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Tuesday, September 14. 2021

Stanford White

His name came up in conversation this weekend and I figured Bulldog would have included his famous arch in Washington Square in our urban hike plans. I'm wondering whether there might be other White buildings near our hike.


White was a bad guy by today's standards but nobody complains about his architecture. He had a crazy, reckless life (and dramatic death), but nobody at McKim, Mead, and White made an issue of it. It's not clear to me whether his wife cared either. Despite his behavior, he was friends with everybody including Mark Twain.


Yes, he did design Rosecliff in Newport (been there?) and tons of other appealing places:




Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 17:16 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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Ayn Rand wrote a book about architects like that.
#1 snopercod on 2021-09-14 18:39 (Reply)
From the wiki... "He helped to develop Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower, his last design." I just thought that interesting. He was quite the character for sure, talented and depraved.
#2 XRay on 2021-09-14 20:11 (Reply)
He designed the university club on 1 West 54th. Great Library

Midtown is great between Thanksgiving and Christmas
#3 Leonard M Smith on 2021-09-14 21:34 (Reply)
Stanford White was also a keen salmon fisherman, and created the Nighthawk salmon fly (named for himself).

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/307370743308329697/
#4 David Zincavage (Link) on 2021-09-15 13:48 (Reply)
A recent walk downtown led me to the conclusion that most buildings built in the last 60 years or so are plug-ugly. Not so most older buildings, like the above example.
#5 Gringo on 2021-09-15 17:26 (Reply)
What exactly is the contribution of an architect to a neo-classical building? Besides figuring out where the modern plumbing goes?

That photo is beautiful, but its form and the disposition of its inner rooms could probably be sketched out by anyone who took a basic art class back when universities still taught Western Civ without apologetics.

At least Beaux Arts buildings allowed some innovation in the stylistic flourishes, and some Michelangelesque bending of the rules.
#6 Ben David on 2021-09-17 07:36 (Reply)

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