10/11 Academic Decathlon The Great Depression Art Selection #13 - Winona

The Winona, 1935 Sears Honor-Bilt Homes

This Honor-Bilt model home was the top of the line (and the most expensive) for Sears' home kits. They had lesser grade structures - the Standard Built and the Simplex Sectional. In the 1930s, this house would have cost between $721 and $1998, which would be from $10,000-25,000 in today's dolllars. The style is a bungalow-style house from the Craftsman movement. The Craftsman movement was one that wanted to go back to a handmade look. After the advent of the Industrial Revolution, there was a return to things that looked handmade and not machine made. A bungalow is a small, intimate dwelling and has been a popular house throughout the 20th century. You will hear of bungalows in California, where they were widely built, but they are super expensive in that real estate market now!

They typically have covered porches and low-pitched roofs. There are deep overhangs and exposed beams. The look is simple, square and there is limited space. In order to make the small space seem bigger, the main spaces (kitchen, living room and dining room) are open to each other with built-in furnishings. You can see the floor plan in the image post. The main living areas are on the left and have arched openings to the center of the structure. The right side of the building has the bedrooms, bathrooms and closets. There was some customization available - the customer could choose between two and three-bedroom designs. Or, they could flip the design so the bedrooms were on the left. The house came with a basement and an attic and the owner could add a garage or a carport.

These kits made owning a home very affordable. Because Sears could mass produce these, and the houses were limited to the customization, they could keep the price down, more people could afford to build them and it really upgraded their life in spite of their limited incomes. Compare these prices to the $155,000 it took to build Fallingwater (the next post down), and you can see why they were popular! In the 1930s, the average salary was $1,600, so even though these houses were inexpensive, they were still a commitment to the buyer. In order to make it more attractive for potential home owners, Sears, Roebuck and Company set up financing so people could purchase their homes with a loan that had 6-7% interest. Coupled with the steady growth of the automobile industry, the middle class was beginning to boom in the early part of the 20th century, and the average consumer was in debt for a house and a car. Debt spending had begun on a larger scale in the U.S.! But, in the end, the Great Depression hit even this industry and during the 1930s Sears stopped offering the financing because people could not keep up their payments. Sales fell and in the 1940s Sears stopped offering mail-order homes all together. During the 24 years they sold the house kits, between 70,000 and 75,000 people bought them and there are still many Sears houses standing today.

10/11 Academic Decathlon The Great Depression Art Selection #12 - Fallingwater

Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania, Frank Lloyd Wright, Designed 1935, Built 1936-39

Good grief! Where do you start? Entire books have been published about this magnificent work of architectural genius. Wright was a born architect and never strayed from his course, even when he had hard times (which he did - boy, oh boy, did he ever). He was a singleminded man, designing, building, and teaching. Any city around the country that has a building of his design touts it. But Fallingwater is one of his iconic works (alongside the Guggenheim in New York City in this blogger's humble opinion).

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959 - he lived to the ripe old age of 91!) was born and raised in Wisconsin. From an early age, he had an interest in architecture. His architectural apprenticeship was in the firm of the famous Chicago architect, Louis Sullivan, who is considered to be one of the fathers of modern architecture. Their working relationship came to an end when Sullivan found out Wright was working on commissions outside the contractual agreement they had for his employment. Wright went out on his own and designed houses in the Chicago area. He developed a new style of architecture known as the Prairie Style. Prairie Style homes have these features: low-pitched roof, overhanging eaves, horizontal lines, central chimney, open floor plan and clerestory windows.

He might have been a great architect, but he would have been on the front cover of the gossip magazines because he created a scandal when he left his wife for the wife of one of his clients and then proceeded to travel around Europe with her. This kind of behavior almost destroyed his career, but his talent compensated for his lack of a moral compass, and he kept getting work. He built a home and studio for himself and his lover Mamah Cheney, Taliesin, but karma caught up with him. In 1914 an unhappy butler set fire to the house when Wright was working in Chicago and seven people were killed, including Mamah and two of her children.

Wright married twice more, but by 1928 he was deeply in debt. His last wife, Olgivanna proved to be an important partner in helping him get his life back together. She helped him create a school at Taliesin (which is still in existence today), and for $650 per year, architecture students could come live, study and assist Wright. It was one his student's parents that commissioned Fallingwater. This project restored his architectural reputation and led him back into the fame and fortune arena. It became his most famous residential project and to this day is a marvel in design and beauty. Not only did he establish a unique American school of architecture, he also left more than 400 buildings behind that he designed.

Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., the son of a successful department store owner in Pittsburgh, became a fellow at Taliesin, met Wright, and found they shared an interest in designing model communities. Their relationship led to the commission of this home on a plot of land that had been a summer camp for the employee's of Kaufmann's department store, Bear Run. Vacation time became a big luxury for the employees, and Kaufmann and his wife decided to build their own vacation home on the site. They told Wright they wanted their home to have a view of waterfall, but did not expect him to build the house into the falls! This was an extremely radical idea and the engineers he worked with thought he was nuts. But like many artists tied to their vision, Wright prevailed and the work proceeded. In the end, there were some structural problems with the design, but Fallingwater is a major tourist attraction for Pennsylvania and I for one want to see it!!

Interior of Fallingwater

One of the important factors of Prairie Style, and the reason for the open, horizontal design, is to incorporate the building into the landscape that surrounds it. Fallingwater is the ultimate example of this aesthetic goal. The house is built over a 30 foot waterfall, magically rising above the stone and water and it looks as though it is floating. This floating appearance is a result of the cantilevered blocks of concrete (supported only on one end). These cantilevered blocks also create a strong horizontal line in the design of the house. Vertical elements, chimneys and mullions (window dividers), are also worked into the design, and are built of local stone. The vertical line contrasts with the strong horizontal nature of the cantilevers, but using stone as the material keeps it visually connected to the surrounding stone of the landscape. Open spaces and glass keep it light and integrate the inside and outside spaces in a natural way. It is truly a beautiful and magical place.

Frank Lloyd Wright

10/11 Academic Decathlon The Great Depression Art Selection #11 - Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam, Gordon Kaufmann, Nevada-Arizona Border, Concrete, Commissioned by Bureau of Reclamation, 1931-36

Herbert Hoover commissioned this public work as the Secretary of Commerce under President Harding in 1922 and it was named after him. He had a background in civil engineering and with the help of the committee designed a dam that was unprecedented between Arizona and Nevada. It's job - to harness the power of the Colorado River and manage water resources for Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming! Woah!! This thing is massive!! The concept was massive as well - it is an anti-gravity concrete dam. DemiDec says, "It combines the structure of an arch dam, the open end of which faces downstream, with the massive heft of a gravity dam." When it was completed in 1936, it was for a bit the tallest dam in the world. And, check out the new Hoover Dam Bridge that was just completed - it's a new wonder of the world as well!!

Godon Kauffman (1888-1949) was an English architect who was asked to consult on the aesthetic look of the dam. The engineers had been really focused on the function of the structure, which wasn't looking too great. Kauffman redesigned the dam to incorporate the streamlined aspects of Art Deco design. No small feat because the dam rises 726.4 feet from the base from the highway to its crest. An additional 40 feet rise from the towers and the ornamentation. There were four main areas of the dam: the intake towers, dam crest, power plant and the spillways. The dam has a strong vertical line in the intake towers at the top (which are essential to powering the plant). The entire structure is massive, powerful but elegant and stately. It's purpose was to provide flood control and provide water for seven states as well as generate electricity. President Roosevelt held the dam up as a symbol of progress. It buoyed the public and people thought that if this massive project could be created, there was hope for the country to pull out of the economic crisis.

10/11 Academic Decathlon The Great Depression Art Selection #10 - Empire State Building

The Empire State Building, New York City, NY, 1931

The Empire State Building was created by the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. They founded their firm in 1929 in New York. In spite of the Depression, commissions for skyscrapers were still flowing in and they were in demand; they had made a name for themselves developing Manhattan office buildings and designing the 10-story Reynolds Building in North Carolina. The Empire State Building's creation came to symbolize not only the city but the era.

Tallest buildings in the world

1,239 feet from the street (the pinnacle adds 203 feet), the Empire State Building dominates the Manhattan skyline. At one time it was named the Eighth Wonder of the World because it was so tall. It is the tallest building in New York City, and at the time it was built was the tallest building in the world. But man's desire to keep building higher and higher (ever read any history about Gothic Cathedrals?) was stronger and it lost that status. Currently, at 2717 ft tall, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is the tallest building in the world.

As other skyscrapers of the time, it is supported by a steel frame with the exterior facade comprised of equal parts of stone and glass. The stone is a light gray Indiana limestone and granite with vertically oriented windows running the length of the building creating a vertical effect. The surface is broken with setbacks , kind of like smaller blocks are stacked one on top of another. This provides a slimming effect of the building as it rises higher and higher and cuts down on the visual weight of the structure. More light can move around it, keeping the building looking lighter as well as more light getting to the other buildings.

Unbelievably, the building was built in one year, forty-five days with the labor of lots and lots of men (up to 3,000 working at a given time, many of whom were immigrants). As was customary during this time, there was a photographer, Lewis Hine, that was present to document the process. He played two roles: document the work in progress and help shape public perception. Though immigrants had a back seat role in society at the time, Hines highlighted their participation in the building of this great structure.



For its inauguration, President Herbert Hoover pressed a button from the White House and hundreds of miles away, and the Empire State Building lit up. It was a strong symbol of the future and despite the financial crisis, proved that great things were still possible. It was a big building to fill, and for some time people called it "The Empty State Building", but by the late 1940s it became profitable. People now, as when it first opened, would ride to the observation deck and look out over New York, the city that never sleeps.

Portrait of Lewis Hine

Virtual tour of Sistine Chapel - Smarthistory

AP Art History students - please use this post to comment on the videos you watched from Smarthistory's website that are the virtual tours of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the wall of The Last Judgment. Here is the link to the Sistine Chapel Ceiling and for The Last Judgment. Can't wait to hear what you have to say!!

The Facade of the Gothic Cathedral

Rose Window, Chartres Cathedral

The glory of the Gothic Cathedral - I consider these architectural structures to be incredible testaments to man's ambition, devotion and pride. They are truly incredible structures, ever soaring, reaching higher and higher into the sky. Man's engineering skills were astonishing considering the tools and technology they had back in the time we call the Middle Ages.

The link in this post's title will take you to a wonderful video that explains how to "read" the facade of a Gothic Cathedral. Very nice and enlightening. Check it out...

The Pantheon

How this place thrills me! Even before I traveled to Italy last summer and got this picture of the coffered ceiling, when I would get to the page in my art history textbook about the Pantheon, I would shiver. The innovative thinking and the flawless execution just blow me away when I think back to the building of this temple in the 2nd century A.D.

And to think I might not have made it! We had been touring Rome all day (can you imagine Rome in a day?) - the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, the Forum, the Colosseum - I called it the Roman march. And it was hot! Marching, marching in the heat - pressing on to the next fabulous place to see. By the time we got deposited into some square, my group was exhausted. There was another group from our bus that was going to walk the few blocks to see the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. My group was pooped and wanted to have a gelato and sit. I didn't blame them one bit - I wanted to do the same.

But - this might be my only chance to see the Pantheon. How could I live with myself if I got back home and didn't make the supreme effort (that it seemed at the time) to go there? Would I ever forgive myself? NO! In a split second I knew I had to go - and was it ever worth it! The marble, the light, the sacred geometry enveloping me in its glory. It was truly a high point of my trip to Italy. The link in the Post title from the blog of Smarthistory.org is quite delightful - check it out! And, for my students, it also touches on the Hagia Sophia and the dome of Brunelleschi. Very nice!

08/09 Academic Decathlon Image #14

Tikal: Temple of the Giant Jaguar, Maya Civilization, 731 A.D., Cut stone masonry, 144.4 ft. (Pre-Hispanic Art)

This site is located in Guatemala and was thriving in the Classic Maya time period. Unlike the previous city at Teotihuacan (which was laid out on a grid), Tikal is arranged in a more organic manner, clustered around separate courtyards. They seem to have been created on an as needed basis, without a clear master plan.

This city had pyramids, monumental palaces and thatched houses that were on earth and stone mounds. Tikal had six temple-pyramids, and though the Temple of the Giant is not the highest, it is one of the most important. The jaguar was revered as a powerful animal that demonstrated divinity and leadership. One of the Mayan leaders, Jasaw Chan K'awiil was buried in this temple and identified with the Jaguar's power. In his tomb were typical afterworld objects - containers for food and liquid as well as personal ojects made of jade and precious materials.

Here are some quotes from your AcDec Art Resource Guide, but also check out the link in the image title for a website about Tikal National Park. "...the Temple of the Giant Jaguar is constructed of rubble and limestone blocks. It is a stepped pyramid built on nine levels. The pyramid is tall and quite steep...The pyramid was probably covered with plaster, and there are indications that some elements were painted.....The pyramid was a burial site, and it contained narrow pasageways and rooms, dome decorated with fresco paintings. The small size of the passageways and rooms within the temple indicates that it was not designed to hold large numbers of people at a time......it was built during the Late Classic Period."

08/09 Academic Decathlon Image #13

View of the Street of the Dead, Showing the Plaza of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, 1-750 A.D. (Pre-Hispanic Art)

This city flourished at a time that was known as the Classic Period from 150-900 A.D. A lot of growth and development happened at this time leading the city to have great influence in the region. Because of the material culture left behind in their ruins, experts can surmise that there was a lot of trade and political domination. Teotihuacan (as well as Remojadas mentioned in a previous post) are in close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.

The culture was sophisticated (and the 6th most populous city in the world in 600 A.D.). The city had religious and political rulers (along with the requisite warriors!) and was surrounded by peasant farmers. The Maya and Zapotec peoples had writing systems that were well developed. There were may gods that were worshipped who seem to have spun out of the Olmec deities. Some of these even became important to the Aztecs. As a result of the cultural development the people built monumental civic and ritual architecture to show their Power & Authority (a common theme in the Art History class!). We see the pyramid shape as a dominant shape for their temples and tombs (familiar???). Check out the hyperlink in the image title to go to an guide to the archeological site in Teotihuacan.

08/09 Academic Decathlon Image #1

Metropolitan Cathedral (Art during the Colonial Era)

This cathedral in Mexico City (also known as Catedral de Mexico) was built by Claudio de Arciniega and others, 1573–1817. Hernán Cortés (the conqueror) destroyed Aztec temples that were on this land and ordered the construction of a Catholic church built on the same site. The cathederal was built to look like those in Spain. Watch this short YouTube video - be there now! You can get more detailed information from this Wikipedia page.

07/08 Academic Decathlon Art Selection #14

This is an illustration by Alexander Davis from 1865. It documents the architectural home called Lyndhurst built for George Merritt in Tarrytown, NY. What a grand residence! Any architecture buffs out there? What kinds of architectural styles are used in this work?

07/08 Academic Decathlon Art Selection #8

Ahhh - the shotgun house - so named because if you opened the front & back doors and fired a gun, the bullet would shoot straight through. This is a 19th c. house, kind of raggedy, huh? Well, I spent a year living in New Orleans and working in the French Quarter when I was a young twenty something ( I sold women's shoes in a shoe boutique!). I certainly got an education working in the Quarter, but I also experienced living in an old shotgun house (not quite THIS old!) There was a big fan (like an attic fan) that was in one of the windows in the back room, and when it ran it drew the air through the house and exited out the fan. Even though we had no air conditioning (can you get your brain around that?), I remember feeling pretty comfortable even in the heat of the summer (New Orleans can be hot and extremely humid!). Search around - find out about what kind of housing was lost during Katrina - are they rebuilding this style of architecture again? Interesting...

07/08 Academic Decathlon Art Selection #4

This lovely plantation is called Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana. Aren't the trees really beautiful! Oaks can live to be many hundreds of years old. See what you can find out about Oak Alley which was begun in 1837. How were plantations pivotal in the Civil War?