Hosted by the ICAA Ohio & Lake Erie Chapter and the AIA Cleveland Chapter | 1 AIA CES Learning Unit|Elective
The American Renaissance expressed the grand confidence and all-conquering ambitions of governmental, commercial, institutional, and residential patrons during America's First Gilded Age. Rooted before Chicago's 1893 World Columbian Exposition, it took advantage of the fair's extraordinary influence to argue that Roman art and architecture, as classified and refined by Italian-speaking practitioners and theorists during the 15th and 16th centuries, was uniquely suited to express the dignity, propriety, and glowing future of the nationalizing United States, a ready peer to other world powers. Cleveland was an early adopter of it, commissioning Daniel Burnham, its Chicago champion, to co-design the Group Plan around which the Forest City's governmental and institutional structures would be arranged. Newly-enriched Cleveland patrons hired architects and artists of national and international reputation, some with local practices, cultivated Ohio artisans, and sought out the most-skilled craftspersons among lately-arrived Europeans to create the spaces and images of a grand capital city. The American Renaissance characterizes a good deal of the best work by American creators, both in design and fabrication, and remains for many the style through which Cleveland, at its most dominant, spoke to the world.
Professor Wilson is an expert chronicler of the American Renaissance and of the architecture firm of McKim, Mead, and White, one of its most important advocates. He will address its beginnings, with the joining together of many distinct arts, how it came to dominate Cleveland’s public realm.
Please note: Per The Union Club, business casual attire is required. No jeans, shorts, sweats, bare midriffs, ball caps, flip-flops, or sandals.
Business casual attire required, no jeans, shorts, sweats, bare midriffs, ball caps, flip-flops or sandals.
Register here.
For any questions, please call AIA Cleveland Chapter at 216-626-5755.
Richard Guy Wilson is Commonwealth Professor Emeritus in Architectural History at the University of Virginia. A frequent lecturer, television commentator and author of many articles and books on different aspects of American and modern architecture and design including The American Renaissance (1979), McKim, Mead & White, Architects (1982), The AIA Gold Medal (1983), Machine Age in America (1986), Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village (1993, 2009) The Colonial Revival House (2004), Harbor Hill: Portrait of a House (2008) and Edith Wharton At Home (2012).
Thank you to the sponsors of this event:
Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, Ohio and Lake Erie ChapterThe Cleveland Architecture FoundationInitiatives in Art and CultureAmerican Institute of Architects, Historic Resources Committee, AIA Cleveland Chapter
This event is hosted by an ICAA Chapter. Please check the Chapter website or contact the Chapter directly, for the most up-to-date details including dates, times, and pricing.