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53-556: The Ames Gate Lodge is a celebrated work by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson . It is privately owned on an estate landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted , but its north facade can be seen from the road at 135 Elm Street, North Easton, Massachusetts . In 2013, the Ames Gate Lodge was protected by a preservation easement held by Historic New England. The lodge was designed and constructed in 1880-1881 for Frederick Lothrop Ames , son of railway magnate Oliver Ames Jr. , as

106-503: A Harvard zoologist who began traveling to Japan in 1877, originally for biological specimens. Falling in love with Japan, upon his return that same year Morse began giving illustrated " magic lantern " public lectures on Japanese ceramics, temples, vernacular architecture, and culture. Richardson incorporated Japanese concepts "in both sihouette and spatial concept", including the karahafu ("excellent gable", but generally poorly translated as "Chinese gable" despite its Japanese origin),

159-414: A cathedral to a chicken coop." "The things I want most to design are a grain elevator and the interior of a great river-steamboat." However, architectural historian James F. O'Gorman sees Richardson's achievement particularly in four building types: public libraries, commuter train station buildings, commercial buildings, and single-family houses. A series of small public libraries donated by patrons for

212-454: A church or a chapel) shall not be erected of, or be subsequently increased to, a greater height than 80 ft., exclusive of two stories in the roof, and of ornamental towers". This was to stop buildings blocking the light, and effectively mandated mansard roofs for tall buildings. The style was popularised in France by architect François Mansart (1598–1666). Although he was not the inventor of

265-605: A popular element incorporated into many designs, such as Main Building (Vassar College) , Poughkeepsie, New York, which shows a large mansard-roofed structure with two towers. The 1916 Zoning Resolution adopted by New York City promoted the use of mansard roofs; rules requiring the use of setbacks on tall buildings were conducive to the mansard design. In the 1960s and 1970s, a modernised form of mansard roof, sometimes with deep, narrow windows, became popular for both residential and commercial architecture in many areas of

318-672: A railroad station in Orchard Park, New York (near Buffalo) was built in 1911 as a replica of Richardson's Auburndale station in Auburndale, Massachusetts. The original Auburndale station was torn down in the 1960s during construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike. The original Richardson stations on the Boston and Albany Highland branch have either been demolished or converted to new uses (such as restaurants). Two of

371-424: A rectangular shaped crease, outlined by the curb beams, with a low-pitched roof inside this rectangle. French roof is often used as a synonym for a mansard but is also defined as an American variation of a mansard with the lower pitches nearly vertical and larger in proportion to the upper pitches. In France and Germany, no distinction is made between gambrels and mansards – they are both called "mansards". In

424-477: A single Richardson structure. This is a partial list of works by Richardson: Mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof ) is a multi-sided gambrel -style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer windows . The steep roofline and windows allow for additional floors of habitable space (a garret ), and reduce

477-589: A state appropriation. Today, the Richardson Olmsted Campus is being transformed into a cultural amenity for the city. Arriving in 2018, the Richardson Olmsted Campus will also have the Lipsey Architecture Center of Buffalo. The remaining buildings have been stabilized pending future opportunities. Richardson pointedly claimed ability to create any type of structure a client wanted, insisting he could design anything "from

530-505: A studio attached. Richardson died in 1886 at age 47 of Bright's disease . On his last day, he signed an informal will directing the three assistants still remaining to carry on the business, which was soon formalized as Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge . One example includes Richardson's design for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Building. Richardson had won the selection process in 1885 and nearly finalized

583-438: Is a curb hip roof , with slopes on all sides of the building, and the gambrel is a curb gable roof, with slopes on only two sides. (The curb is a horizontal, heavy timber directly under the intersection of the two roof surfaces.) A significant difference between the two, for snow loading and water drainage, is that, when seen from above, gambrel roofs culminate in a long crease at the main ridge beam, whereas mansard roofs form

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636-716: Is his best and most influential urban house. The Mary Fisk Stoughton House (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1882–1883), the Henry Potter House (St. Louis, 1886–1887, demolished 1958), and the Robert Treat Paine Estate (aka Stonehurst) (Waltham, Massachusetts, 1886) play that role for suburban and country settings. The Glessner House in particular influenced Frank Lloyd Wright as he began developing what would become his Prairie School houses. With his house for Reverend Percy Browne (Marion, Massachusetts, 1881–82) Richardson revived "the old colonial form (of

689-452: Is improbable in many respects: Mansart was a profligate spender of his clients' money, and while a French window tax did exist, it was enacted in 1798, 132 years after Mansart's death, and did not exempt mansard windows. Later examples suggest that either French or American buildings were taxed by their height (or number of storeys) to the base of the roof, or that mansards were used to bypass zoning restrictions. This last explanation

742-469: Is in the style of the Second Empire with a Mansard roof . This important commission led to many other commissions. The style that Richardson developed over time, however, was not the more classical style of the École, but a more medieval-inspired style, influenced by William Morris , John Ruskin and Viollet le Duc . Richardson developed a unique and highly personal idiom, adapting in particular

795-590: Is one of few architects to be immortalized by having a style named after him. "Richardsonian Romanesque", unlike Victorian revival styles like Neo-Gothic , was a highly personal synthesis of the Beaux-Arts predilection for clear and legible plans, with the heavy massing that was favored by the pro-medievalists. It featured picturesque roofline profiles, rustication and polychromy, semi-circular arches supported on clusters of squat columns, and round arches over clusters of windows on massive walls. Following his death,

848-639: Is the lodge's prominent, hipped, reddish-tiled roof with its eyelid dormers. As Frank Lloyd Wright once wrote, "The presence of a building is in its roof, and what a roof the Ames Gate Lodge has!" The nearby F. L. Ames Gardener's Cottage (1884–85) was also designed by Richardson, and built some 400 feet (120 m) east of the Gate Lodge when the gardener's family outgrew the lodge. It was later enlarged by Richardson's successors, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge , and has subsequently been shingled and otherwise modified. Henry Hobson Richardson Richardson

901-437: Is the nearest to the truth: a Parisian law had been in place since 1783, restricting the heights of buildings to 20 metres (65 feet). The height was only measured up to the cornice line, making any living space contained in a mansard roof exempt. A 1902 revision of the law permitted building three or even four storeys within such a roof. In London in the 1930s, building regulations decreed that "a building (not being

954-729: The Ames Free Library established in 1883 by a bequeath in Ames's will. He was well-recognized by his peers; of ten buildings named by American architects as the best in 1885, fully half were his: besides Trinity Church, there were Albany City Hall , Sever Hall at Harvard University, the New York State Capitol in Albany (as a collaboration), and Oakes Ames Memorial Hall in North Easton, Massachusetts. Despite

1007-470: The Ames Monument , which was constructed from 1880 to 1882, and is located at the highest point of the original Transcontinental Railway (the financing of which was spearheaded by Oliver Ames Jr. and his brother Oakes Ames ), east of Laramie , Wyoming . The Ames brothers and family provided generous patronage for Richardson's works, and after Oliver's death, Richardson was commissioned to design

1060-602: The Central Park bridges designed by Calvert Vaux . It forms a long, low mass lying directly athwart the estate's entry road, which runs southward within its dominating, semicircular arch. The massive walls appear to be crude heaps of rounded boulders from the estate soil -- "cyclopean rubble" in Vincent Scully 's memorable phrase—trimmed in Longmeadow brownstone. The blocky, two-story lodge proper stands west of

1113-714: The Romanesque of southern France. His early works, however, were not very remarkable. "There are few hints in the mediocre work of Richardson's early years of what was to come in his maturity, when, beginning with his competition-winning design ... for the Brattle Square Church in Boston, he adopted the Romanesque." In 1869, he designed the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane (now known as

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1166-696: The U.S. Civil War . Richardson returned to the U.S. in 1865, settling in New York that October. He found work with a builder, Charles, whom he had met in Paris. The two worked well together but Richardson was not being challenged. He had little to do and yearned for more. With no work Richardson fell into a state of poverty looking for more work. One of his first commissions was the William Dorsheimer House on Delaware Ave in Buffalo, NY, which

1219-418: The gambrel roof) to shape the facade of an artistically ambitious house. Perhaps he used the gambrel to signify the humility appropriate to the profession of his client, but in doing so he sanctioned its use for wealthier patrons and by other architects. Within three years the crumpled gambrel profile was showing up everywhere" and became one of the notable features of Shingle Style architecture . Richardson

1272-498: The "Richardsonian Romanesque" movement. The Thomas Crane Public Library is regarded as the best of Richardson's libraries. In his earlier libraries, Richardson's approach was to conceive the parts and then assemble them, while in the later ones such as Crane he thought in terms of the whole. Richardson also engaged in a process of simplification and elimination with each successive library, until in Crane "Richardson's concentration on

1325-635: The 1850s, in an architectural movement known as Second Empire style . Second Empire influence spread throughout the world, frequently adopted for large civic structures such as government administration buildings and city halls , as well as hotels and railway stations . In the United States and Canada, and especially in New England , the Second Empire influence spread to family residences and mansions, often incorporated with Italianate and Gothic Revival elements. A mansard-topped tower became

1378-632: The French Baroque period. It became especially fashionable during the Second French Empire (1852–1870) of Napoléon III . Mansard in Europe (France, Germany and elsewhere) also means the attic or garret space itself, not just the roof shape and is often used in Europe to mean a gambrel roof. Two distinct traits of the mansard roof – steep sides and a double pitch – sometimes lead to it being confused with other roof types. Since

1431-461: The French language, mansarde can be a term for the style of roof, or for the garret living space, or attic , directly within it. The mansard style makes maximum use of the interior space of the attic and offers a simple way to add one or more storeys to an existing (or new) building without necessarily requiring any masonry . Often the decorative potential of the mansard is exploited through

1484-806: The Marshall Field Wholesale Store "is probably the most famous of Richardson's buildings, one that Richardson himself saw as among his most significant." Architectural critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock states that in the Field Store, Richardson "was, perhaps, never more creative architecturally." Drawing from his own earlier work and both Romanesque and Renaissance precedents, Richardson designed this "massive but integrated" seven-story stone warehouse. Minimizing ornamentation in an era that employed much of it, he stressed what he termed "the beauty of material and symmetry rather than mere superficial ornamentation" with "the effects depending on

1537-481: The Richardson Olmsted Complex) in Buffalo, the largest commission of his career and the first appearance of Richardsonian Romanesque style. A massive Medina sandstone complex, it is a National Historic Landmark and, as of 2009, was being restored. Trinity Church in Boston, designed by Richardson and built 1872–1877, solidified his national reputation and led to major commissions for

1590-497: The Richardsonian style was perpetuated by a variety of proteges and other architects, many for civic buildings like city halls, county buildings, court houses, train stations and libraries, as well as churches and residences. These include: Although many structures exist in the Romanesque style and some borrow so heavily that they are often mistaken for Richardson designs, several buildings have been built specifically to mimic

1643-589: The United States. In many cases, these are not true mansard roofs but flat on top, the sloped façade providing a way to conceal heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment from view. The style grew out of interest in postmodern stylistic elements and the "French eclectic" house style popular in the 1930s and 1940s, and in housing also offered a way to provide an upper storey despite height restrictions. Houses with mansard roofs were sometimes described as French Provincial; architect John Elgin Woolf popularised it in

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1696-436: The arch, and originally housed the estate gardener on the lower floor with rooms for bachelor guests above. Across the arch is a long, low wing ending in a circular bay, once used for storing plants through the winter. The lodge's public (northern) facade is relatively flat and austere; its southern facade, by contrast, is highly shaped with protrusions and a large porch featuring carvings by Augustus Saint-Gaudens . Capping all

1749-511: The campus of the University of Vermont . These buildings seem resolutely anti-modern, with the atmosphere of an Episcopalian vicarage, dimly lit for solemnity rather than reading on site. They are preserves of culture that did not especially embrace the contemporary flood of newcomers to New England. Yet they offer clearly defined spaces, easy and natural circulation, and they are visually memorable. Richardson's libraries found many imitators in

1802-493: The church is one of the leading examples of the arts and crafts aesthetic in the United States. It was at Trinity that Richardson first worked with Augustus Saint Gaudens , with whom he would work many times in the ensuing years. Across the square is the Boston Public Library , built later (1895) by Richardson's former draftsman, Charles Follen McKim . Together these and the surrounding buildings comprise one of

1855-584: The eyelid dormer, and the wide hip roof with extended eaves, all shown by Morse. Among the few stations still extant, these influences are perhaps best illustrated in his Old Colony station (Easton, Massachusetts, 1881–1884). Here he uses the Syrian arch that became a hallmark of Richardson designs for both the porte-cochère and the windows of the main structure. Reminiscent of a courtyard and temple that Morse illustrated from Nikkō in Tochigi prefecture , Japan,

1908-669: The hip roof on wide, bracketed eaves nearly hides the rough stonework below in shadow. Richardson even included a carved dragon at each end of the beam spanning the arches of windows. The walls "become horizontal planes hovering above one another with bands of windows in between." Richardson was an early although not the first U.S. architect to look to Japan, but his train stations "form the earliest sustained application of Japanese inspiration in American architecture, an undeniable precursor to Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie house designs". As with his libraries, Richardson evolved and simplified as

1961-695: The improvement of New England towns makes a small coherent corpus that defines Richardson's style: Winn Memorial Library ( Woburn ), Ames Free Library ( Easton ), the Converse Memorial Library ( Malden ), and the Thomas Crane Public Library ( Quincy ), (1880–1882) "generally regarded by architectural historians as the masterpiece of Richardson's libraries", the Hubbard Memorial Library ( Ludlow , Massachusetts), and Billings Memorial Library on

2014-539: The late 1800s, incorporating a system of enlightened treatment for people with mental illness developed by Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride. Over the years, as mental health treatment changed and resources were diverted, the buildings and grounds began a slow deterioration. In 2006, the Richardson Center Corporation was formed with a mandate to save the buildings and bring the Campus back to life through

2067-451: The northern entrance to his Langwater estate. Although Langwater dated from 1859 with 1876 additions, its northern regions had until then remained unfinished. Ames thus engaged Richardson and Olmsted in collaboration on its creation. Olmsted's landscape designs were implemented in 1886–1887. The Gate Lodge is a remarkable synthesis of oversize stone wall, arched gate, and gatehouse building, perhaps based in part on Richardson's appreciation of

2120-512: The outstanding American urban complexes, built as the centerpiece of the newly developed Back Bay . The largest building complex of HH Richardson's career, Richardson Olmsted Complex in Buffalo, New York , United States was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The first building to display his characteristic style the complex of buildings was designed in concert with the famed landscape team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in

2173-484: The overall height of the roof for a given number of habitable storeys. The upper slope of the roof may not be visible from street level when viewed from close proximity to the building. The earliest known example of a mansard roof is credited to Pierre Lescot on part of the Louvre built around 1550. This roof design was popularised in the early 17th century by François Mansart (1598–1666), an accomplished architect of

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2226-671: The relation of solid to void, of wall to window, becomes the basis for a harmonious abstraction with scarcely a reference to any past style." Richardson also designed nine railroad station buildings for the Boston & Albany Railroad as well as three stations for other lines. More subtle than his churches, municipal buildings and libraries, they were an original response to this relatively new building type. Beginning with his first at Auburndale (1881, demolished 1960s), Richardson drew inspiration for these station buildings from Japanese architecture that he learned about from Edward S. Morse ,

2279-499: The relations of 'voids and solids'... on the proportion of the parts." Not requiring the new steel frame technology because of its comparatively low height, Richardson used multi-storied windows topped by arches to tie the stories together, and the regular patterns of the windows to tie the entire building into "a simple and unified solid occupying an entire block." Richardson designed many important single-family residences, but his famous John J. Glessner House (Chicago, 1885–87)

2332-468: The rest of his life. Although incorporating historical elements from a variety of sources, including early Syrian Christian, Byzantine , and both French and Spanish Romanesque , it was more "Richardsonian" than Romanesque. Trinity was also a collaboration with the construction and engineering firm of the Norcross Brothers , with whom the architect would work on some 30 projects. He designed

2385-566: The series continued, and his famous Chestnut Hill station (Newton, Massachusetts, 1883–1884, demolished circa 1960) featured clean lines with less Japanese influence. After his death, more than 20 other stations were designed in Richardson's style for the Boston and Albany line by the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, all draftsmen of Richardson at the time of his death. Many Boston and Albany stations were landscaped by Richardson's frequent collaborator, Frederick Law Olmsted . Additionally,

2438-642: The stations designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge (both in Newton, Massachusetts) are still used by Boston's MBTA (green line) public transit service: and Newton Highlands station and Newton Centre station . The noted Marshall Field Wholesale Store (Chicago, 1885–1887, demolished 1930) is Richardson's "culminating statement of urban commercial form", and its remarkable design influenced Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many other architects. According to Jeffrey Karl Ochsner , who has compiled all of Richardson's architectural works, despite its demolition in 1930,

2491-502: The style, his extensive and prominent use of it in his designs gave rise to the term "mansard roof", an adulteration of his name. The design tradition was continued by numerous architects, including Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646–1708), his great-nephew, who is responsible for Château de Dampierre in Dampierre-en-Yvelines . The mansard roof became popular once again during Haussmann's renovation of Paris beginning in

2544-756: The success of Trinity, Richardson built only two more churches, focusing instead on the monumental buildings he preferred, plus libraries, railroad stations, commercial buildings, and houses. Of his buildings, the two he liked best, the Allegheny County Courthouse (Pittsburgh, 1884–1888) and the Marshall Field Wholesale Store (Chicago, 1885–1887, demolished 1930), were completed posthumously by his assistants. Richardson spent much of his later years in his house at 25 Cottage St. in Brookline, Massachusetts , which had

2597-504: The upper slope of a mansard roof is rarely visible from the ground, a conventional single-plane roof with steep sides may be misidentified as a mansard roof. The gambrel roof style, commonly seen in barns in North America , is a close cousin of the mansard. Both mansard and gambrel roofs fall under the general classification of "curb roofs" (a pitched roof that slopes away from the ridge in two successive planes). The mansard

2650-439: The use of convex or concave curvature and with elaborate dormer window surrounds. One frequently seen explanation for the popularity of the mansard style is that it served as a method of tax avoidance . One such example of this claim, from the 1914 book How to Make a Country Place , reads, "Monsieur Mansard is said to have circumvented that senseless window tax of France by adapting the windowed roof that bears his name." This

2703-472: The work, but after his death his successors completed the project. He was buried in Walnut Hills Cemetery , Brookline, Massachusetts . Despite an enormous income for an architect of his day, his "reckless disregard for financial order" meant that he died deeply in debt, leaving little to his widow and six children. Richardson's most acclaimed early work is Trinity Church. The interior of

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2756-626: Was born at the Priestley Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana , and spent part of his childhood in New Orleans, where his family lived on Julia Row in a red brick house designed by the architect Alexander T. Wood . He was the great-grandson of inventor and philosopher Joseph Priestley , who is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen . Richardson went on to study at Harvard College and Tulane University . Initially, he

2809-480: Was interested in civil engineering, but shifted to architecture, which led him to go to Paris in 1860 to attend the famed École des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules André . He was only the second U.S. citizen to attend the École's architectural division— Richard Morris Hunt was the first —and the school was to play an increasingly important role in training Americans in the following decades. He did not finish his training there, as family backing failed due to

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