Architecture America includes a wide variety of architectural styles over its history. Architecture in the US is regionally diverse and has been shaped by many external forces, and can therefore be said to be eclectic, something unsurprising in such a multicultural society.The USA is a relatively young country, and the overriding theme of American Architecture is modernity, with the 20th century skyscraper as its ultimate symbol.
The oldest structures on the territory that is now known as the United States were made by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples of New Mexico. The Tiwa speaking people have inhabited Taos Pueblo continuously for over 1000 years.
When the Europeans settled in North America, they brought with them their architectural traditions and their construction techniques in building the oldest buildings in America. Construction was dependent upon the available resources: wood and brick are the common elements of English buildings in New England.
Spanish exploration of the American southwest began in the 1540s. The conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado crossed this dry region in search of the Pueblo Indians' mythical cities of gold. The Pueblo people built houses of adobe, a sun-dried clay brick, held together with exposed wooden beams. Their cubic form and dense arrangement gave villages a singular aspect which would be emulated by the Americans (Pueblo Style). One can imagine the disappointment of the conquistador in the face of these modest, unadorned structures, but under their roofs the temperature remained constant and cool.
The Georgian style appeared during the 18th century and Palladian architecture took hold of Williamsburg, Virginia. The Governor's palace, built in 1706-1720, has a vast gabled entrance at the front, which is adorned by a small lantern hanging from the banister. It respects the principle of symmetry and uses the materials that are found in New England: red brick, white painted wood, and blue slate used for the roof with a double slant. This style is used to build the houses of plantation workers and the rich merchants living on the Atlantic coast.
Public architecture (19th Century)
In 1776, the members of the Continental Congress declared the independence of the Thirteen Colonies. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized the existence of the new republican country, the United States of America. Even though it was a break with the United Kingdom on the political stage, English influences continue to mark the buildings constructed in this part of the world. Public, philanthropic and commercial controls grew in parallel with the growing demographics and territorial extension.
Greek revival style attracted American architects working in the first half of the 19th century. The young nation, free from Britannic protection, was persuaded to be the new Athens, that is to say, a foyer for democracy.
The federal capital building in the United-States is a good example of uniform urbanism: the design of the building was imagined by the Frenchman Pierre Charles L'Enfant. This ideal of the monumental city and neoclassicism is taken up by the supporters of the City Beautiful movement. The White House was constructed after the creation of Washington DC by the congressional law of December 1790. After a contest, James Hoban, an Irish American, was chosen and the construction began in October 1792. The building that he had conceived was modeled upon the first and second floors of the Leinster House, a ducal palace in Dublin, Ireland which is now the seat of the Irish Parliament.
Skyscrapers
The most notable United States architectural innovation has been the skyscraper. Several technical advances made this possible. In 1853 Elisha Otis invented the first safety elevator which prevented a car from falling down the shaft if the suspending cable broke.
Elevators allowed buildings to rise above the four or five stories that people were willing to climb by stairs for normal occupancy. An 1868 competition decided the design of New York City's six story Equitable Life Building, which would become the first commercial building to use an elevator. Construction commenced in 1873. Other structures followed such as the Auditorium Building, Chicago in 1885 by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. This adopted Italian palazzo design details to give the appearance of a structured whole: for several decades American skyscrapers would blend conservative decorative elements with technical innovation.
Another feature that was to become familiar in twentieth century skyscrapers first appeared in Chicago's Reliance Building, designed by Charles B. Atwood and E.C. Shankland, Chicago, 1890 - 1895. Because outer walls no longer bore the weight of a building it was possible to increase window size. This became the first skyscraper to have plate glass windows take up a majority of its outer surface area.
.... etc.