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The Boston architecture firm Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge inherited H. H. Richardson’s practice and completed many of his buildings. For the Art Institute commission, the firm abandoned Richardson’s Romanesque style in favor of the Classical Revival. Before becoming a permanent museum, the building hosted the scholarly conferences of the World’s Columbian Exposition. The AIA and Daniel Burnham convened the World’s Congress of Architects there in August 1893.
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 6, 2007 12:39 PM.
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Comments (6)
A beautiful building outside as well as inside. Faboulous architecture! Always in awe sice I was a child. A definite must see!
Posted by cindy | February 10, 2007 6:32 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 18:32
Give me the Detroit Institute of Arts over this, the Guggenheim and most of the other museums in the survey (exceptions -- the Milwaukee and the Philadelphia)
Posted by Randolph L. Burbach | February 13, 2007 1:48 PM
Posted on February 13, 2007 13:48
a picture of the building, please
Posted by terri | February 15, 2007 9:30 PM
Posted on February 15, 2007 21:30
Terri,
Sometimes the AIA has chosen a detail shot in order to vary the look of the website and exhibit. These details are indeed "pictures of the building."
Posted by Andy | February 16, 2007 2:04 PM
Posted on February 16, 2007 14:04
Keep in mind this building wasn't built as an art museum. It was originally the administration building for the Columbian Expostition of 1892-93, and later adapted for museum use. Unfortunately it was never big enough, and has had several additions in several different styles.
Posted by Scot | March 15, 2007 5:14 PM
Posted on March 15, 2007 17:14
During the 1950's, when ornate was old-fashioned, some beautiful decorative elements were removed or covered up in the interior, such as the coffered ceiling of the lobby being covered up by acoustic tiles, and the same being done to the Tiffany dome in the auditorium. They were so forgotten about that people didn't even think they still existed, until a magnificent restoration in the mid-80's revealed them again. Of course, the elements removed are gone forever.
Posted by Scot | March 15, 2007 5:21 PM
Posted on March 15, 2007 17:21