Urbanization As Seen Through Late 19c - Early 20c Architecture

With Help from Susan M. Pojer

Characteristics of Urbanization

During the Gilded Age1. Megalopolis.2. Mass Transit.3. Magnet for economic and social

opportunities.4. Pronounced class distinctions.

- Inner & outer core5. New frontier of opportunity for women.6. Squalid living conditions for many.7. Political machines.8. Ethnic neighborhoods.

NewArchitectural

Style

NewUse ofSpace

NewClass

DiversityNew Energy

New Culture(“Melting Pot”)

New Form ofClassic “RuggedIndividualism”

New Levels of Crime,

Violence, &Corruption

Make a NewStart

NewSymbols ofChange &Progress

The City as aNew “Frontier?”

William Le Baron Jenney

1832 – 1907

“Father of the ModernSkyscraper”

W. Le Baron

Jenney:

CentralY.M.C.A., Chicago,

1891

Louis Sullivan 1856 – 1924 The Chicago

School ofArchitecture

Form followsfunction!

Louis Sullivan: Bayard Bldg., NYC, 1897

Louis Sullivan: Carson, Pirie, Scott Dept. Store, Chicago,

1899

Frank Lloyd Wright 1869 – 1959 “Prairie

House”School of Architecture

“OrganicArchitecture”

Function follows form!

Frank Lloyd Wright:Allen-Lamb House, 1915

Frank Lloyd Wright:“Falling Waters”, 1936

F. L. Wright Glass Screens

Prairie wheat patterns.

Frank Lloyd Wright:Guggenheim Museum, NYC

- 1959

New York City Architectural Style:

1870s-1910s1. The style was less innovative thanin Chicago.

2. NYC was the source of the capital for Chicago.

3. Most major business firms had their headquarters in NYC their bldgs. became “logos” for their companies.

4. NYC buildings and skyscrapers were taller than in Chicago.

Western

Union Bldg,. NYC - 1875

Manhattan

LifeInsurance

Bldg.

NYC - 1893

SingerBuilding

NYC - 1902

Woolworth

Bldg.

NYC - 1911

FlatironBuilding

NYC – 1902D. H.

Burnham

Grand Central Station, 1913

St. Patrick’s

Cathedral

John A. Roebling:The Brooklyn Bridge, 1883

John A. Roebling:The Brooklyn Bridge, 1913

Statue of Liberty, 1876(Frederic Auguste Bartholdi)

“Dumbell “ Tenement

“Dumbell “ Tenement, NYC

Jacob Riis:

How the Other Half

Lived(1890)

Tenement Slum Living

Lodgers Huddled Together

Tenement Slum Living

Struggling Immigrant Families

Mulberry Street – “Little Italy”

Hester Street – Jewish Section

1900Rosh

Hashanah

GreetingCard

Pell St. - Chinatown, NYC

Urban Growth: 1870 - 1900

Immigration

Changes in Immigration Patterns• The years between

1870 and 1920 saw one of the greatest surges of immigrants to America. Until 1890, most of these immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe, just like many of the original European immigrants to America.

Changes in Immigration Patterns

• On the west coast, immigrants from China began arriving for the Gold Rush in 1849, but many ended up working on the railroads or starting farms; after 1882 Congress limited Chinese immigration.

Changes in Immigration Patterns

• After 1890, the immigrating population changed to people coming from Southern and Eastern Europe, countries such as Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. During this time almost a million people also immigrated from Mexico and the West Indies.

Why the New Immigration?

• Rapidly growing population in the Old World• Industrialization in Europe and the importation of American food disturbed the position of the peasant• “America Fever”• Persecutions of minorities in Europe• Birds of Passage

Being a New Immigrant• Discrimination at work• Generation Gap• Struggle to assimilate• Bintel Brief

Taking Care of the New Immigrants

• Originally taken care of by city “bosses”• “Christian Socialist” preachers• Jane Addams and Hull House

– Settlement Houses• Florence Kelley – Socialism, Rights, and the Henry Street Settlement (founded by Lillian Wald)

Changes Brought by the New Immigration

• Women in the work force– Mostly single– Helped family and still had some pocket money

• Brought more economic and social independence

Nativism• Nativism: Preferential treatment towards native born Americans

– Especially Anglo Saxon, Protestants– The American Protective Association (1887)

• Organized labor fought new immigration because poor immigrants were willing to take lower wages

Government Sponsored Nativism

• 1882: Close gates to all paupers, criminals, and convicts + Chinese Exclusion Act

• 1885: Prohibited the importation of foreign workers under contract

• 1890’s: Expanded list of undesirables to include: insane, polygamists, prostitutes, alcoholics, anarchists, and people with contagious diseases

• 1917: Literacy Test