Chicago School vs Richardsonian Romanesque
シカゴ派の商業建築 / リチャードソニアン・ロマネスク
Chicago School comes from Modern Architecture and Richardsonian Romanesque from Historical Styles. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Chicago School
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A language of late-nineteenth-century commercial high-rises in Chicago, making repeated floors and large windows legible on the facade. Chicago windows combine a broad fixed pane with narrower opening panes. Terracotta and concentrated entrance ornament coexist with this regular structure, distinguishing it from the later International Style.
Richardsonian Romanesque
A late-nineteenth-century American architectural style in which H. H. Richardson recast medieval Romanesque round arches as rough masonry, deep openings, asymmetrical towers and low-spreading masses. Rather than surface decoration, stone weight, shadow depth and broad arches grouping entrances gave churches, libraries, courthouses and stations their public force.
| Chicago School | Richardsonian Romanesque | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1880s–early 1900s | 1870s–1890s |
| Family | Modern Architecture | Historical Styles |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | A wide fixed window between two narrower opening windows / A repeated grid of piers and floor bands / Projecting window bays and large glazed areas / Pale terracotta or stone with ornament concentrated near entrances | Broad, deeply recessed round arches grouping entrances and windows / Thick rough-faced masonry crossed by bands of contrasting stone / Asymmetrical towers with conical roofs above a low horizontal silhouette / Openings stepping back into the wall, with carving confined to capitals and voussoirs |
| Best used for | Explaining early high-rise architecture through the relationship between windows and structure · Organising a commercial front through daylight, repetition and a distinct entrance | Giving libraries, schools or civic buildings trust through material weight instead of applied ornament · Gathering a hotel or shop entrance into one large arch to create depth and shelter |
| Type | Align signage with entrances and floors rather than covering the facade with a billboard. | Fit a broad serif title into a voussoir band and do not add ornamental lines finer than the stone joints. |
| Composition | Repeat a three-part window unit between continuous vertical piers and floor bands. | Group round arches of different sizes into a low horizontal body, add one tower to one side, and pull openings deep enough to reveal wall thickness. |
| Material | Combine broad glass panes, pale ceramic cladding and dark metal, concentrating detail at the street entrance. | Lay large blocks of rough sandstone or granite, changing color or finish only at arch stones and horizontal bands, with dark timber and metal set farther back. |
| Caution | Not every glazed grid is Chicago School. Keep the early commercial tradition distinct from the later Second Chicago School and from the Chicago Imagists in painting. | A round arch alone is not Richardsonian Romanesque. Distinguish it from an ancient or medieval reconstruction through its American civic program, rough massing, asymmetry and deeply recessed openings. |