McKim Mead and White

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McKim, Mead, and White
Born
Died 1909; St. James, New York, USA
Notes
At Great Buildings http://www.GreatBuildings.com/architects/McKim_Mead_and_White.html

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(McKim—b. Pennsylvania, 1847; d. St. James, New York 1909)(Mead—b, Vermont, 1846; d. Paris, France, 1928)(White—b.New York, 1853; d. New York, 5 June 1906)

"The success of the firm was due to the complementary nature of the three partners—McKim the idealist, Mead the pragmatist, and White the sensualist. McKim's ardent idealism and adherence to universal principles were shaped by the example of his father, a leading activist and fundraiser for the abolitionist cause... Mead was the realist of the trio, serving as in-house engineer... White was the firebrand, eager to break precedent, to use new materials, to experiment with building form... The high professional ideals of both McKim and White were developed during serveral years as assistans in the office of Henry Hobson Richardson."

— Leland M. Roth, in the International Dictionary of Architects, St. James Press, p564-565.

Charles Follen McKim was born and raised in southeastern Pennsylvania. He studied for a year at the Harvard Lawrence Scientific School. During the summer of 1867, he worked in the office of Russel Sturgis, New York. He then spent three years at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, with periods of travel in France and England.

Spurning current Parisian architectural fashions, McKim learned the value of comprehensive planning, the power of the integrated details, and the importance of symbolism. He returned to the United States in 1870 and entered the office of Henry Hobson Richardson in New York, where he began to obtain his own commissions.

McKim sought clear geometries and order in his architecture. In his earlier Shingle style houses, he adopted many elements derived from the close study of American colonial architecture both in material and detail, from Japanese architecture, and from the slate-covered medieval buildings in rural France. With his partners in McKim, Mead, & White, he eventually adopted classical ideas of planning and symbolism to meet the needs of both residential and civic architecture.

Charles McKim died in St. James, New York 1909

Details Recipient, AIA Gold Medal Award, 1909.


[edit] References

McKim, Mead, & White. The Architecture of McKim, Mead, & White in Photographs, Plans, and Elevations. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. ISBN 0-486-26556-0. LC 90-43684. NA737.M4A4.

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