Grosvenor Atterbury
Encyclopedia
Grosvenor Atterbury was an American architect, urban planner and writer. He studied at Yale University
and then travelled in Europe. He studied architecture at Columbia University
and worked in the offices of McKim, Mead & White. Much of Atterbury’s early work consisted of weekend houses for wealthy industrialists. Atterbury was given the commission for the model housing community of Forest Hills Gardens which began in 1909 under the sponsorship of the Russell Sage Foundation
.
For Forest Hills, Atterbury developed an innovative construction method: each house was built from approximately 170 standardized precast concrete panels, fabricated off-site and assembled by crane. The system was sophisticated even by modern standards: panels were cast with integral hollow insulation chambers; casting formwork incorporated an internal sleeve, allowing molds to be "broken" before concrete had completely set; and panels were moved to the site in only two operations (formwork to truck and truck to crane). Atterbury's system influenced the work of mid-1920s European modern architects like Ernst May
, who used panelized prefab concrete systems in a number of celebrated experimental housing projects in Frankfurt. In this way Atterbury can be considered a progenitor of the Modern Movement.
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and then travelled in Europe. He studied architecture 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...
and worked in the offices of McKim, Mead & White. Much of Atterbury’s early work consisted of weekend houses for wealthy industrialists. Atterbury was given the commission for the model housing community of Forest Hills Gardens which began in 1909 under the sponsorship of the Russell Sage Foundation
Russell Sage Foundation
The Russell Sage Foundation is the principal American foundation devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences. Founded in 1907 and headquartered in New York City, the foundation is a research center, a funding source for studies by scholars at other institutions, and a key member of the...
.
For Forest Hills, Atterbury developed an innovative construction method: each house was built from approximately 170 standardized precast concrete panels, fabricated off-site and assembled by crane. The system was sophisticated even by modern standards: panels were cast with integral hollow insulation chambers; casting formwork incorporated an internal sleeve, allowing molds to be "broken" before concrete had completely set; and panels were moved to the site in only two operations (formwork to truck and truck to crane). Atterbury's system influenced the work of mid-1920s European modern architects like Ernst May
Ernst May
Ernst May was a German architect and city planner.May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during Germany's Weimar period, and in 1930 less successfully exported those ideas to Soviet Union cities, newly created under Stalinist rule...
, who used panelized prefab concrete systems in a number of celebrated experimental housing projects in Frankfurt. In this way Atterbury can be considered a progenitor of the Modern Movement.
Works
- Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel (formerly Fulton Building), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1906
- Tenney Memorial Chapel, Walnut Grove CemeteryWalnut Grove CemeteryWalnut Grove Cemetery is a historic cemetery at Grove and Railroads Streets in Methuen, Massachusetts. The still active cemetery sits on and is privately funded with a Board of Directors....
, Methuen, Massachusetts, 1906 - House of the RedeemerHouse of the Redeemer (New York City)The Edith Fabbri House is an Italian Renaissance revival-styled townhouses in New York located at 7 East 95th Street on New York City's Upper East Side.- History :...
, New York City, 1916 - WereholmeWereholmeWereholme, also known as the Harold H. Weekes Estate, and the Scully Estate, is a historic estate located at Islip in Suffolk County, New York. The mansion was built in 1917 in the French Provincial style and designed by noted architect Grosvenor Atterbury . It is a "L" shaped structure built of...
, Islip, New York, 1917 - Aldus Chapin Higgins HouseAldus Chapin Higgins HouseAldus Chapin Higgins House is a historic house at 1 John Wing Road on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts....
, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1921 - Sage House (formerly Russell Sage Foundation Building), New York City, 1922-1926
- Holy Trinity RectoryHoly Trinity Church (Manhattan)The Church of the Holy Trinity is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 209 West 82nd Street near Amsterdam Avenue in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The parish was established in 1898.-Buildings:The church was built...
, a four-storey brick rectory at 341 East 87th Street, Manhattan, 1927 (for $50,000). - Pond Mansion, Tucson, Arizona, 1930