How Did Civil War Influence The Development Of American Architecture

Civil war and related political activities directly caused a stagnation of development of architecture. There is no time for people to consider about aesthetic but functions. Therefore, almost all the American architecture that produced during that period of time are large and functional, but no style at all. In 1871, the world-famous Chicago fire happened and destroyed an area of 2024 acres center of the city of Chicago, causing almost two hundred million dollars in property loss. It is a terrible cost for Chicagoans, however, a good turning point for American architecture. The fire wiped out most non-style buildings and left large spaces for architects to start over with much better structures. Just in s short period of time, the whole city was reconstructed with widened streets and better buildings. Like many earlier civilizations, architects designed those reconstructed buildings based on knowledge about architecture from second hand resources like books and paintings, which could only learn things literally without understanding of the principles. But then, the Chicago Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago. People from all over the world come to Chicago

Sullivan was the first architect who coined the idea of aesthetic of skyscraper. However, gothic revival style was not the first choice to incorporate with skyscraper, classical style was picked, with no doubt. After applying classical style to skyscraper, hidden problems then surfaced. First is the problem of columns. Column is an obvious favorite in classical style. It was not only use as supporting structure but also as decorations. When it was add into the design of skyscrapers, the exterior columns were acceptable, but the interior columns took a lot of space, which doesn’t fit with the principle of “Forms follow function”. Second, classical style focuses on horizontal qualities, however, skyscraper is all about height. In essence, classical style doesn’t fit with the design of