SESSION I    9:15 - 10:00
RICHARD GUY WILSON

McKim, Mead & White and the
American Renaissance
Between the 1870s and the early 1900s the New York architects Charles Follen McKim, William R. Mead, and Stanford White helped change the face of American architecture. Employing the leading American artists, McKim, Mead & White produced decorated buildings that led the way to the revival of American art.
From their earlier shingled buildings in Newport, RI, to their later grand classical buildings such as the Boston Public Library and Pennsylvania Station, they established for the United States a new architectural lineage that connected with both the country's past and the grand traditions of the old world.

SESSION II 10:30 - 11:45
Introduction: William Varieka,
William Varieka Fine Arts

SAMUEL WHITE FAIA, Buttrick, White & Burtis LLP

The Transitional Houses of McKim, Mead & White

The houses designed by MM&W between the early 1880s and the mid-1890's are distinctly different from both their early work in the "shingle style" and the academic classicism that defined the firm's output during last fifteen years of the partnership. These transitional houses look forward and backward in the firm's chronology as well as possess distinctive characteristics that relate to neither of the firm's better known periods. I propose to explore the formal characteristics of the city and country residences from this middle phase, with the goal of increasing both awareness and appreciation for these original designs.

BOX LUNCH 11:45-12:30
TRANSPORTATION TO NEWPORT ART MUSEUM

NEWPORT ART MUSEUM
SESSION III 1:15 - 2:15

Welcome & Introduction: Christine Callahan, Director, Newport Art Museum

JOYCE SCHILLER
Associate Curator 19th Century Art Delaware Art Museum

More Than Pigeon Roosts: Saint-Gaudens' Public Monument Collaborations with McKim and White
Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens preferred to work with the creative spatial and design input of an architect in the planning and creation of his public monuments. His most important collaborative projects were done with Charles Follen McKim and Stanford White.

This paper will discuss the working style of some of their collaborative projects and the divergent form of their creations.

During the late 1870s, John La Farge (1835-1910) emerged as one of the foremost figures in American decorative art, primarily for his innovative development a new type of stained-glass window called opalescent. Among those strongly influenced by La Farge's ideas about decoration were two artists of a younger generation, Charles Follen McKim and Stanford White. From McKim, La Farge obtained his first major commission for an opalescent window in 1879 and received a personal commission for a memorial to McKim's wife in 1887. For his part, White commissioned La Farge to design a series of memorial windows for the White family church on Long Island in the 1890s and brought La Farge into numerous collaborations with the firm of McKim, Mead & White. Notwithstanding these many projects, La Farge took McKim, Mead & White to task publicly at the end of his life for not giving him even more opportunities for decorative work.

3:30-5:30 TOURS: NEWPORT ART MUSEUM VARIEKA GALLERY

7:00 RECEPTION - DINNER OCHRE COURT

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27

SESSION V   8:30 - 9:30

Introduction: Christopher Kiernan, Professor, American Studies, Salve Regina University

MOSETTE BRODERICK
Urban Design and Architecture Studies Program Department of Fine Arts New York University

HELPING HANDS
McKim, Mead & White were the nation's pre-eminent architects at the beginning of the 20th century. The firm gave visual form to the dreams of Presidents and Robber Barons with designs for their houses, clubs and cultural institutions. How did three middle class young men without wildly evident talent achieve their status as the creators of the buildings of "imperial" America. This talk will focus on the architects, their colleagues in the office and the clients who will propel the firm to the first rank.

Gilded Lilies & More: The Splendid Interiors of Mckim, Mead, & White.

From Renaissance palazzos, French chateaux, and English country houses, this talk will compare the 17th and 18th century European sources used by the firm and discuss how they adapted and furnished their 20th century creations for their American patrons. Also to be considered are the roles played by other decorating firms, such as Allard, Herter Brothers, and Baumgarten to achieve the total 'assemblage'.

A close look at the Boston Public Library, the passionate debate surrounding its policies around the time that it was being built, and the way McKim used art to participate subtly in these debates points to an outlook that is neither populist nor aristocratic. Instead, McKim's created an aesthetic that might be called "democratic luxuriance." This paper will show how McKim shaped what could have been a reassertion of noblesse oblige into an exciting egalitarian space.

From the early phases of experimentation with H.H. Richardson through the tentative definition of the "New Colonial Style" in the 1880s, the Newport cottage interiors of McKim, Mead & White reflected the blend of Queen Anne, New England Colonial, and Orientalist design sources that were to become the firm's signature. How these influences came to share power and cohesively unveil themselves in the picturesque decorative package that became the Isaac Bell House will be the focus of this talk.

Rosecliff was designed as a retreat from worldly cares. Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs required a house that was suitable for staging lavish parties, indeed, some of the most legendary of Gilded Age Newport. As the consummate designer of the Gilded Age, Stanford White had an exceptional talent for theatrical architecture and ornament. He created a Terra cotta palace based on the Grand Trianon of Versailles. The floor plans of Rosecliff, the decoration of the facades and the building materials were marshalled together to achieve one objective, the creation of a house devoted to a world of fantasy.

By 1890, the clamor for a new state capitol had reached fever pitch. Rhode Island citizens demanded a structure which reflected the states' aspirations and the pre-eminence of Providence as the second city of New England. A two-year architectural competition selected the entry by McKim, Mead, and White from a field of local and national architects. Their design, which forges historical forms with technological innovation, consolidates the essential elements of American Classicism, and became a prototype for civic structures and state capitols across the country.