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Cass Gilbert's Woolworth Building

Woolworth Cropped PT

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Representing Engineering: the Eiffel Tower and the Woolworth Building The structures of the Eiffel Tower and Woolworth Building were engineering marvels representative of humanity’s continued forward progress; however, they were equally as much a part of a rapid upheaval of society that affected millions across the world, for the better and for the worse. Due to this, artists gravitated towards these structures. Using these awe-inspiring achievements of engineering as connections to the concept of urban modernity, the artists Robert Delaunay and John Marin best painted the dynamic experiences of the great metropolis.

Before the day of these two artists, it was uncommon to portray specific works of architecture as the focus of a composition. When architecture or engineering was the subject of a particular work, the structures were normally subordinated to secondary focus in landscapes and genre scenes. Delaunay daringly broke tradition with his portrayals of Gustave Eiffel’s controversial, towering abstract structure of wrought iron. Across the Atlantic, John Marin, never one to abide by tradition himself, chose the monumental Woolworth Building as his focus. Both of these artists steered far from past precedent and chose modern marvels of engineering and technology as their subjects; utilizing these subjects as canvases, the artists painted their subjective views of modernity upon them. In both series’ cases, a structure of superb engineering was in some way destructed by tiltation, delineation, or fragmentation. The grand upheaval of both of these represented the destruction of the past, the upheaval of tradition and old society in a chaos of rapid movement, speed, and light. Delaunay and Marin – as well as the Futurists – sought to portray the modern metropolis and all of its experiences. Namely, this could be characterized by an individual’s near-constant state of overstimulation and sustained bombardment by the new, strange, wonderful, and terrifying. Within Champs de Mars: The Red Tower, Delaunay best accomplishes this through his dizzying and rapid changes of perspective, dynamic sense of motion, flamboyant color usage, and sharp, slicing fragmentation of light. Marin similarly accomplishes this, in Woolworth Building No. 31, through his usage of destabilization through whirling, spiraling motion; rapid, rigid destructing of architecture; and the tumultuous chaos of the surrounding buildings and architecture within the city. Drawn to the Eiffel Tower and Woolworth Building by their superb and unparalleled engineering, the artists saw a unique opportunity to represent their urban, modern societies.

Parker Temple
Gilbert's Traditionalism and his Creation of an American Style While the United States and the rest of the Western World were obsessing over Art Deco, in 1926, Gilbert designed a more traditional conservative building for the New York Life Insurance Company. He recycled certain ornamentation from the Woolworth project and used the Gothic style this time it in a more English way: a heavy squat stone building in comparison to the soaring, weightless-yet-grounded Flamboyant French and Low Country style used in the Woolworth Building. Gilbert himself referred to the style of the building, a mix of Renaissance, Gothic and Art Deco as “American Perpendicular.”[1]

Cass Gilbert and Frank Woolworth sought to create a new style for a new type of building: the iconic representation of corporate America. To legitimize capitalist society, the Woolworth building harks back to the grand municipal buildings of the Low Countries. Even as it was understood by contemporary people, the Woolworth Building’s association with ecclesiastical architecture as the Cathedral of Commerce were not a demerit. Gilbert as architect and Woolworth as patron worked to blend disparate Northern European late-Gothic elements into a harmonious whole; much like the United States was a blend of the cultures of Northern Europe, the two men aimed to reflect that notion in their choice of Northern European Gothic influences when designing the Woolworth Building. He was always trying to relate the style of the building to the needs of the client.[2] He had a conservative but not static approach to design, and was able to adapt according to demands of function and market considerations.[3] Gilbert managed to create a new Gothic style that he continued to morph as times changed and clients demanded more modern designs that were still rooted in the past. Cass Gilbert’s versatility and the authenticity of his Gothic work lead me to believe that he was actively seeking a truly American style – the “American Gothic.”

[1] Sharon Irish, Cass Gilbert, 153.
[2] e.g. the choice of monumental heavy Beaux-Arts style for the US Custom House reflected the clients’ desire to emphasize the importance and wealth of the Port of New York, and the choice of Classical architecture in the Supreme Court Building in DC to represent the inheritance of the democratic process from Ancient Greece and Rome.
[3] Irish, Cass Gilbert, 58-59.