18th-19th Century Architecture in America: The Fisher Fine Arts Library by Frank Furness
Fisher Fine Arts Library
(Furness Library) of University of
Pennsylvania, Frank Furness, (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania);
1888-1890; 18th-19th
Century Architecture in America
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in Philadelphia (PA) is the oldest art academy and museum in the United States,
founded 1805. Specializing in American painting and sculpture of the 18th to
the 20th century, the Academy’s Art Museum was built between 1872 and 1876
according to designs by architect Frank Furness.
The
building’s architectural style is high Victorian. For its centennial
year (1976), which coincided with the U.S. Bicentennial, the museum underwent a
complete renovation.
A
12,000-volume library of art history focuses primarily on American
painting and sculpture.
The Building
Located
on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, this historic library, built
from red sandstone and brownstone, was designed to be the primary library of
the University and to house archaeological collections.
The exterior of the
library looks like a fortress, a cathedral, and a railroad station all merged
into one.
The
construction of the library was completed in late 1890; it has five stories, an
iron staircase, reading rooms, and stacks. The Main Reading Room is a
four-stories high brick-and-terracotta-enclosed space divided from the Rotunda
Reading Room by an arcade. Above the Rotunda Reading Room was a lecture hall
which today is a studio for architecture.
The Architect
Frank
Heyling Furness (1839-1912) was an American architect, significant for the masculine
forms of his buildings and for his influence on Louis H. Sullivan.
The work of Furness is largely in the Romantic Revival
tradition of the Neo-Gothic. His highly personal style is expressed in his
polychromatic decoration and his massive geometric ornamentation, the shapes of
which were frequently abstractions of forms found in nature.
He largely contributed to the development of Sullivan’s
theories of organic and ornamental architecture, like how details become the structure.
Furness’ major works include the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts (1872–76), the Provident Life and Trust Company
Bank (1878–79; demolished), and an addition (1892–94) to the Broad Street
Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Besides his Philadelphia works, Furness designed more
than 200 buildings throughout Pennsylvania and also in Delaware and
Maryland.
Technology
It is necessary to note Furness’ interest in technology: he researched ways on how technology could manufacture nature, for he believed that a new advance in architecture could be brought on by the experimentation of the new materials such as:
-cast iron (easily molded),
-glass (different thickness to avoid direct sunlight)
-and terracotta (new for the time period).
Sources
Thayer,
P. (2002). Frank Furness: architecture and the violent mind [by] Michael J.
Lewis. Journal Of The Society Of Architectural Historians, 61(1),
95-97.
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