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Alexander Jackson Davis (A.J. Davis) (New York City July 24, 1803 – January 14, 1892) was the most successful and influential American architect of his generation. J.Q.A. Wards statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall, on the site where Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. President Federal Hall, once located at 26 Wall Street in New York City, was the first capitol building of the United States. ...
Ithiel Town (1784 - June 12, 1844) was an architect and civil engineer. ...
City nickname: The Big Apple Location in the state of New York Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area - Land - Water 1,214. ...
July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 160 days remaining. ...
1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...
January 14 is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1892 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
He studied at the American Academy of Fine Arts, the New-York Drawing Association, and from the Antique casts of the National Academy of Design. Dropping out of school he became a respectable lithographer and from 1826 worked as a draftsman for Josiah R. Brady, a New York architect who was an early exponent of the Gothic revival: Brady's Gothic 1824 St Luke's Episcopal Church is the oldest surviving structure in Rochester, New York [1] (http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/rochimag/architecture/SpecificBuildings/StLukes/StLukes.htm). Davis made a first independent career as an architectural illustrator in the 1820s, but his friends, especially painter John Trumbull, convinced him to turn his hand to designing buildings. Picturesque siting, massing and contrasts remained essential to his work, even when he was building in a Classical style. In 1826, Davis went to work in the office of Ithiel Town and Martin E. Thompson, the most prestigious architectural firm of the Greek Revival; in the office Davis had access to the best architectural library in the country, in a congenial atmosphere where he gained a thorough grounding. From 1829, in partnership with Town, Davis formed the first recognizably modern architectural office and designed many late classicial buildings, including some of public prominence: in Washington, Davis designed the Executive Department offices and the first Patent Office building (1834), and a series of state capitols, none built entirely as planned: the Indiana State Capitol, Indianapolis (1831 – 35) and the Custom House of New York City (1833 – 42, illustration, right). His designs were called for in building other state capitols in the 1830s: North Carolina's (1833 &ndash 40, with local architect David Paton), Illinois and the Ohio Statehouse of 1839, a stark Greek Doric colonnade across a recessed entrance, flanked by recessed window bays that continue the rhythm of the central portico, all under a unique drum capped by a low saucer dome. [2] (http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/ohio/columbus/statehouse/davis.html). With Town's partner James Dakin he designed the noble colossal Corinthian order of "Colonnade Row" on New York's Lafayette Street, the very first apartments designed for the prosperous American middle class (1833, half still standing). He continued in partnership with Town until shortly before Town's death in 1844. Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface, as well as a method of manufacturing semiconductor and MEMS devices. ...
Victoria Tower at the Palace of Westminster, London: Gothic details provided by A.W.N. Pugin The Gothic revival was a European architectural movement with origins in mid-18th century England. ...
John Trumbull, 1756–1843 John Trumbull (June 6, 1756 – November 10, 1843), was a famous American artist from the time of the American Revolutionary War. ...
Ithiel Town (1784 - June 12, 1844) was an architect and civil engineer. ...
Personal residence of Catherine the Great Greek Revival was a style of classical architecture which became fashionable in Europe in the 18th century, and in the United Kingdom and United States in the early 19th century. ...
J.Q.A. Wards statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall, on the site where Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. President Federal Hall, once located at 26 Wall Street in New York City, was the first capitol building of the United States. ...
This article needs to be wikified. ...
The Corinthian order as used for the portico of the Pantheon, Rome provided a prominent model for Renaissance and later architects, through the medium of engravings. ...
In 1831 he was elected an associate member of the National Academy. Davis was one of three architects who established the American Institute of Architects in May, 1837; in his retirement years he resigned, because he believed the A.I.A. had strayed from its original purpose. The American Institute of Architects is the professional organization for architects in the United States. ...
From 1835, Davis began work on his own on Rural Residences, his only publication, the first pattern book for picturesque residences in a domesticated Gothic Revival taste, which could be executed in carpentry, and also containing the first of the "Tuscan" villas, flat-roofed with wide overhanging eaves and picturesque corner towers. Unfortunately the Panic of 1837 cut short his plans for a series of like volumes, but Davis soon formed a partnership with A.J. Downing, illustrating his widely-read books. Victoria Tower at the Palace of Westminster, London: Gothic details provided by A.W.N. Pugin The Gothic revival was a European architectural movement with origins in mid-18th century England. ...
The Panic of 1837 was an economic depression, one of the sharpest financial crises in the history of the United States. ...
The 1840s and 1850s were Davis' two most fruitful decades as a designer of country houses. His villa "Lyndhurst" at Tarrytown, New York, though it has been altered, is his single most famous house. Many of his villas were built in the scenic Hudson River Valley— where his style informed the vernacular Hudson River Bracketed that gave Edith Wharton a title for a novel [3] (http://www.ulsterpublishing.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=322806)— but Davis sent plans and specifications to clients as far afield as Indiana, with the understanding that construction would be undertaken by local builders. This practice put Davis's personal stamp on the practical builders' vernacular throughout the Eastern United States. In interiors, his designs for mantels and sideboards were also widely imitated in the trade. The Virginia Military Institute (VMI), located in Lexington, Virginia, was the first state-supported military college and is the only all military college in the nation. ...
Tarrytown is a village located in Westchester County, New York. ...
Image of the Hudson River taken by NASA. View of the Hudson River in 1880s showing Jersey City View of the Hudson River from Battery Park, New York The Goldman Sachs Tower looms above the skyline of downtown Jersey City, New Jersey, overlooking the Hudson River. ...
Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist and short story writer. ...
In the late 1850s, Davis worked with the entrepreneur Llewellyn S. Haskell to create Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey, a garden suburb that was one of the first planned residential communities in the United States. West Orange is a township located in Essex County, New Jersey. ...
Davis designed buildings for the University of Michigan in 1838, and in the 1840s he designed buildings for the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public coeducational university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ...
The University of North Carolina, often called the University of North Carolina System to avoid confusion, is a federation of all sixteen public universities in North Carolina. ...
At Virginia Military Institute, Jackson's designs from 1848 through the 1850s created the first entirely Gothic revival college campus, built in brick and stuccoed to imitate stone [4] (http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/virginia/lexington/vmi.html). Davis's plan for the Barracks quadrangle was interrupted by the Civil War; it was sympathetically completed to designs of Bertram Goodhue in the early 20th century [5] (http://www.vmi.edu/archives/Manuscripts/ms276.html). The Virginia Military Institute (VMI), located in Lexington, Virginia, was the first state-supported military college and is the only all military college in the nation. ...
The Virginia Military Institute (VMI), located in Lexington, Virginia, was the first state-supported military college and is the only all military college in the nation. ...
Victoria Tower at the Palace of Westminster, London: Gothic details provided by A.W.N. Pugin The Gothic revival was a European architectural movement with origins in mid-18th century England. ...
The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the United States – forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union – and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ...
Goodhue by Lee Lawrie, holding the Rockefeller Chapel, Chicago, Illinois Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (April 28, 1869 _ April 23, 1924) was a renowned American architect celebrated for his work in neo-gothic design. ...
With the onset of Civil War in 1861, patronage in house building dried up, and after the war, new styles unsympathetic to Davis's nature, were in vogue. He built little in the last thirty years of his life, but spent his easy retirement in West Orange drawing plans for grandiose schemes that he never expected to build, and selecting and ordering his designs and papers, by which he determined to be remembered. They are shared by four New York institutions: the Avery Library at Columbia University, the New York Public Library, the New-York Historical Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A further collection of Davis material has been assembled at the Henry Francis DuPont Winterthur Museum library [6] (http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0114.htm). The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the United States – forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union – and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ...
Columbia University is a private university in New York City. ...
New York Public Library, central block, built 1897–1911, Carrère and Hastings, architects (June, 2003) The New York Public Library (NYPL), one of three public library systems serving New York City, is one of the leading libraries in the United States. ...
The New-York Historical Society is an American organization located in New York City and dedicated to the preservation of the citys history. ...
There is also the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), located in Manhattan. ...
Winterthur, an American country estate, is the former home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969), an avid antiques collector and horticulturist. ...
Contemporary interest in Davis was spurred by a retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in 1992.
External links
Further reading - Peck, Amelia, 1992. Alexander Jackson Davis, American Architect 1803-1892 (Rizzoli)*Placek, Adolf K., editor, 1982. Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects. ISBN 0-02-925000-5
- Aspirations for Excellence : Alexander Jackson Davis and the First Campus Plan for the University of Michigan, 1838
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