University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Simply American: Simplicity in Architectural Arrangement, Construction, and Standards, 1820-1920 Fred William Esenwein University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Esenwein, Fred William, "Simply American: Simplicity in Architectural Arrangement, Construction, and Standards, 1820-1920" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1703. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1703 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1703 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Simply American: Simplicity in Architectural Arrangement, Construction, and Standards, 1820-1920 Abstract The term “simplicity” frequently appeared in American architectural discourse from the nineteenth to early twentieth century. Ironically, this was a historical period associated with the Gilded Age, and an architectural period known for historicism and superfluous ornament. tA least, that is how architects and critics from the mid-twentieth century characterized the lack of simplicity in nineteenth century architecture. Their interpretation of simplicity as rejecting nonfunctional ornament and historicist association overlooked the various early modern architectural implications explored throughout nineteenth century architecture. Instead, I explain how and why designers from