Charles A. Platt
Encyclopedia
Charles Adams Platt was a prominent artist, landscape gardener, landscape designer, and architect
of the "American Renaissance
" movement. His garden designs complemented his domestic architecture.
, Platt's training was as an artist of landscapes. He trained as an etcher
with Stephen Parrish
in Gloucester, Massachusetts
in 1880. Other training came at the National Academy of Design
and the Art Students League in New York, and later in Paris
at the Académie Julian
with Gustave Boulanger
and with Jules Joseph Lefebvre
. In the Paris Salon
of 1885 he exhibited his paintings and etchings and gained his first audience. In the decade 1880–1890 he made hundreds of etchings of architecture and landscapes. He received a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle
of 1900.
A trip to Italy in 1892 in the company of his brother to photograph extant Renaissance gardens and villas led to a marked development in Platt's aesthetic approach. Platt published many of these images in his influential book Italian Gardens (Harper & Brothers, 1894), the outcome of two articles published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine
in the summer of 1893. The volume was strong on the surviving gardens of the Renaissance and Baroque and made no attempt to describe their history or their designers. (Platt was unaware of the first history of Italian gardens, W.P. Tuckermann's thorough Die Gartenkunst der italienischen Renaissance-Zeit, Berlin 1884.)
As well, the influences of Reginald Blomfield
's The Formal Garden in England (1892) and gardens by Gertrude Jekyll
illustrated in Country Life
further refined Platt's style. The impact of Platt, and of Edith Wharton
's Italian Villas and Their Gardens (1904) can be seen in the switch among stylish Americans from country houses set in lawns with shaped beds of annuals, swept drives and clumps of trees typical of 1885 to houses in settings of gravel-lined forecourts, planted terracing, formal stairs and water features, herbaceous borders and pergola
s that are typical of the early 20th century.
Platt was a member of the group that gravitated to the Cornish Art Colony
which formed around Augustus Saint-Gaudens
in Cornish, New Hampshire
. His own garden in Cornish, made between 1892 and 1912, exemplifies a new style, essentially an Arts and crafts
setting for Beaux-Arts Neo-Georgian and Colonial Revival architecture.
Platt designed a grand country estate for Edith Rockefeller McCormick
at "Villa Turicum" in Lake Forest, Illinois
(1912, demolished). In 1907 he designed a townhouse for Sara Delano Roosevelt on East 65th Street in New York. Eleanor Roosevelt called Platt "an architect of great taste" who with the townhouse had "made the most of every inch of space."
In 1912 he designed "The Causeway", Washington DC
, a Neo-Georgian house in an extensive wooded landscape setting. The MIT Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts
is a Platt-designed mansion built for H. Wendell Endicott in 1934, in use today as a conference center for Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.
Beginning in 1906, Platt also began to receive numerous commissions from the estate of Vincent Astor
. Platt turned to professional help in surveying large-scale projects from the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted
. He received detailed planting plans to fill his borders from Ellen Biddle Shipman
, whom he had come to know through her gardening at Cornish and whom he had instructed in presentation drawings by a draftsman from his own office, then sent to Grosse Pointe, Michigan
to plant one of his designs. The Italian Renaissance
styled Russell A. Alger
House, at 32 Lakeshore Drive, designed by Charles A. Platt now serves as the Grosse Pointe
War Memorial. Platt also designed the Lyme Art Association building in Old Lyme, Connecticut
.
His more visible public commissions include the Italianate palazzo he designed for the Smithsonian Institution
's Freer Gallery of Art
(1918) in Washington, D.C. and the campuses of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(1822 and 1927), Connecticut College
, Deerfield Academy
, and Phillips Academy Andover
, where he designed the chapel and library and their settings. He also designed The Leader-News Building in Cleveland, Ohio at the corner of Superior and Bond Street (now East 6th Street) which reportedly was fitted with elevator cabs designed by Tiffany Studios. The Building was completed in 1912 and per the Architectural Record, "Cleveland is to be congratulated upon the possession of one of the handsomest and most distinguished buildings in the country." - H.D.C
In 1993 Platt's book Italian Gardens was reissued with additional photographs by Platt and an introductory overview by Keith N. Morgan
, whose research into Platt's career generated new interest in Platt.
Throughout his life, Platt maintained his house and garden in Cornish, New Hampshire, and an office and residence in Manhattan. With his second wife, Eleanor Hardy Bunker, whom Platt married in 1893, Platt had five children. Among the children were William (1897–1984) and Geoffrey (1905–1985), who followed in their father's footsteps and practiced architecture in New York City. Platt died in Cornish, New Hampshire
at the age of 72. In 1919 he became a trustee of the American Academy in Rome
and became President in 1928 and served until his death .
His drawings and archives, including the original glass plate negatives for "Italian Gardens" are held by the Department of Drawings & Archives in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
at Columbia University
. At the end of the 20th century some of Platt's surviving gardens in their full maturity were opened to the public including the spectacular gardens at the Gwinn Estate in Cleveland, Ohio (designed with Warren Manning and Ellen Biddle Shipman
).
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
of the "American Renaissance
American Renaissance
In the history of American architecture and the arts, the American Renaissance was the period in 1835-1880 characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance humanism...
" movement. His garden designs complemented his domestic architecture.
Early career
Born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Platt's training was as an artist of landscapes. He trained as an etcher
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
with Stephen Parrish
Stephen Parrish
Stephen Parrish was a painter and an etcher from the United States.-Biography:Parrish was engaged in mercantile pursuits until he was 30, when he applied himself to art, studying for a year with a local teacher. In 1878 he first exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia, and in 1879 at...
in Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
in 1880. Other training came at the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
and the Art Students League in New York, and later in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
with Gustave Boulanger
Gustave Boulanger
Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger was a French figure painter known for his Neo-Grec style. He was born at Paris, studied with Delaroche and Jollivet, and in 1849 took the Prix de Rome. His paintings are prime examples of academic art of the time, particularly history painting...
and with Jules Joseph Lefebvre
Jules Joseph Lefebvre
Jules Joseph Lefebvre was a French figure painter.Lefebvre entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet. He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1861. Between 1855 and 1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon...
. In the Paris Salon
Paris Salon
The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...
of 1885 he exhibited his paintings and etchings and gained his first audience. In the decade 1880–1890 he made hundreds of etchings of architecture and landscapes. He received a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle
Exposition Universelle (1900)
The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from April 15 to November 12, 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next...
of 1900.
A trip to Italy in 1892 in the company of his brother to photograph extant Renaissance gardens and villas led to a marked development in Platt's aesthetic approach. Platt published many of these images in his influential book Italian Gardens (Harper & Brothers, 1894), the outcome of two articles published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
in the summer of 1893. The volume was strong on the surviving gardens of the Renaissance and Baroque and made no attempt to describe their history or their designers. (Platt was unaware of the first history of Italian gardens, W.P. Tuckermann's thorough Die Gartenkunst der italienischen Renaissance-Zeit, Berlin 1884.)
As well, the influences of Reginald Blomfield
Reginald Blomfield
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period.- Early life and career :...
's The Formal Garden in England (1892) and gardens by Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
illustrated in Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
further refined Platt's style. The impact of Platt, and of Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
's Italian Villas and Their Gardens (1904) can be seen in the switch among stylish Americans from country houses set in lawns with shaped beds of annuals, swept drives and clumps of trees typical of 1885 to houses in settings of gravel-lined forecourts, planted terracing, formal stairs and water features, herbaceous borders and pergola
Pergola
A pergola, arbor or arbour is a garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained...
s that are typical of the early 20th century.
Platt was a member of the group that gravitated to the Cornish Art Colony
Cornish Art Colony
The Cornish Art Colony was a popular art colony centered in Cornish, New Hampshire from about 1895 through the years of World War I. Attracted by the natural beauty of the area, about 100 artists, sculptors, writers, designers, and politicians lived there either full time or during the summer...
which formed around Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the Irish-born American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who most embodied the ideals of the "American Renaissance"...
in Cornish, New Hampshire
Cornish, New Hampshire
Cornish is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,640 at the 2010 census. Cornish has three covered bridges. Each August, it is home to the Cornish Fair.-History:...
. His own garden in Cornish, made between 1892 and 1912, exemplifies a new style, essentially an Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...
setting for Beaux-Arts Neo-Georgian and Colonial Revival architecture.
Platt's clientele
Edith Rockefeller McCormick
Edith Rockefeller McCormick was an American socialite and opera patron.-Biography:McCormick was the fourth daughter of Standard Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller and his wife Laura Spelman Rockefeller . Her famous younger brother was John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
at "Villa Turicum" in Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...
(1912, demolished). In 1907 he designed a townhouse for Sara Delano Roosevelt on East 65th Street in New York. Eleanor Roosevelt called Platt "an architect of great taste" who with the townhouse had "made the most of every inch of space."
In 1912 he designed "The Causeway", Washington DC
The Causeway (Washington, D.C.)
The Causeway, also known as the Tregaron, is a country house estate located in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Northwest, Washington, D.C.. The estate was designed by Charles A. Platt and constructed in 1912. The original occupants, the Parmelees, lived at the estate from its construction until...
, a Neo-Georgian house in an extensive wooded landscape setting. The MIT Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood and on the southeast by...
is a Platt-designed mansion built for H. Wendell Endicott in 1934, in use today as a conference center for Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
.
Beginning in 1906, Platt also began to receive numerous commissions from the estate of Vincent Astor
Vincent Astor
William Vincent Astor was a businessman and philanthropist and a member of the prominent Astor family.-Early life:...
. Platt turned to professional help in surveying large-scale projects from the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
. He received detailed planting plans to fill his borders from Ellen Biddle Shipman
Ellen Biddle Shipman
Ellen Biddle Shipman was an American landscape architect known for her formal gardens and lush planting style.Born in Philadelphia, she spent her childhood in Texas and the Arizona territory. Her father, Colonel James Biddle, was a career Army officer, stationed on the western frontier...
, whom he had come to know through her gardening at Cornish and whom he had instructed in presentation drawings by a draftsman from his own office, then sent to Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Grosse Pointe is a suburban city bordering Detroit in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city covers just over one square mile, and had a population of 5,421 at the 2010 census. It is bordered on the west by Grosse Pointe Park, on the north by Detroit, on the east by Grosse Pointe...
to plant one of his designs. The Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
styled Russell A. Alger
Russell A. Alger
Russell Alexander Alger was the 20th Governor and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan and also U.S. Secretary of War during the Presidential administration of William McKinley...
House, at 32 Lakeshore Drive, designed by Charles A. Platt now serves as the Grosse Pointe
Grosse Pointe
Grosse Pointe refers to a coastal area in Metro Detroit, Michigan, United States that comprises five adjacent individual communities. From southwest to northeast, they are:*Grosse Pointe Park, city*Grosse Pointe, city*Grosse Pointe Farms, city...
War Memorial. Platt also designed the Lyme Art Association building in Old Lyme, Connecticut
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Old Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Main Street of the town is a historic district. The town has long been a popular summer resort and artists' colony...
.
His more visible public commissions include the Italianate palazzo he designed for the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
's Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...
(1918) in Washington, D.C. and the campuses of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
(1822 and 1927), Connecticut College
Connecticut College
Connecticut College is a private liberal arts college located in New London, Connecticut.The college was founded in 1911, as Connecticut College for Women, in response to Wesleyan University closing its doors to women...
, Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....
, and Phillips Academy Andover
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
, where he designed the chapel and library and their settings. He also designed The Leader-News Building in Cleveland, Ohio at the corner of Superior and Bond Street (now East 6th Street) which reportedly was fitted with elevator cabs designed by Tiffany Studios. The Building was completed in 1912 and per the Architectural Record, "Cleveland is to be congratulated upon the possession of one of the handsomest and most distinguished buildings in the country." - H.D.C
In 1993 Platt's book Italian Gardens was reissued with additional photographs by Platt and an introductory overview by Keith N. Morgan
Keith N. Morgan
Keith N. Morgan is an architectural historian and professor of American and European architecture at Boston University.Morgan earned his B.A. at the College of Wooster, his M.A. at the University of Delaware and his Ph.D. at Brown University....
, whose research into Platt's career generated new interest in Platt.
Throughout his life, Platt maintained his house and garden in Cornish, New Hampshire, and an office and residence in Manhattan. With his second wife, Eleanor Hardy Bunker, whom Platt married in 1893, Platt had five children. Among the children were William (1897–1984) and Geoffrey (1905–1985), who followed in their father's footsteps and practiced architecture in New York City. Platt died in Cornish, New Hampshire
Cornish, New Hampshire
Cornish is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,640 at the 2010 census. Cornish has three covered bridges. Each August, it is home to the Cornish Fair.-History:...
at the age of 72. In 1919 he became a trustee of the American Academy in Rome
American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome.- History :In 1893, a group of American architects, painters and sculptors met regularly while planning the fine arts section of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
and became President in 1928 and served until his death .
His drawings and archives, including the original glass plate negatives for "Italian Gardens" are held by the Department of Drawings & Archives in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is one of twenty-five libraries in the Columbia University Library System and is located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the City of New York. It is the largest architecture library in the world...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. At the end of the 20th century some of Platt's surviving gardens in their full maturity were opened to the public including the spectacular gardens at the Gwinn Estate in Cleveland, Ohio (designed with Warren Manning and Ellen Biddle Shipman
Ellen Biddle Shipman
Ellen Biddle Shipman was an American landscape architect known for her formal gardens and lush planting style.Born in Philadelphia, she spent her childhood in Texas and the Arizona territory. Her father, Colonel James Biddle, was a career Army officer, stationed on the western frontier...
).
Works
- “Interior of Fish-houses,” 1882
- “Fishing Boats,” 1882
- “Provincial Fishing Village,” 1882
- “Old Houses near Bruges,” 1883
- “Deventer, Holland,” 1885
- “Quai des Orfèvres, Paris,” 1886
- “Dieppe,” 1887
- Studio BuildingStudio Building (New York City)The Studio Building in New York City is located on 131 East 66th Street.- History :This Italian Renaissance-inspired building was constructed in 1905-06 as a cooperative apartment house. Designed by Charles A. Platt, who resided here from 1906 until his death in 1933, the building expresses the...
, 1905–06 - The MallowsThe MallowsThe Mallows, also known as Alida Chanler Emmet and Christopher Temple Emmet Estate, is a historic home located at Head of the Harbor in Suffolk County, New York. It is a Colonial Revival estate home designed in 1906 by noted architect Charles A. Platt...
, Head of the Harbor, New YorkHead of the Harbor, New YorkHead of the Harbor is a village in Suffolk County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the village population was 1,447.The Village of Head of the Harbor is in the Town of Smithtown...
, 1906 - Astor Court BuildingAstor Court BuildingThe Astor Court building is an apartment house in New York City. It is located on the Upper West Side on Broadway between 89th Street and 90th Street. It was designed by architect Charles A. Platt for developer Vincent Astor....
1916 - Hanna TheatreHanna TheatreThe Hanna Theatre is a theater on Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is one of the original five venues built in the district, opening on March 28, 1921...
, Cleveland, OhioCleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
1921 - Crandall Public Library, Glens Falls, New YorkGlens Falls, New YorkGlens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States. Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census...
, 1931
Further reading
- The Architecture of Charles A. Platt, 1913. A monograph with an introduction by the art historian Royal CortissozRoyal CortissozRoyal Cortissoz was an American art historian and long-time art critic for the New York Herald Tribune from 1891 until his death. During his tenure, he consistently championed traditionalism and decried modernism...
to inspire further customers. 1913, (Reprinted 1998) ISBN 0-926494-17-1 - Charles Platt :The Artist as Architect by K[eith] N. Morgan, 1985. (MIT Press) ISBN 0-262-13188-9
- Shaping an American Landscape: The Art and Architecture of Charles A. Platt by K[eith] N. Morgan, and R. W. Davidson, 1995. (University Press of New England) A series of essays engendered by an exhibition of Platt's work.
- The Muses of Gwinn: Art and Nature in a Garden Designed by Warren H. Manning, Charles A. Platt, and Ellen Biddle Shipman by Robin Karson, 1996. (Saga Press).
- The Day