Ernest Flagg: Beaux-Arts Architect and Urban Reformer

Abstract

Architect of the United States Naval Academy, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Scribner Building, and model tenement houses, Flagg (1857-1947) advanced the cause of classicism while demonstrating a deep concern for architecture's social responsibility. This study of one of the most innovative practitioners of the Beaux-Arts movement in America covers Flagg's early training and Beaux-Arts works, his town and country houses, his commercial and utilitarian buildings, the Singer Tower (which established a new height record while setting a precedent for New York City skyscraper restrictions in scale and density), urban housing reform, and his small houses of modular design.Flagg, the author notes, combined French nineteenth century aesthetics and the principles of academic classicism with American structural technology to create significant buildings during the Progressive Era from 1890 to 1917. His contributions to zoning and height regulations were essential to New York's first laws governing this aspect of the city's architecture. A confirmed individualist, Flagg produced highly original writings and ingenious inventions for construction techniques in low-cost housing and railroad cars.Flagg's adaptation of classicism and his concern for urban contextualism make this study of his work particularly timely. His designs have immediate relevance for contemporary architects and preservationists, as well as those interested in the social and architectural history of New York City.Mardges Bacon is Associate Professor of Fine Arts and American Studies at Trinity College. Ernest Flagg: Beaux-Arts Architect and Urban Reformer is included in The Architectural History Foundation's American Monograph Series, edited by David G. De Long. An Architectural History Foundation Book.