Sure. Campaign 2024 on cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. G. Thank you for joining us for toNights Program. We are so thrilled to have you here with us tonight. My name is Stephanie Barnett and im the associate director of Public Programs and Community Outreach here at the greenwich good evening. Thank you for aljoining us. We are so thrilled to have you with us. My name is Stephanie Barnett and i am associate professor of programs and Community Outreach. We are so thrilled to have you and pleased to present the Nights Program on guilded age architecture which will proceed highly anticipated series coming to your screen in october which i am sure you may already know. Before we dive into toNights Program, i will review a few housekeeping details. We welcome American History television from cspan who will be recording which is exciting. We will finish with a wine and cheese reception in the lobby where you came in. That will be around 7 00. You will have the opportunity to buy the book and have it signed by him while you are enjoying your beverages. Finally, as i mentioned, this will be recorded. So we will make sure that you all receive the link after the program. Now it is my sincere pleasure to introduce our speaker for the night, mr. Philip james. An alumnus of the prestigious prince of wales architecture in london. He moved to america more than 20 years ago and after training with architecture firms he founded his own company, philip james dodd. His designed can be found in new york, grenich. He was recipient of the architectural award and named as a top 50 coastal architect by ocean home magazine. He has masters in architecture from university of notre dame and undergraduate from architecture from the Manchester School of architecture. He is fellow of classical architecture and art and serves as a commissioner. Now it is my pleasure to welcome mr. Philip james dodd. [ applause ] thank you very much, stephanie. Thank you for everyone here for inviting me to talk with you this evening. Tonight we are going to be looking at some of the material from my book an american renaissance. You saw the big huge back. Its 412 pages. In the 412 pages we span from 1875 to 1928 and we tell the story of not just 20 buildings but stories of the people that designed and commissioned them. Before i forget, and i always do, on the front cover of the book is interior of grants tomb which was completed in 1897. When this was finished, the whole generation, this was second most visited attraction in new york city behind only the statue of liberty. Everybody has forgotten about it now. People really only remember it from marks who is in grants tomb. By only featuring 20 buildings, we are able to really showcase them in detail. Details like in the University Club, whh well get a snippet tonight. In the book u have over 30 dicated pages with new photography. With that in mind, a couple people i would like to thank. On the left is john wallen, my collaborator on the project who took all the wonderful photographs and next to him is julien fellows who wrote the forward to the book. When i started work on this, i realized i needed somebody famous to write the forward because nobody knows who i am. He just finished Downton Abbey and there was a rumor that he would be working on an american vision. I have was able to reach out to them. Maybe i will tell the story later on over an alcoholic beverage. He agreed to write the forward to my book and after that, it was just very serendipitous that it would take me five years to finish and it would take him five years to finish what would become the guilded age on hbo. As stephanie said, those who are fans, season 2 is out october 29 at 9 00 p. M. So in the 9 00 p. M. Slot, i am a big believer that the success of a tv series, a book, even the design of a house comes down to good story telling. This evening, i am going to tell stories of four of the buildings that are featured inside the book. All of these start with this elegant built for vanderbilt and this was called petite shadow. It was built in 1882 in a style that would become known as vanderbilt gothic. [ laughter ] this house literally transformed architecture in america. I often get asked what is the biggest architectural loss in this country . The standard answer to that is penn station. But you can make an argument that actually this is right up there with it for how influential this building was. While the architecture and the architect are different, the story of the petite shadow is the inspiration behind the story of the russell house and the tv series where the portrayal is very much based upon vanderbilt. This is one of the things done well in the tv series. All the characters are fictitious and yet based on real life people. Then he intersperses them with historical figures like donna murphys portrayal and then nathan lane portrays ward mcalister. He uses a lot of stories that actually occurred. So the story and the tv show of howerussell is able to persuade mr. Asker to attend is a true story with vanderbilt and chateau. The architect who designed it is richard hunt referred to as dean of american architecture. He is First American to study where he did in paris. Second is richardson which people would know in boston who designed trinity church. Third is a senior partner and after that, the flood gates opened. Almost every architect of consequence from the generation attends. A couple exceptions. Stanford white, george post, daniel burn em did not. They did all make sure that their sons attended. When they were in paris, they learned not one style of architecture but learned about architecture of ancient greece and roam as well as italian and french renaissance. They traveled around europe and got introduced to medieval architecture. When they came back to the states, they have all the styles together in what they called american bozarts architecture. In newport designed for vanderbilt ii, marble house also in newport which was designed for william kissing vanderbilt. He had that designed as a birthday present. When when got divorced a lot of people think she got marble house as part of a divorce settlement but it had already been gifted as a birthday present. He designed built more estate in asheville, North Carolina for George Washington vanderbilt ii. In new york city, only three of his buildings remain. They used to line the streets of new york. The only three that still remain are the pedestal to the statue of liberty, vanderbilt family mausoleum and wing d. I say wing d, this was completed in 1902 and faces on to fifth avenue. I say wing d because most biddings in the guilded age, when they got too small, they knocked them down and built something bigger, knocked it down and built something bigger. They didnt at the met. At the met they kept adding wings. So it really kind of becomes this living breathing kind of architectural history of america over the last 150 years. Anybody who has been to the met, dont ask me how we took this photograph because 24 hours a day, there was a hot dog stand right at the bottom of the steps, which we managed to somehow get rid of. If you walk in to the building and you go you were the steps, walk through the entrance, go to the back of the building into the layman gallery, which the layman gallery is wing o, added in the 70s by kevin roach, if you turn around this is what you see, the original structure. This is wing a. This faced on to central park. So the original entrance to the met faced on to the park. The reason is this was designed by calvin vax, the architect of central park. Everyone recommends olmstead but he was the junior partner. Vax was the senior partner. He trained under downing and was a proponent of the picturesque style of architecture that was described by emma stones venice. From a short time we go fr this picturesque monument to the classic of wing d. Thats how much it washifting during the timeperiod. A lot of people thk this is the original entrance. This isnt. This is wing b and was added by theodore weston who is a civil engineer. This is really the only building he ever did. This faces south towards where the city was. It is now part of the petri sculpture gallery which is wing y which was added in the 90s by kevin roach. I hope you are keeping track of the wings. There will be a test after it. This is an archival shot. Thats an old image. To get your bearings you see cleopatras needle, installed when central park was completed in 1880. Another archival image, wing d, the original entrance. This is before the flanking wings were later added. Just to get an idea of scale, you can see those carriages at the front. Also look at the steps. Theyre bigger than original steps of the building which were treacherously steep and they were replaced and you see the wings that were added. You come into the great hall of the metropolitan museum, 166 feet long, 48 wide, three stories tall. You have to remember when this was built, there was not a space like this in new york city. This completely transformed how people kind of experienced grand spaces which we kind of take for granted now. This is the first time they were structurally able to do this. It is based upon the in rome. Its all clad in limestone and we come to take these photographs. A lot of the buildings you went to on several occasions. With the met, they let us in once. We had to get there at 6 00 in the morning and had to be done by the time they opened at 10 00. We would go into the staff entrance on the northside. We are used to going to buildings where we got name badges, there are metal detecters, all sorts of security. We come in and theyre like you are the people here to photograph . Yeah. Okay, in you come. I am like have they never seen the thomas crown affair . I realized how many cameras must have been on it. We come to this shot. Until this point we made a point of having no people in the images. We realized we couldnt take it. Without any people there was no sense of scale. We photographed elsewhere and came back when it opened at 8 00 for private tours so we could get people in to give it a sense of scale. The wonderful saucershaped dome, structurally it was done by gasterbino. It was clad and had more than ornaments on this that were stripped back in the 1930s. You climb the Grand Staircase. This is by Richard Morris hunt. It led to vaxs original wing, second floor of his original wing. At the top of the staircase is the triumph. Back outside, these are new steps that kevin roach added, you get to see the wings either side which Charles Mckim later added. The facade of fifth avenue spans over 1,000 feet and four city blocks. Its absolutely huge. On the outside of the building, this is what most people kind of remember. So, believe it or not, there is over 31 pieces of sculpture on the building, all done by kyle better who did a lot of work with Richard Morris hunt. There was meant to be the great sculptures of ancient mid eve a i will art which was supposed to go over these. Hunt died about seven years before the met was finished. It was taken over by his son richard hunt. No money left, the museum decided they wouldnt do the sculpture. Hunt, jr being a little bit massive aggressive, decided he would hoist the unattractive piles of stone up there in a way to persuade the met that it was so unattractive they would have to do this sculpture. 150 years later, those bitsof stone are still there. You can see it didnt really work. Nt was so well regarded that when he passed away, this memorial was built for them. Its on fifth avenue on central park between 70th and 71st street. If you want to go into architecture and want monuments, architecture is not the profession. This is the only monument in america to an architect. The sculpturebruce price is better known as father of post who wrote the book on social etiquette. So from one grand building to another, during the guilded age, the center of the economy was the thriving railroads. In particular one family, vanderbilt family. We stood in the Vanderbilt Education Center so its nice to be talking about the vanderbilt family. If i was just going to talk about Grand Central and the vanderbilts, that would be the whole evening. We are going to fast forward through a lot of that. By 1819, the Family Business is being run by william kissing vanderbilt he of the petite chateau. The vanderbilts controlled all the railroads to the north of new york city. Harlem, hudson, new haven lines. Thats why metro north gets the name of the old train alliance. They built the original station called Grand Central depot. It was built in 1871 by john snook, second empire style, same location on 42nd street. In 1898 which is when this was taken, it was given a face lift by gilbert and renamed Grand Central station. This was still hardly the way to enter into this great city which was trying to rival great cities of the world of london and paris and rome. What is that joke . You wait for a bus and two come along at the same time. Thats what happened. We go from no train stations to two. First, penn station in 1910 and three years later, we get what would become Grand Central terminal in 1913. If you look at the very top right hand corner, you will see an eagle up there. That eagle was reused. Its cast iron. There are a few of them on the prior building and they reused not just on this building, but a lot of sculptures, when buildings were taken down they used the sculpture. They use a lot of the eagles elsewhere. Entering Grand Central on the corner of 42nd look up and you will see the eagle salvaged from one of the previous iterations. The designed of Grand Central terminal, from depot to station to terminal, it was a collaboration between two architectural films. The first was readen stem and they were from st. Paul, minnesota. They specialized in designing train stations. It was their Organizational Skills that were responsible for the elevated road way that allows to wrap around Grand Central. Then also for the ramps inside, stair cases. This may seem common sense but this is one of the problems penn station had. Beautiful stair cases which were not ideal, only if you were hauling a lot of suit cases around with you. It actually sped up the pedestrian traffic as well. The second firm just finished in new york yacht club. Think and in particular Whitney Warren were responsible for artistic composition of Grand Central terminal which is one of the great spaces in new york city. It measures 12 stories tall, 275 feet long, 120 feet wide. We were at either end of the concourse, and you see the arch windows. Behind those are walkways which lead to offices. This photograph is taken high up on one of the walkways peering through the window. The ceiling is in blue with gold leaf constellations and stars are illuminated by tiny electric lights. It is depicted as a view of the heavens from aquariums of cancer in an october sky. That means not the view looking up but the view looking down. It is astronomically incorrect. There have been so many conspiracy theories as to why it is wrong. Really the most obvious answer is the artist who is from brooklyn, he just made a stake. [ laughter ] again, i love th image. In a renovation done quite a long time ago i think in the 1940s, the ceiling was covered by 1,944 concrete asbestos boards each measuring four feet by eight feet. If you look, you can see the four feet by eight feet boards with the rivets holding them in. When restored in the 1990s it has decided it was too dangerous and expensive to remove those. Sothey were cleaned and repainted and are still up there. Around the windowswe ve are he leaf sculpture which kind of alternates between wing locomotives i wish we took the wing locomotive shot because thats a nicer picture. This one is a globe surrounded by clouds and theyre meant to be emblems of world travel. Over the entrance to each of the train tracks are these panels that incorporate the vanderbilt, the monogram, in and because they were new money, vanderbilts, they didnt have previous heraldry. So it had to be invented for them and they adopted acorn and oak leaves as the family emblem. Most of the interior of Grand Central is actually constructed from what we call cheyenne stone which is a crushed stone. It gives the appearance that it is all limestone, but it is not. The reading room, a lot of interiors of new york blic library are built out of this as well. The structural, sculptal composition on the front facade is titled transportation. It was modeled in plaster at core to scale by an artist. The model was shipped to america d was full scale in long island city. When they asked jules to come and over see the installation, he refused. He said he would be offended by all the buildings. Typical french, wasnt a fan of american architecture. I can say that because i am english. This would be put in place over a year after Grand Central was completed. Grand central remains the largest train station in the world. The story of Grand Central very much goes hand in hand with story of penn station that we have already mentioned and is demolitioned in 1960s and led to the creation of the new York Preservation commission which was put in place to safeguard other buildings from the same fate including Grand Central station. Penn station was designed by mckim, meade, white and principally by Charles Mckim. Charles mckim is in the center and in ex to him on the left is William Meade who was the managing partner of the firm. He said his job was to stop the other two from making fools of themselves. Closest to me is the infamous Stanford White. You have to understan