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06 · Arts & Crafts to Art Deco

Stripped Classicism

c. 1925–1950

Symmetrical stone buildings with flat pilasters or piers without capitals, tall windows in a regular grid, and low-relief sculpture.

Look for

Symmetrical facade Pilaster Vertical pier Carved stone relief
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., United States: an example of Stripped Classicism architecture
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., United States. Photo: AgnosticPreachersKid, CC BY-SA 3.0
Palace of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
Palace of Nations Geneva, Switzerland · Cancillería Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0
Oregon State Capitol, Salem, Oregon
Oregon State Capitol Salem, Oregon · M.O. Stevens, Public domain
Houston City Hall, Houston, Texas
Houston City Hall Houston, Texas · Owen Johnson, photographer. Historic American Buildings Survey, Heritage Documentation Programs, a division of the U.S. National Park Service, Public domain
Old Parliament House, Canberra, Canberra, Australia
Old Parliament House, Canberra Canberra, Australia · Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0

what it is

Stripped Classicism keeps the symmetry, proportion and massing of classical buildings and removes most of the ornament. Facades are symmetrical blocks of smooth stone. Flat pilasters (columns attached to the wall) or square piers replace round columns and have no capitals (decorated tops). Tall windows sit in a regular grid, and sculpture is limited to low relief, carved shallowly from a flat background. In the United States, government buildings of this kind funded by the Public Works Administration are sometimes called PWA Moderne.

Paul Philippe Cret's Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. (opened 1932) has white marble walls and nine relief panels of Shakespeare scenes. The Oregon State Capitol in Salem (1936-1938) is faced in Vermont marble, and Houston City Hall (1938-1939) in Texas limestone. Art Deco buildings of the same years use zigzag, chevron and sunburst ornament and towers that step back as they rise. Stripped Classicism uses none of these motifs and keeps the symmetrical block form of a classical building.

how to spot one

Symmetrical facade A facade, or main front, whose left and right halves mirror each other, usually with the main door at the center. It is standard on Georgian, Federal, Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts buildings. Pilaster A flat column projecting slightly from a wall, with the same base, shaft and capital (decorated top) as a freestanding column. It is usually decorative and is common on Renaissance, Georgian and Neoclassical buildings. Vertical pier Narrow vertical bands of stone or brick, called piers, running the full height of a facade between recessed columns of windows. They are common on early skyscrapers and Art Deco towers. 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

ColonnadeMonumental stairwayParapetModular repetition

history

The style's roots lie in the late 18th-century Neoclassical designs of Etienne-Louis Boullee and Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The German Embassy in Saint Petersburg (1913), by Peter Behrens, is considered the key template for the style, and Adolf Loos's essay "Ornament and Crime" also influenced it. Between the world wars, dictatorships (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union) and democracies (the United States, Britain, France) used it for government buildings, as in Albert Speer's Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg (1934).

In the United States the Public Works Administration was created in June 1933 and funded about 34,000 projects. The Oregon State Capitol in Salem (1936-1938) was 45% federally funded through it, and Cret's Eccles Federal Reserve Building in Washington dates from 1935-1937. Australia's Old Parliament House in Canberra (1923-1927) is an earlier example. After the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 the style fell from favor because of its association with fascism. A modest revival followed in the 1960s, including the National Library of Australia in Canberra (1968).

where to find it

Washington, D.C. (the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Eccles Federal Reserve Building), state and city government buildings across the United States such as the Oregon State Capitol in Salem and Houston City Hall, and the Palace of Nations in Geneva.

easy to confuse with

Chrysler Building, an example of Art Deco Art Deco Jazz-age glamour: towers stepping back as they rise, strong vertical lines, and zigzag or sunburst ornament. Panthéon, an example of Neoclassical Neoclassical Buildings modeled closely on Greek and Roman temples: grand columned porches, domes, and plain, symmetrical walls. Moscow State University main building, an example of Stalinist Classicism Stalinist Classicism Soviet power in wedding-cake tiers: colossal colonnades, sculpted workers, and spired towers stepping into the sky. Casa del Fascio (Como), an example of Italian Rationalism Italian Rationalism White or stone-clad geometric blocks with regular grids of square windows, sometimes with plain repeated arches.