The Marshall Field Store by Henry Hobson Richardson

                Background

      The Romanesque Revival is a term used to refer to the use of Romanesque architecture in the nineteenth century. Romanesque architecture was used around the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, and featured round arches as opposed to the pointed tips frequently seen in Gothic architecture. Shown below is Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France. It is one of the most easily recognizable forms of Gothic architecture.

                                                         




                                        

       This building, on the other hand, is one of the buildings of the Smithsonian Institute, built in the 1850s. The absence of pointed spires is one important characteristic that distinguishes Romanesque architecture from Gothic architecture. Other features of Romanesque architecture include belt courses (seams in the building), corbel tables (the square, toothlike edges below the belt courses), and rounded arches.

                     Richardson

       Henry Hobson Richardson was influenced by the Romanesque Revival after studying architecture in Paris while the Civil War was going on in America. Richardson moved back to the United States after the war ended and helped rebuild the Trinity Church in New York after a fire destroyed it in 1872. The new church's design shows the influence that the Romanesque Revival had on Richardson.



        Richardson later used the Romanesque style to design the Marshall Field Store for the city of Chicago in 1885. With no decorative arches, large windows, and a uniform reddish color, the building characterizes functionalism, which was an idea developed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright that buildings should serve the purpose that they are built for. In the case of the Marshall Field Store, it was a seven-story department store featuring goods of just about every kind available, with about 500,000 square feet of space.
        Richardson was not the only Romanesque architect who worked in America. Other architects included Louis Sullivan and William Le Baron Jenney, who made similar styles of buildings in Chicago and New York as well. The common unifying theme amongst all three architects was that the improvements of building material, mainly the introduction of iron and steel, allowed for taller and stronger buildings to be built.





Home Insurance Building, William Le Baron Jenney.


 Guaranty Trust Building, Louis Sullivan.