Accents as Well as Broad Effects: Writings on Architecture, Landscape, and the Environment, 1876-1925Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer (1851-1934) is highly regarded among architectural historians for her 1888 biography of the nineteenth-century architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Less well known are her writings on architecture, decorative art, gardening, and landscape design, works that provide a rare view of cities and rural environments in turn-of-the-century America. Now David Gebhard brings Van Rensselaer's significant writings together in one volume, including a chapter from the 1925 edition of Art Out-of-Doors: Hints on Good Taste in Gardening. An established critic in environmental and literary circles, Van Rensselaer wrote for the general public in such journals as the Century Magazine and for a specialized audience of landscape architects in Garden and Forest. She was a long-time contributor to The American Architect and Building News, the first architectural journal in the United States. She is an engaging and accessible writer, and her articles on Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Public Library won great praise. Although the only woman in a field that was male-dominated at the time, Van Rensselaer was, curiously enough, opposed to women's suffrage. David Gebhard provides an excellent introduction to this unusual woman and to her place in American architectural criticism. Van Rensselaer's writings are still of interest today, not only for her broad environmental approach, but also for her ability to relate abstract concepts to examples of harmonious design. Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer (1851-1934) is highly regarded among architectural historians for her 1888 biography of the nineteenth-century architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Less well known are her writings on architecture, decorative art, gardening, and landscape design, works that provide a rare view of cities and rural environments in turn-of-the-century America. Now David Gebhard brings Van Rensselaer's significant writings together in one volume, including a chapter from the 1925 edition of Art Out-of-Doors: Hints on Good Taste in Gardening. An established critic in environmental and literary circles, Van Rensselaer wrote for the general public in such journals as the Century Magazine and for a specialized audience of landscape architects in Garden and Forest. She was a long-time contributor to The American Architect and Building News, the first architectural journal in the United States. She is an engaging and accessible writer, and her articles on Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Public Library won great praise. Although the only woman in a field that was male-dominated at the time, Van Rensselaer was, curiously enough, opposed to women's suffrage. David Gebhard provides an excellent introduction to this unusual woman and to her place in American architectural criticism. Van Rensselaer's writings are still of interest today, not only for her broad environmental approach, but also for her ability to relate abstract concepts to examples of harmonious design. |
Contents
ARCHITECTURE AND | 26 |
Client and Architect 1890 | 40 |
Architectural Fitness 1891 | 49 |
Color in Rural Buildings 1892 | 59 |
The Artistic Triumph of the FairBuilders 1892 | 68 |
The Madison Square Garden 1894 | 82 |
RECENT ARCHITECTURE IN AMERICA 188486 | 86 |
Eleventh Annual Exhibition of the Architectural | 105 |
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT | 279 |
A Definition 1888 | 281 |
Frederick Law Olmsted 1893 | 284 |
Proposed Plan for Madison Square New York City 1896 | 300 |
Japanese Gardening 1889 | 304 |
The Protection of RoadSides 1893 | 310 |
Changes 1925 | 313 |
Early Autumn near Cape Cod 1892 | 330 |
Public Buildings 1 | 125 |
Public Buildings 2 | 149 |
Commercial Buildings | 164 |
Churches | 179 |
City Dwellings 1 | 200 |
City Dwellings 2 | 213 |
American Country Dwellings 1 | 223 |
American Country Dwellings 2 | 243 |
American Country Dwellings 3 | 260 |
Wood Roads on Cape Cod 1892 | 335 |
The Good Work of an Improvement Association at Narragansett Pier 1895 | 338 |
A Glimpse of Nantucket 1888 | 341 |
Newport 1 1888 | 346 |
Newport 2 1888 | 351 |
355 | |
363 | |
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Common terms and phrases
admirable appropriate archi architect Art of Gardening Art Out-of-Doors artistic beauty better Boston brick builders building built cathedral Century Magazine character charm church client color conspicuous course decoration delight dignity effect example excellence expression expressional exterior façade fact Fair fashion feel Fifth Avenue Frederick Law Olmsted Garden and Forest Goslar Gothic Griswold Van Rensselaer H. H. Richardson hall hand harmony Henry Hobson Richardson idea interesting interior landscape architecture less look Madison Square Garden Mariana Griswold masses material McKim Mead & White Mead and White means merely Messrs modern natural Newport Olmsted Olmsted's ornament painted Park perhaps picturesque possible practical Renaissance result Richardson Romanesque roof Rotch & Tilden scheme seems simplicity sort staircase stone street structure style successful summer taste things tion to-day tower trees true tural walls whole York