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04 · Classical & Gothic Revivals

Beaux-Arts

c. 1880–1930

Gilded Age grandeur: paired giant columns, rough-cut stone bases, rooftop sculpture, and monumental stairs.

Look for

Classical column Rustication Carved stone relief
Palais Garnier, Paris, France: an example of Beaux-Arts architecture
Palais Garnier, Paris, France. Photo: Peter Rivera, CC BY 2.0
Grand Central Terminal, New York
Grand Central Terminal New York · Fcb981 ; Eric Baetscher (attribution required), CC BY-SA 3.0
New York Public Library, New York
New York Public Library New York · Hanzon, CC BY-SA 4.0
Petit Palais, Paris, France
Petit Palais Paris, France · Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0
Union Station, Washington, D.C.
Union Station Washington, D.C. · Pachiscool11, CC0

what it is

Beaux-Arts is the classical style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and used mostly for large public buildings between about 1880 and 1930. Buildings are symmetrical and faced in stone, with a rusticated ground floor (stone blocks cut with deep joints or rough faces), paired columns rising through the upper stories, and arched windows. Sculpture stands on the roofline and over the entrances. Plans are arranged along a main axis around a grand staircase, and many buildings have iron or steel frames behind the stone.

Charles Garnier's Palais Garnier opera house in Paris (1861-1875) is the best-known French example. In New York, Carrère and Hastings's New York Public Library (opened 1911) is faced in white Vermont marble, and Grand Central Terminal (1903-1913) was designed by Reed and Stem with Warren and Wetmore. Arthur Brown Jr.'s San Francisco City Hall (opened 1915) has a dome taller than that of the U.S. Capitol. Neoclassical buildings use plainer walls; Beaux-Arts buildings combine Roman, Renaissance and Baroque features with more sculpture.

how to spot one

Classical column A column based on Greek and Roman designs, with a base, shaft, and decorative capital. It is often used to frame windows or entrances. Rustication Wall surfaces cut with deep grooves so each block reads as heavy and distinct. It is commonly used on lower floors to suggest strength. Carved stone relief Figures or patterns carved into stone so they project from a flat background, called low relief when shallow and high relief when deep. It appears on ancient temples and Gothic churches.

Also look for

Round archBalustradeCorniceKeystoneDome

history

The École des Beaux-Arts in Paris taught this method of design, based on symmetrical plans and Renaissance and Baroque models, from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century, and its teaching continued without major change until 1968. Richard Morris Hunt, who attended from 1846, was the first American architect to study there; Henry Hobson Richardson followed in 1860, and many more Americans trained in Paris over the next decades. Garnier's opera house, commissioned by Napoleon III as part of Baron Haussmann's rebuilding of Paris, opened in 1875.

Beaux-Arts design shaped American architecture from 1880 to 1920. The white classical buildings of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, directed by Daniel Burnham, launched the City Beautiful movement, which planned civic centers, boulevards and parks, as in the 1902 McMillan Plan for Washington and Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. McKim, Mead and White built the Boston Public Library (1895) and New York's Pennsylvania Station (1910). Modernism replaced the style from the 1930s. The demolition of Pennsylvania Station in 1963-1966 led New York City to pass a landmarks law in 1965, which later protected Grand Central Terminal.

where to find it

The Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library in New York, and San Francisco City Hall.

architects

Charles Garnier

easy to confuse with

Panthéon, an example of Neoclassical Neoclassical Buildings modeled closely on Greek and Roman temples: grand columned porches, domes, and plain, symmetrical walls. Philadelphia City Hall, an example of Second Empire Second Empire Steep boxy mansard roofs with dormer windows, over heavily bracketed cornices and paired columns. St Peter's Basilica, an example of Baroque Baroque Theatrical classicism: curved facades, giant columns rising through several stories, and dramatic staged light.