Copyright by Rina Cathleen Faletti 2015
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Copyright by Rina Cathleen Faletti 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Rina Cathleen Faletti Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Undercurrents of Urban Modernism: Water, Architecture, and Landscape in California and the American West Committee: Richard Shiff, Co-Supervisor Michael Charlesworth, Co-Supervisor Anthony Alofsin Ann Reynolds Penelope Davies John Clarke Undercurrents of Urban Modernism: Water, Architecture, and Landscape in California and the American West by Rina Cathleen Faletti, B.A., M.F.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2015 Undercurrents of Urban Modernism: Water, Architecture, and Landscape in California and the American West Rina Cathleen Faletti, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 Co-Supervisors: Richard Shiff and Michael Charlesworth Abstract: “Undercurrents of Urban Modernism: Water, Architecture, and Landscape in California and the American West” conducts an art-historical analysis of historic waterworks buildings in order to examine cultural values pertinent to aesthetics in relationships between water, architecture and landscape in the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. Visual study of architectural style, ornamental iconography, and landscape features reveals cultural values related to water, water systems, landscape/land use, and urban development. Part 1 introduces a historiography of ideas of “West” and “landscape” to provide a context for defining ways in which water and landscape were conceived in the United States during turn-of-the-century urban development in the American West. Part 2 provides a historical context for California waterworks with a discussion of major U.S. city waterworks from 1799 to 1893 in Philadelphia, Louisville, New York, and New Orleans. Primary architectural styles discussed are Greek Revival, Egyptian Revival, and Roman Revival. Part 3 presents the dissertation’s central object of study: waterworks and hydropower architecture for the greater San Francisco Bay Area between 1860 and 1939. From substations to dams, architects who designed waterworks structures drew from historical revival, academic eclecticism, and structural design traditions. The specific waterworks structures anchoring inquiry in this chapter are two iv round, peripteral, neoclassical water temples built for San Francisco’s water supply to mark key underground aqueduct features. I analyze these two temples—the Sunol Water Temple from 1910 and the Pulgas Water Temple from 1939—in formal terms as well as from within broader urban and historical contexts. Part 4 culminates the dissertation with a case study of two dams whose aesthetic features were obscured by unneeded buttresssing when concerns for dam safety arose after a Southern California dam failure had killed several hundred people in 1928. I inquire into a cultural ambivalence stemming that seems to stem from historical conflicts determining the relative aesthetics of “use” and “beauty” in utilitarian waterworks structures. The overall questions in this dissertation inquire into ways in which aesthetic aspects of architectural design of waterworks structures expressed cultural values regarding water, architecture, and landscape in California between 1860 and 1939. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: BETWEEN EDEN AND EMPIRE: LANDSCAPE IDEALS AND ARCHITECTURAL AESTHETICS FOR CALIFORNIA WATERWORKS .................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 2 CULTURAL IMAGES OF “W EST ”: IF A TREE FALLS IN THE LANDSCAPE … ................................................................... 3 THE AMERICAN WEST AND THE LANDSCAPE IMAGE ................... 5 HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN WEST ............................... 5 THE LANDSCAPE IDEAL AND COLD , HARD WATER ................... 10 WATERWORKS ARCHITECTURE AND THE WHITE CITY .............. 14 MATERIAL VALUE : AMERICAN AESTHETICS , MACHINE TECHNOLOGY , AND GILDED AGE CRITICS ........................ 18 CALIFORNIA ARCHITECTURE HISTORY : WATERWORKS IN CONTEXT ........................................................................ 24 WATER IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS FOR CALIFORNIA AND THE AMERICAN WEST ............................................................ 27 CALIFORNIA CONTEXTS FOR A HISTORY OF WATER , ARCHITECTURE , AND LANDSCAPE .................................... 30 PART 2: AMERICAN WATERWORKS ARCHITECTURE, 1800 - 1880 A BRIEF PROLOGUE : AESTHETIC AMBIVALENCE .................................. 34 CHAPTER 2 ARCHITECT -ENGINEERS AND THE AMERICAN GREEK -REVIVAL WATER TEMPLE : PHILADELPHIA AS TEMPLATE , LOUISVILLE AS COMPANION ............................................................................... 37 GREEK REVIVAL ORIGINS FOR AMERICAN WATERWORKS IN PHILADELPHIA ................................................................. 37 BENJAMIN LATROBE ’S ROUND TEMPLE : CENTER SQUARE WATER WORKS (1801) ................................................................ 41 vi PHILADELPHIA ’S WATERWORKS ON THE SCHUYLKILL : NEW URBAN PARK (1811-1820) .............................................. 54 GREEK REVIVAL FOR THE NEW FAIRMOUNT WATER WORKS OF 1820 ........................................................................... 58 CULTURAL PROMINENCE OF THE FAIRMOUNT WATERWORKS SITE ................................................................................ 60 FAIRMOUNT ’S ENGINEERING LEGACY ...................................... 64 SILENCES IN WATERWORKS DESIGN ATTRIBUTION : ARCHITECT AS CONSULTANT , OR ENGINEER AS DESIGNER ? ............... 66 BANKING ON GREEK REVIVAL : LATROBE ’S FIRST TWO BUILDINGS , SIDE -BY-SIDE .............................................. 76 BRITISH AND FRENCH INFLUENCES ON AMERICAN PUBLIC WORKS DESIGN ............................................................... 79 GREEK REVIVAL IN KENTUCKY : LOUISVILLE WATERWORKS (1860 AND 1893) ............................................................ 85 GRAFF IN PHILADELPHIA , SCOWDEN IN LOUISVILLE : INFLUENCE AND INTERCHANGE ........................................ 86 PHILADELPHIA & LOUISVILLE : UNTANGLING COMPLEXITIES OF MUTUAL INFLUENCE ....................................................... 91 CHAPTER 3 ALLURE OF THE ANCIENT : MANHATTAN ’S WATERWORKS HISTORY .... 94 THE MANHATTAN COMPANY ’S WATER MONOPOLY : FAILURE TO OVERCOME INERTIA (1799 – 1830 S) ............. 95 ROUND AND OCTAGONAL TEMPLES IN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE : MANHATTAN ’S 13 TH STREET RESERVOIR (1835) AND IMPLICATIONS FOR WATERWORKS HISTORY ......................................................................... 98 NEW YORK CITY ’S 1842 CROTON AQUEDUCT : BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF WATER ENGINEERING .......................... 102 CROTON AQUEDUCT ’S HIGH ARCADE (1838 – 1848): TRANSPORTATION CANAL CROSSINGS AS PRECURSORS TO AQUEDUCT BRIDGES ................................................ 105 EGYPTIAN REVIVAL : THE AQUEDUCT ’S MURRAY HILL TERMINAL RESERVOIR (1842) ....................................... 118 vii “W EST ” AND “F RONTIER ” IN THE 19 TH CENTURY : IMPLICATIONS FOR WATERWORKS ................................. 134 PART 3: ARCHITECT AS“SPECIALIST IN PUBLIC-UTILITY ARCHITECTURE”: 19TH-CENTURY ACADEMIC ECLECTICISM AND WATERWORKS FOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ........... 138 CHAPTER 4 THE ROUND WATER TEMPLE AT SUNOL : UNRAVELING POLK ’S DESIGN PROCESS ............................................................. 139 IONIC TO CORINTHIAN IN FIFTY VARIATIONS ........................... 143 ANCIENT ROME ’S ROUND TEMPLE AT TIVOLI AS MODEL FOR SUNOL .......................................................................... 151 THE PROBLEM OF “S IGHTLY EFFECT ”: LANDSCAPE ALTERATION FOR VISUAL DRAW ....................................................... 159 CHAPTER 5 WATER FOR POWER : HYDRAULIC SUBSTATION DESIGN FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA ............................................... 167 ARCHITECTS DESIGN “C ITY ” AND “O UT -OF -TOWN ” SUBSTATION STYLES ..................................................... 170 MONUMENT REMNANTS : “C ITY ” STYLE FOR WATER AND HYDROPOWER STATIONS ............................................... 173 ICONOGRAPHY OF HYDROPOWER : TURBINE , DYNAMO , BOLT .. 184 “O UT OF TOWN ” SUBSTATION DESIGN AND CALIFORNIA ’S MISSION REVIVAL STYLE .............................................. 189 CALIFORNIA BUNGALOW STYLE SUBSTATIONS : HISTORICAL REVIVAL REDUX (AD INF ) .............................................. 206 CHAPTER 6 WORD AS ICONOGRAPHY: “D IGNITY ” FOR CORPORATE WATERWORKS ...................................................................... 209 “D IGNITY ” AND THE EDITOR ’S ROLE : PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY MAGAZINES .................................................. 213 RHETORIC AS ORNAMENT : WATER AND THE WORD OF GOD ... 216 viii CHAPTER 7 SPRING VALLEY WATER COMPANY ’S HIGH -RISE HISTORY , 1865-1923 ............................................................................... 222 THE WATER COMPANY ’S BEGINNINGS IN CORPORATE ARCHITECTURE ............................................................. 223 SPRING VALLEY WATER COMPANY ’S UNION SQUARE OFFICE BUILDING : CORNERSTONE FOR A FUTURE EPICENTER OF LUXURY COMMERCE ..................................................... 227 CHAPTER 8 WATER ICONOGRAPHY AS KEYSTONE :W ILLIS POLK ’S SPRING VALLEY WATER COMPANY OFFICE BUILDING