegant blocks of row houses, multifamily tenements and lodging houses. Business districts were transformed by an architectural innovation: the skyscraper. Beginning in the 1880s, architects and engineers in Chicago and New York began to experiment with new framing systems to achieve greater height. The skyscraper is America's unmistakable contribution to architecture. The first skyscraper went up in Chicago in 1884. The designer of the most graceful early towers, Louis Sullivan was America' s first great modern architect. His most talented student was Frank Lloyd Wright.

In the 1930s, European architects who emigrated to the United States before World War II influenced the development of an austere, functional approach, supposedly anonymous and oblivious to the traditions of place. It came to be called the International Style. Perhaps most influential were Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, both former directors of Germany's famous design school, the Bauhaus. Buildings in their geometric style have been both praised and criticized.

In the postwar period, architectural pluralism became more pronounced than ever. As skyscrapers reached new heights, they displayed an extraordinary variety of colors and ornamental motifs. The reuse of historical buildings became a common spectacle. A new generation of architects now feels free to incorporate both old and new elements in their buildings.

 
Texts are abridged from U.S. State Department IIP publications and other U.S. government materials.
 
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Any reference obtained from this server to a specific commercial product, process, or service does not constitute or imply an endorsement by the United States Government of the product, process, or service, or its producer or provider. The views and opinions expressed in any referenced document do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government.
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Updated: December 2008