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841H ACSA ANNUAL MEETING PRACTICE 1996 3 1 9
The Beaux - Arts Atelier in America
MADLEN SIMON
Kansas State University
Beginning with Richard Morris Hunt in the mid 1800's, aspiring American architects went to study at the Ecole des Beaux - Arts, returning home with tremendous enthusiasm and nostalgia for the educational life they had left behind in Paris. These members of an elite group were conscious of their good fortune and eager to provide opportunities for less privileged aspiring American architects to partake of the type of excellent education they had enjoyed. They were inspired by the desire to improve hture generations of American architects, thereby improving the quality of Ameri- can architecture, a pressing need in the mid nineteenth century for a growing nation in the process of building its institutions. The first American atelier was opened by Richard Morris Hunt, the first American to study at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts, in New York in 1857.' Two of his early students, William Robert Ware and Henry Van Brunt, established an atelier in their own Boston office seven years later. Henry Hobson Richardson, who returned from the Ecole in 1865,
formed a partnership with Charles D. Gambrill, another
former pupil of Hunt, in 1867. Their office also functioned as an atelier for their a~sistantJpupils.~These and other early American ateliers differed from their French models in that they were typically integrated into an architectural practice and the atelier pupils were to varying degrees also the architect's assistants. The French ateliers, while typically
run by practicing architects, occupied separate premises
from the Patron's office and educated pupils who were not employed in the Patron's practice.' Americans continued, in increasing numbers, to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In the spirit of camaraderie fostered by the Parisian ateliers in which they had studied, the Beaux - Arts alumni formed the Beaux - Arts Society of Architects in America. The American organization grew out of a student meeting in Paris in 1 889.4The group, incorpo - rated in New York in 1894 as the Society of Beaux - Arts Architects, promoted the development of a centralized American school of architecture, modelled upon the Ecole. As its first step towards this end, the Society began an educational program which was to continue to the present
day under varying names: the Beaux-Arts Institute of De- sign, the National Institute for Architectural Education, and the current Van Alen Institute. The new Society began to issue student programs on a quarterly system. American architects responded to these new educational opportunities by creating ateliers in whch students of architecture could apply themselves to the Society's programs and competitions.
DEFINING THE AMERICAN ATELIER
American ateliers derived rather loosely from the Parisian model. The Beaux-Arts atelier in Paris consisted of a studio run by a practicing architect known as the Patron, in premises
separate from his archtectural office, in which Ecole students
of all levels worked together, the youngest and least experi - enced learning from and assisting their elders, the most advanced of whom learned from the Patron h i m ~ e l f. ~The atelier was characterized by lively camaraderie and competi- tive team spirit. Transplanted to America, the atelier devel- oped in a variety of forms. According to the rules of the Society, an atelier could be constituted by a minimum of five students working under the guidance of a practicing architecth Many ateliers were this small, simple, and ephemeral, chang - ing students andpatrons from year to year. Some, for example the Atelier Skidmore-Owings, may have existed within firms. The Atelier Hirons was a long standing independent atelier. Other, more highly institutionalized ateliers, existed as h c - tions of the architectural clubs which sprang up around the country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet another variation, closest of all to the original Parisian model, was the atelier which worked in conjunction with a school of architecture. The Columbia University Extension Ateliers, for example, provided design education in several studios dispersed throughout downtown New York City for
Columbia students.' Some ateliers were hybrids. The "T"
Square Club atelier, for example, was associated at different times with the Schools of Industrial Art, the Academy of the Fine Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadel -
phia Chapter of the American Institute of architect^.^ Al-
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though a few of the ateliers had some affiliation with the AIA, the atelier movement was generally unsupported by the AIA, which came to view the university education as an important element of professionalization. Whereas the early member- ships ofthe AIA and the Society ofBeaux-Arts Architects had overlapped to some extent, with Richard Morris Hunt an important figure in both organizations, the AIA did not promote atelier education?
THE STUDENTS
The students, themselves, were another source of difference between the EcoIe atelier and its American counterpart. Whereas the students of the Parisian ateliers were enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the American atelier students were a different and mixed lot. The Society of Beaux-Arts Architects never succeeded in its original goal of establish- ing a centralized school of architecture on the Parisian model. The curriculum of the Society of Beaux - Arts Archi- tects, renamed in 19 16 the Beaux- Arts Institute of Design, was followed in both schools and ateliers. Some aspiring architects and draftsmen learned their profession by working in offices by day and pursuing their design studies in the evenings and weekends in ateliers. The term draftsman is, in itself, ambiguous, meaning on the one hand an architect- in- training and on the other, a paraprofessional with lesser opportunities or aspirations whose career will be spent working for an architect. There was, in the early twentieth century, an unsuccessful movement to formalize drafting as a profession in its own right, related to architecture as nursing is to medicine or the paralegal profession to law.lo More research is necessary to determine to what extent the ateliers served to reinforce professional distinctions between drafts - men and architects and economic andfor class distinctions between those privileged to spend the time and money to obtain a university education and those required to enter the work force and obtain their education in the office and in their spare time. The only information I have discovered to date about economics of the ateliers is that in 1927, a student of the T- Square Club atelier was required to pay twenty- five dollars per year in tuition." This figure should be compared to University tuition at that time. Confirming the relationship between education and so- cial standing, W.R. Ware observed in 1887 that "...the boys who go for two or three years to a professional school are apt to be a better lot, by birth and breeding, as well as in virtue
ofthe schooling itself, than the ordinarymofdraughtsmen."
Further research is necessary to explore the significance of the atelier - educated men's contribution to American archi- tecture. l 3 A key difference between the American atelier and its French model was that while the French atelier student was also enrolled at the Ecole, the American atelier student was generally not simultaneouslyenrolled in a school of architec-
ture and might, in fact, never obtain any formal education in
subjects outside of design. For some students, however, the
atelier experience was a prelude to university study. Success
in the B.A.I.D. program might lead to a scholarship enabling
an impecunious student to pay tuition to attend a university. Other atelier students were more privileged post - graduates who wished to continue their design educations after gradu - ation from a University, perhaps going on to win the Paris Prize. The atelier offered these students a gradual transition between school and practice. Otto Teegen, Director of the B.A.I.D. Department of Architecture, explained the con - stituency of the ateliers as follows in 1938: "...it (B.A.I.D.) was started to aid draughtsmen and designers at a time when architectural schools were few and training was acquired chiefly in offices or private ateliers...With easier availability of a university education in recent years the number of draughtsmen trained exclusively in offices and ateliers has appeared to decrease and so our work has been conducted mostly for the benefit of the schools... there still exist a great many young men who are unable to get a university educa - tion and a great many others who, having completed their schooling, are at a loss during their apprenticeship in an offke to continue their architectural design under proper direction." The results ofthe B.A.I.D. programs indicate a fairly fluid movement of students in between ateliers, offices, and universities. To some extent, ateliers filled in the geographi- cal gaps in the University system, with aspiring architects studying at ateliers in states without schools of architecture. Largely, however, ateliers seemed to have grown up near Universities, for while the first generation of atelierpatrons came from those educated at the ecole, future generations of patrons came increasingly from the ranks of those with formal educations from American schools of architect~re.'~ Although the circular of information stated that "Students of either sex desiring to follow the course should join one of the ateliers... " , I 6 women do not appear to have participated in the Beaux - Arts ateliers. " This statement is based upon a reading of the results of the B.A.I.D. programs from 1917 through 1954. The Bulletin of the B.A.I.D. seems to have followed the custom of spelling out women's given names and indicating the men's with initials only. The women students appear associated with schools, rather than ateliers. It seems likely that themen's club atmosphere and boyish fun of the ateliers did not encourage women's participation. A Women's Architectural Club existed in Chicago in the early 1930's. Although there does not seem to have been an atelier connected with the club, the members met once a month to work on competitions.lR
THE WORK
Programs written by atelier patrons, university professors, and other distinguished architects were sent out quarterly from the Society of Beaux- Arts Architects, later the B.A.I.D. Student projects were sent back to New York to be evaluated by jurors drawn from participating schools and ateliers. In The Study ofArchitecturaI Design, published first as a series
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of the intense nervous effort required, to say nothing of the loss of sleep and lack of regularity in eating..." The subjects of the programs changed over time. The authors of the programs appear to have attempted some degree of social relevance. It must have been difficult, in times of war and depression, for students to have focussed their attention on subjects drawn from extravagant historical fantasies.24For example, although there were still some lighter subjects dealt with in 1942 - 1943, the programs did include many such titles as "An Army Chapel," ANavy Mess Hall, ""Transient Workers Housing, ""An Induction Receiv- ing Center," and "An Evacuation Camp,"25programs which addressed current societal realities. The program authors also appear to have attempted to respond to the challenge of modernism by replacing histori- cist themes with more modem subjects. The failure of the Beaux- Arts architects to recognize the overwhelming influ - ence of the Bauhaus as a revolution in educational method, rather than just a stylistic change concerning theme and appearance, seems to have been an important factor in the demise of the Beaux - Arts system of education. The Beaux - Arts architects imagined a smooth passage between past, present and future. The history of architecture, however, has
been characterized by a series of shifting tides. The introduc- tion of Bauhaus theories into American architectural educa- tion and practice produced a rift with the past. The modernist orientation towards present and hture caused the Beaux - Arts past to slip rapidly from the profession's consciousness.
THE PLAY The French atelier balanced the stress and hard work of the charrette with plenty of fband games when deadlines were not pressing. This playful camaraderie was imported to America along with the educational program. The architecture clubs institutionalized the fim of the ateliers for the enjoyment of older members as well as the novitiates. The more successful of the clubs included dining facilities, smoking rooms, and card-playing rooms, fielded bowling and baseball teams, and held dinners, dances, and smokers. It is interesting to note that in the Boston Architec- tural Center, descended from the Boston Architectural Club, the Atelier survives as the student social organization. Architects appear to have had more fun in this earlier period. Nowadays, many architects' evenings are occupied by overtime work. The AIA has taken over some ofthe social function of the earlier architectural clubs. The boisterous fun, imported from Parisian atelier life, which gave archi- tects relief from the stresses of study and practice has been lost in these more serious times.
Fig. 3. Class C Problem 3 1947 - 48 " A Lookout Station" Jack Cavanaugh, T-Square Club Atelier
THE SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The American ateliers existed for a century, from the mid 1800's and to the mid 1900's. When Richard Morris Hunt returned from the Ecole des Beaux - Arts in 1855, he returned to a growing nation. The United States doubled its popula- tion between 1860 and 1890, going from a nation of 3 1. million to a nation of 63 million in a period of thirty years. The nation was in the process of fulfilling what was consid- ered its manifest destiny, to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific coask2* When the Society of Beaux - Arts architects was founded, its mission was to provide America with enough well - educated architects to design the buildings for this expanding nation. The early ateliers were providing urgently needed training for responsible professionals essen- tial to society. Setting standards for the education of architects was one aspect of a process which Magali Sarfatti Larson has termed the professional project.29 The mid nineteenth century was the time when the professions as we know them in America came into being. Professional societies were created, profes- sional schools founded, codes of ethics written, regulations for practice enacted. Some institutions, such as the A.I.A. and the university- based schools of architecture survived the test of time to define the profession as we know it today. Other institutions, such as the architectural clubs and ateliers were left behind by history. The few ateliers which have continued, transformed, revived, or come into being in recent years exist as alternate models outside the norm.
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Fig. 4. Sixteenth Annual "Riot" of Atelier Hirons-Morgan, New York 192727
These include the Boston Architectural Center, probably the only survivor from the Beaux- Arts system, the Talieson Fellowship, a long- standing atelier never affiliated with the B.A.I.D., and the studios of teacherlpractitioners such as Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, and Michael Rotondi which exist in a middle ground between education and practice. The current controversy over intern abuse reflects the profession's desire for clarification of the boundaries in a system where work and learning may be indistinguishable. Expansionism and the professional project fostered the
growth of the ateliers in the latter half of the 1800's and the
early 1900's. The two world wars and depression of the twentieth century dealt the ateliers blows from which they were ultimately never to recover. Far less institutionalized than the University, the atelier was more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of a nation facing war and depression. The atelier was, in essence, its students and when the students disappeared, so did the atelier. In the first and second world wars, the young men of the ateliers, students and patrons alike, left their jobs and studies for military service. During the depression, many young draftsmen whose daytime em - ployment afforded them the resources to pursue evening atelier study lost their jobs. The minutes of the T-Square Club noted in 1930 that "Many ofthe boys found themselves out of work before the end of the year".30The academic year of 1928 - 1929 appears to have been the peak year for atelier activity associated with the B.A.I.D., with students from
forty nine different ateliers mentioned in the Bulletin. The stock market crashed in 1929 and the number of ateliers declined steadily thereafter throughout the depression. There were only 18 ateliers active at the depth of the depression in 1933 and the number of ateliers continued to d e ~ l i n e. ~ ' When the United States entered World War 11, there were seven or eight ateliers. Only two ateliers were active during World War 11 and of these, one seems to have been associated with the war effort as it was located in a drafting department of the navy in San Diego. The year after the war's end, there were five active ateliers and numbers rose slightly to a postwar peak of nine ateliers in 1948 - 1950. The G.I. Bill, which made a university education affordable for the genera - tion of men who had gone to war, probably had something to do with the fact that the ateliers had no very significant resurgence after war's end. The B.A.I.D. continued its activities primarily for the benefit ofthe schools, scaling back its curriculum after 1954. The former National Institute for Architectural Education and the present Van Alen Institute, successor organizations to the B.A.I.D., have continued the Paris Prize competition.
THE RISE OF THE BAUHAUS, THE DECLINE OF
THE BEAUX - ARTS
It is clear that the rise and fall of the ateliers was linked to events in American history. The ateliers were also a h c t i o n
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of the problems faced by American women in obtaining archi - tectural education in this period. '' Pencil Points, 1932. l 9 John F. Harbeson, The Study of Architectural Design with Special Reference to the Program of the Beaux-Arts lnsitute of Design (New York: The Pencil Points Press, 1927). 20 Bulletin of the Beaux - Arts Institute of Design, 1928. 2' Bulletin of the Beaux - Arts Institute ofDesign, September 1934, p.2. Bulletin ofthe Beaux- Arts Institute of Design, 1925. 23 Harbeson, op. cit. p.253. 24 See " Engineer's Architecture: Truth and its Consequences" by Arthur Drexler in The Architecture of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, op. cit., for a discussion of the decline of opulence as an architectural virtue. 25 Bulletin of the Beaux - Arts Institute of Design, 1942 - 43. 26 Bulletin of the Beaux- Arts Institute of Design, 1947-48. '' Pencil Points, March 1927, p. 1 80. 2 X Multimedia Encyclopedia Version I (Grolier, 1992). 29 Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism: A Socio - logical Analysis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).
30 T - Square Club Minutes. 3 1 Statistics on numbers of ateliers and universities participating in the programs of the B.A.I.D. are derived from The Circular of Information and reports of judgements published in The American Architect and the Bulletin of the Beaux - Arts Institute of Design unless otherwise noted. 32 Bannister, op. cit. p.106. 33 Journal of the American Institute of Architects, 34 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, remarks at a Chicago dinner in honor of Gropius, quoted by Harold Bush - Brown, Beaux - Arts to Bauhaus and Beyond op. cit. p.39. 35 Whereas the ateliers in general did not appear to function in the development of modern architecture in America, the T- Square Club of Philadelphia did appear to have fostered the discourse of modernism. The T - Square Club was a - typical in that it was located in one of the most important American cities and included the majority of the influential architects of its city and hence developed an agenda of its own, rather than depending on the Society of Beaux - Arts Architects, later the B.A.I.D., for its sole direction. See Mitchell, op. cit., for a discussion of the T - Square Club and the development of modern architecture.
