Tag Archives: Architecture & Planning Library

library

Highlights from the Library of Drury Blakely Alexander

The Library of Drury Blakely Alexander is a collection of architectural books assembled by Drury Blakely Alexander (1924-2011), or Blake (as he preferred to be called), over the course of his celebrated teaching career. Professor Alexander was both an alumnus of, and a distinguished professor in, the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture from 1955 to 1994. During his time at the University of Texas at Austin, he also laid the foundations for the school’s nationally important collection of architectural drawings, photographs, papers, and other ephemera that since 1997 has been known as the Alexander Architectural Archive. His library, which encompasses over 6,000 volumes, represents just one part of a generous bequest made by Professor Alexander to the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture.

Since early this summer, I have been processing books and adding provenance notes to the many titles in Blake’s library. Professor Alexander’s primary interest was in making his books available to scholars and students, so this is being done to enable greater access to his extensive collection. Each week this blog will highlight one of the unique, beautiful, or interesting titles that have piqued my interest as I have sorted through the Library of Drury Blakely Alexander. Stay tuned!

special collections

Hospitals and Asylums of the World

Burdett, Henry C. Hospitals and Asylums of the World: their Origin, History, Construction, Administration, Management, and Legislation. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1891-1893.

Collection: Weinreb Architectural Collection

Hospitals and Asylums of World documents 19th-century plans for various convalescent institutions throughout the United Kingdom, British colonies including India and Australia, Europe and the United States. Over 100 plans document designs for various hospital typologies, including pavilion, block and corridor hospitals as well as the creatively titled “heap-of-buildings” type. Additional sections organize hospital plans by function such as treatment of infectious disease, cancer, etc. or convalescence through sea-bathing, mineral water or homeopathy, and by patron type such as children’s, women’s, and military hospitals as well as those designated for treatment of the poor. Medical schools, nursing homes and out-patient facilities are also documented.

Though perhaps an unlikely commemorative platform, Hospitals and Asylums of the World, which was published in 1893, assembled plans for all the hospitals of London in anticipation of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

 

Library of Congress call number: RA 963 B95 1891

special collections

Le Premier Tome de l’Architecture de Philibert de l’Orme

de l’Orme, Philibert. Le premier tome de l’architecture de Philibert de l’Orme. Paris: Fédéric Morel, 1568.

Collection: Paul Philippe Cret Library

The first of two planned volumes on architecture, Philibert de l’Orme’s Le premier tome de l’architecture celebrates the presence of a tradition in building and design that is specifically French. While de l’Orme acknowledges the influence of antiquity in contemporary French architecture, he deconstructs its contributions—specifically its long canonized orders—in an effort to demonstrate the French innovation of a design expression distinct from Italian idioms. To that end, the book examines the basic geometry, spaces and architectural elements that might combine in a building, establishing a somewhat prescriptive design and construction methodology. In addition, de l’Orme outlines basic approaches to certain professional considerations (e.g. how to determine building cost, the type of character employees should possess, where to discover the best materials, etc.) uniting profession, process and product in the domain of architecture.

 

Library of Congress call number: NA 2515 D4 1568

 


 

special collections

I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura

Palladio, Andrea. I quattro libri dell’architettura. Venice: D. de’Franceschi, 1570.

Collection: Paul Philippe Cret Library

Published in four volumes beginning in 1570, I quattro libri dell’architettura is a treatise on architecture that outlines a systematic approach to building design and construction. This watershed tome, penned by Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), is exemplary of the Renaissance preoccupation with antiquity, drawing heavily from extant Roman architecture and Vitruvius’ De Architectura to establish nine sets of rules that would guide design and construction. In the four books, Palladio addresses rules for construction and/or design according to type of architectural object and the role of that object in the system that would comprise the building whole. These objects serve to organize the text, with walls, ceilings, stairs, columns, doors, windows, frames, roofs and details receiving direct treatment as the architect prescribes appropriate material, function and style for each.

Library of Congress call number: NA 2515 P25 1570

special collections

The Antiquities of Athens

Stuart, James The Antiquities of Athens. London: J. Haberkorn, 1762.

Collection: Paul Philippe Cret Library

James Stuart’s four-volume The Antiquities of Athens is a practical treatise documenting ancient architecture in Athens. Produced in the tradition of Palladio and Desgodetz, The Antiquities of Athens looks to ancient architecture as a model for contemporary design and construction. Yet, unlike these earlier enthusiasts, whose work privileged Roman architecture, Stuart maintains that Greece was the cradle of the European architectural tradition where idealizing Hellenes refined the system of orders in a number of monumental structures including the Parthenon, Erechtheion and Propylaea. To that end, he examines a number of ancient Athenian buildings, producing meticulous documentation of the spatial relationship between architectural elements. Utilizing both text and wood cuts, Stuart also establishes the setting of each documented building, emphasizing the significance of building context to demonstrate that architecture doesn’t merely follow a measured and material prescription for its own sake, but rather to create an inhabitable space marked by craftsmanship, place and culture.

Library of Congress call number: NA 280 S9 1762 v. 1 – 4

special collections

Précis des Leçons d’Architecture Données à l’Ecole Royale Polytechnique

Durand, Jean-Nicolas-Louis. Précis des leçons d’architecture données à l’Ecole royale polytechnique. Liège, Belgium: D. Avanzo, 1840-1841.

Collection: Paul Phillipe Cret Library

In Précis des leçons d’architecture données à l’Ecole royale polytechnique, Jean Durand outlines the comprehensive methodology he established to train young architects studying at the Ecole. To guide the effective analysis of architecture and development of building projects, Durand explains the basic components comprising a structure (e.g., material, architectural elements, etc.), their relationship to one another (e.g., proportion, etc.), the basic means of assembly (i.e., construction practices through masonry, carpentry, etc.), and the methods of communicating design through plans. Durand also discusses typology, examining buildings in context to establish certain principles for designing and constructing public buildings and those private buildings appearing in various settings. In this section, Durand begins to imagine buildings as systems of modules, an approach that prefigures later modernist attempts to modularize the design process. As a result, the Précis establishes itself within the great lineage of architectural primers while incorporating the industrializing tendencies of its time to usher a practice deeply rooted in tradition into a mechanized era.

When I reviewed this book in order to write this entry I came across a note deposited by a former reader, whose preoccupation with the use of certain materials is marked by an interest in currying new business and collecting design fees. From time to time, such ephemera appears, and though it typically offers little or no insight into the specific intersections that produced it, its very presence provokes the imagination.

Library of Congress call number: NA 2520 D931 1840 (Atlas and Text)

 

special collections

The Seven Lamps of Architecture

Ruskin, John. The Seven Lamps of Architecture. New York: J. Wiley, 1880.

Collection: Paul Phillipe Cret Library

John Ruskin’s The Seven Lamps of Architecture is a theoretical treatise that examines the art of architecture from a distinctly nationalist perspective rooted not only in patria, but in God and a celebration of the ingenuity and spirit of man. The specific abstractions employed to both organize the book and discuss the function and creation of buildings betray romantic proclivities as Ruskin associates commonly-held British social principles—sacrifice, truth, power, beauty, life, memory and obedience—with design and construction. Ruskin locates these values in architecture as practice (intellectual activity), craft (process of production) and historical agent (by which buildings become essential recipients and purveyors or signifiers of tradition) to construct a moralizing polemic that endeavors to reinsert spirit and vitality into building and buildings.

Library of Congress call number: NA 2550 R75 1880B

special collections

Treasures from the Library of Paul Philippe Cret


Faceplate, Vitruvius. Les dix livres d’architecture de Vitruve. Paris: J. B. Coignard, 1684. 2nd Edition.

The Paul Philippe Cret Library is a collection of architectural books of considerable historic value to the University of Texas at Austin and to the scholarly community-at-large. Its namesake and originator, French-American architect and educator Paul Philippe Cret (1876-1945) devised the University’s 1933 Campus Master Plan and designed 20 campus buildings including the Beaux-Arts Main Building and UT Tower. His contribution to American architecture as both a practitioner and educator bridges the Beaux-Arts tradition of design and emergent concepts of modernism. This transition is reflected in his library in which foundational Renaissance treatises on architecture and design can be located alongside the polemical writings of Le Corbusier and other modernists.

Over the next few weeks, Battle Hall Highlights will feature a number of items from Cret’s library, which includes over 450 volumes published between 1560 and the 1930s. Offprints, exhibition catalogs, prospectuses, annual reports, monographs, trade and industrial publications, and journals, including many volumes in French comprise the library’s corpus and complement the Cret drawing collection held in the Alexander Architectural Archive. Among these titles, one can locate numerous rare and richly illustrated imprints, many of which are folios preserved in their original leather or cloth binding. These items will be showcased in this blog series.

For more books from the Paul Philippe Cret library and for more information on the architect himself, check out the these books along with the Alexander Architectural Archive finding aid.

 

special collections

Palast-Architektur: Toscana

Raschdorff, Julius Carl. Palast-Architektur von Oberitalien und Toscana vom XIII. bis XVIII. Jahrhundert. Wasmuth: Berlin, 1886-1922.

Collection: Ayres & Ayres Architects

Palast-Architektur von Oberitalien und Toscana is a German-language monograph examining Tuscan palaces. This 1888 folio was published by Wasmuth along with a number of volumes produced between 1886 and 1922 to document palatial structures throughout Italy. Architect and scholar, Julius Raschdorff developed this volume which examines a number of important sites throughout Florence, Sienna and the Tuscan countryside. Brief essays open the book, contextualizing each building through limited but significant historical data. A wealth of plans, sections, elevations and details complement photographs of these architectural monuments, providing 100 plates of visual content. And while these materials are somewhat spartan, their attenuated aesthetic lends itself to absolute legibility, creating a document that allows the user to indulge in possibility.

Library of Congress call number: NA 7755 P3

special collections

A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White (1879-1915)

Wenzel, Paul and Maurice Krakow. A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White, 1879-1915. 4 vols. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Co., 1915.

Collection: Ayres & Ayres, Architects

Paul Wenzel and Maurice Krakow’s A Monograph of the Work of McKim, Mead & White, 1879-1915 is a four-volume folio including over 400 plates that illustrate works produced by these indelible American designers. Working largely in the Beaux-Arts tradition, the firm completed many iconic buildings along the eastern seaboard ranging from residences and private clubs to institutional buildings at universities and for municipalities and parks. While most of the work documented in these volumes was located in New York City, including Madison Square Gardens, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Railroad Station and the Harvard Club, along with projects at NYU and Columbia; other American and international buildings are well represented including the Agriculture Building and New York State Building at the Chicago World’s Fair, Boston Music Hall and the American Academy in Rome. The monograph’s four folios incorporate black-and-white photography, sections, elevations and basic floor plans to document these projects providing a visual archive of the buildings in context. Many photos also capture building details rendered in terra cotta, travertine and marble, functioning to construct a more comprehensive vision of these spaces.

Dewey call number: 724.973 M212M  V. 1 copy 3, V.2 copy 3, V.3 copy 5, V. 4 copy 5