Farayand Virtual World

The Art Corner (Architect)

Cass Gilbert (b. Zanesville, Ohio 1859; d. New York, N.Y. 1934)

Cass Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio in 1859. Introduced to architecture as a draughtsman and carpenter's assistant, Gilbert enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1878 as a pupil of William Ware. After studying for two years, he took a European tour. Upon his return he joined the firm of McKim, Mead & White. In 1882 he established a partnership with James Knox Taylor in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The fairly pedestrian designs created by Gilbert's firm did not prevent it from gaining popularity. The majority of buildings the firm designed were gothicized skyscrapers, the most famous of which was the Woolworth Building.

Works designed by the firm during the early 1930s were competent Classical buildings which lack the originality of such contemporary Modernists as Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Location Washington, D.C., Date 1935 Building Type courthouse, government Construction System bearing masonry Climate temperate Context urban Style Neoclassical Notes elliptical spiral staircases.	Location New York, New York Date 1910 to 1913 Building Type corporate headquarters, early skyscraper Construction System terra cotta cladding Climate temperate Context urban Style Neo-Gothic Notes 60 story tower with Gothic ornamentation.

For More Information.......