With its iconic curved and slate shingled faux roof attic level, the Second Empire style was enormously popular all across the country in the late Victorian era.
Often chosen for impressive mansions or public buildings, the style was also employed more modestly for late 19th century row houses. It is easily identified by its most distinct design feature — a dual-pitched hipped roof structure, often with small dormer windows on the roof slopes and elaborate cornices. In many instances, roof slates of different shapes and colors were used to further ornament the four or more roof slopes.
The history of the mansard roof itself is fascinating. It takes its name from influential French architect Francois Mansart — , who employed it extensively in the beautiful buildings he designed in 17th century France. At that time the use of mansard roofs allowed property owners to avoid paying Paris city taxes on the top floor of their buildings, because taxes were assessed on all floors below the roofline.
These two buildings, named Taylor and Merion respectively, had not yet been completed in , as evidenced by their somewhat inaccurate footprints and the incorrect location of Merion, shown here on a detailed property map of the Bryn Mawr area, published that same year.
Calvert Vaux , renowned architect, landscape architect and one-time partner of both Andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted, figured prominently in the first group of designers and architects assembled to plan the Bryn Mawr College buildings and grounds.
Hired by the College in , he developed several preliminary sketches, arriving at a final version of his original campus plan in When the Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees approved Vaux's general plan for the campus in , the only buildings then in existence were Taylor and Merion Halls; a small gymnasium, on the same site as the present structure; an old farm house, now torn down; and three small Victorian houses.
These last three became known as the Deanery, so-named as the house of M. Additional Information. Beginning in , Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux created a series of parks and parkways for Buffalo, New York, that drew national and international attention. When Niagara Falls was threatened by industrial development, he led a campaign to protect the site and in succeeded in persuading New York to create the Niagara Reservation, the present Niagara Falls State Park.
Kowsky illuminates this remarkable constellation of projects. Utilizing original plans, drawings, photographs, and copious numbers of reports and letters, he brings new perspective to this vast undertaking, analyzing it as a cohesive expression of the visionary landscape and planning principles that Olmsted and Vaux pioneered.
Table of Contents. Cover pp. Title Page p. A registered Architect in New York, Florida and Connecticut, Peter has 35 years of experience in residential, commercial, retail, and institutional construction throughout the US. He is Campus Architect for Bard College. Other clients have included Union College, Solomon R.
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