Wikipedia

Charles A. Platt

For other people named Charles Platt, seeCharles Platt (disambiguation).

Charles Adams Platt(October 16, 1861 – September 12, 1933) was an Americanarchitect,garden designer,andartistof the "American Renaissance"movement. His garden designs complemented his domestic architecture.

Charles A. Platt
Charles A. Platt in 1923
Born(1861-10-16)October 16, 1861
New York, New York,U.S.
DiedSeptember 12, 1933(1933-09-12)(aged 71)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materAcadémie Julian
OccupationArchitect
Buildings

Early career

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Painting and etching

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A marine etching from Platt's early period after he studied under Stephen Parrish

Platt was born inNew York City,the son of Mary Elizabeth (Cheney) and John Henry Platt.[1]Platt trained as a landscape painter, and as anetcherwithStephen ParrishinGloucester, Massachusetts,in 1880. He attended theNational Academy of Designand theArt Students League[2]in New York, and later, theAcadémie JulianinParis,withGustave BoulangerandJules Joseph Lefebvre.At theParis Salonof 1885, he exhibited his paintings and etchings and gained his first audience. In the decade 1880–1890, he made hundreds of etchings of architecture and landscapes. He received a bronze medal at the ParisExposition Universelle of 1900.

Gardens

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A trip to Italy in 1892 in the company of his brother to photograph extant Renaissance gardens and villas led to a marked development in Platt's aesthetic approach. He published many of these images in his influential bookItalian Gardens(Harper & Brothers, 1894), the outcome of two articles published inHarper's New Monthly Magazinein the summer of 1893. The volume was strong on the surviving gardens of the Renaissance and Baroque and made no attempt to describe their history or their designers. As well, the influences ofReginald Blomfield'sThe Formal Garden in England(1892) and gardens byGertrude Jekyllillustrated inCountry Lifefurther refined Platt's style. (Platt was unaware of the first history of Italian gardens, W.P. Tuckermann's thoroughDie Gartenkunst der italienischen Renaissance-Zeit,Berlin 1884.) The impact of Platt, and ofEdith Wharton'sItalian Villas and Their Gardens(1904), can be seen in the shift among stylish Americans from country houses set in lawns with shaped beds of annuals, swept drives and clumps of trees typical of 1885 to houses in settings of gravel-lined forecourts, planted terracing, formal stairs and water features, herbaceous borders andpergolastypical of the early 20th century.

Platt was a member of the group that gravitated to theCornish Art Colony,which formed aroundAugustus Saint-GaudensinCornish, New Hampshire.His own garden in Cornish, made between 1892 and 1912, exemplifies a new style, essentially anArts and Craftssetting forBeaux-ArtsNeo-GeorgianandColonial Revivalarchitecture.

Architecture and clients

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Platt's 1918Freer Gallery of Artin Washington, DC

Platt designed a grand country estate forEdith Rockefeller McCormickat "Villa Turicum" inLake Forest, Illinois(1912, demolished).[3]

In 1907, he designed a townhouse forSara Delano Roosevelton East 65th Street in New York, now a historic landmark, theSara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House.Eleanor Roosevelt called Platt "an architect of great taste" who with the townhouse had "made the most of every inch of space." The building currently houses theRoosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College.

In 1912, he designed"The Causeway", Washington DC,a Neo-Georgian house in an extensive wooded landscape setting. He also designed a house in 1912 inRoslyn,New York forGeorge R. Dyer.

Platt also designed a large manor house and grounds, built in 1915 in theCity of Little Falls, New York,(extant, in private ownership) for Mr. J. Judson Gilbert, owner of theGilbert Knitting Companyand several other then-prosperous factories in theMohawk Valleyregion ofUpstate New York.

TheMIT Endicott HouseinDedham, Massachusetts,is another Platt-designed mansion built for H. Wendell Endicott in 1934, in use today as a conference center forMassachusetts Institute of Technology.

Beginning in 1906, Platt had begun to receive numerous commissions from the estate ofVincent Astor.Platt turned to professional help in surveying large-scale projects from the sons ofFrederick Law Olmsted.He also received detailed planting plans to fill his borders fromEllen Biddle Shipman,whom he had come to know through her gardening at Cornish, and whom he had instructed in presentation drawings by a draftsman from his own office, then sent toGrosse Pointe, Michiganto plant one of his designs.

His more visible public commissions include the Italianate palazzo he designed for theSmithsonian Institution'sFreer Gallery of Art(1918) in Washington, D.C., and the campuses of theUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign(1922 and 1927),Connecticut College,Deerfield Academy,andPhillips Academy Andover,where he designed the chapel and library and their settings. He fulfilled the University of Illinois's 1920s building program by designing 11 buildings, for many purposes, all in a Georgian style, with red brick, white wood and limestone trim, round and arched windows, and prominent gables, dormers, and chimneys. These included several buildings (1924–31) combining classrooms and offices, a dormitory, gymnasiums, plus such landmarks as the Main Library, McKinley Hospital, and the President's House.[4]

HisItalian Renaissance-styledRussell A. AlgerHouse, at 32 Lakeshore Drive, now serves as theGrosse PointeWar Memorial.[5]Platt also designed theLyme Art Associationbuilding inOld Lyme, Connecticut.[6]Platt's The Leader-News Building inCleveland, Ohio,at the corner of Superior and Bond Street (now East 6th Street) was reportedly fitted with elevator cabs designed by Tiffany Studios. The Building was completed in 1912 and, per theArchitectural Record,"Cleveland is to be congratulated upon the possession of one of the handsomest and most distinguished buildings in the country." - H.D.C.

In 1919, Platt became a trustee of theAmerican Academy in Rome.He became president of the academy in 1928 and served until his death.[7]He also served on theU.S. Commission of Fine Artsfrom 1916 to 1921, and as vice chairman from 1920 to 1921.[8]

Throughout his life, Platt maintained his house and garden in Cornish, New Hampshire, and an office and residence in Manhattan. With his second wife, Eleanor Hardy Bunker (widow ofDennis Miller Bunker), whom Platt married in 1893, Platt had five children. Among the children were William (1897–1984) and Geoffrey (1905–1985), who followed in their father's footsteps and practiced architecture in New York City. His great-grandson is actorOliver Platt.[9]Charles Platt died inCornish, New Hampshireat the age of 72.

Near the end of the 20th century some of Platt's surviving gardens in their full maturity were opened to the public including the spectacular gardens at the Gwinn Estate in Cleveland, Ohio (designed withWarren ManningandEllen Biddle Shipman).

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Archive

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His drawings and archives, including the original glass plate negatives for "Italian Gardens" are held by the Department of Drawings & Archives in theAvery Architectural and Fine Arts LibraryatColumbia University.In 1993, Platt's book,Italian Gardens,was reissued with additional photographs by Platt, and an introductory overview byKeith N. Morgan,whose research into Platt's career helped to generate a general revival of interest in Platt and his works.

Works

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Paintings

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  • “Interior of Fish-houses,” 1882
  • “Fishing Boats,” 1882
  • “Provincial Fishing Village,” 1882
  • “Old Houses near Bruges,” 1883
  • “Deventer, Holland,” 1885
  • “Quai des Orfèvres, Paris,” 1886
  • “Dieppe,” 1887
  • The Mountain-1920

Buildings

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Notes

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  1. ^Olmsted, Frederick Law (20 January 2015).The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted: The Last Great Projects, 1890–1895.JHU Press.ISBN9781421416038.Retrieved31 August2017– via Google Books.
  2. ^Wilson, J. G.;Fiske, J.,eds. (1900)."Platt, Charles Adams".Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography.New York: D. Appleton.
  3. ^"Villa Turicum - Home".www.villaturicum.com.Retrieved31 August2017.
  4. ^"President's House - ExploreCU".ExploreCU.Retrieved31 August2017.
  5. ^Grosse Pointe War Memorial, the Russell A. Alger Mansion.Retrieved on November 23, 2007.
  6. ^"The Day".Retrieved31 August2017.
  7. ^"Finding Aid".American Academy in Rome records, 1855-[ca.1981], (bulk dates 1894-1946).Archives of American Art.2011.Retrieved17 Jun2011.
  8. ^Thomas E. Luebke, ed.,Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 552.
  9. ^"Hamlet in New Hampshire was a haven for artists".www.vindy.com.Archived fromthe originalon 9 January 2017.Retrieved31 August2017.

Further reading

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  • The Architecture of Charles A. Platt,1913. A monograph with an introduction by the art historianRoyal Cortissozto inspire further customers. 1913, (Reprinted 1998)ISBN0-926494-17-1
  • Charles Platt:The Artist as Architectby K[eith] N. Morgan, 1985. (MIT Press)ISBN0-262-13188-9
  • Shaping an American Landscape: The Art and Architecture of Charles A. Plattby K[eith] N. Morgan, and R. W. Davidson, 1995. (University Press of New England) A series of essays engendered by an exhibition of Platt's work.
  • The Muses of Gwinn: Art and Nature in a Garden Designed by Warren H. Manning, Charles A. Platt, and Ellen Biddle Shipmanby Robin Karson, 1996. (Saga Press).
  • The Day
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