1897 in architecture explained

The year 1897 in architecture involved some significant events.

Events

• April 3 – Vienna Secession group founded by Otto Wagner, Joseph Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoffmann among others.
• David Ewart succeeds Thomas Fuller as Chief Dominion Architect of the Government of Canada.
• James Knox Taylor becomes Supervising Architect of the United States Department of the Treasury.

Buildings and structures

Buildings

• May 1
  • Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum, designed by Wilhelm Dahlerup, opens in Copenhagen.
  • Tennessee Centennial Exposition opens in Nashville, with a temporary pyramid for Memphis, TN and a copy of the Parthenon, which will be rebuilt of permanent materials in the 1920s.
• May 12 – The new Oxford Town Hall, designed by Henry Hare, is officially opened in England.
• May 16 – The Teatro Massimo is inaugurated in Palermo; it is the largest opera theatre in Italy and the third in Europe.
• November 1 – The Library of Congress Building in Washington, D.C., designed by Paul J. Pelz, is opened.
• Christmas – The Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul, Tunis, is completed.
• The Secession Building, Vienna, designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich is completed in Austria.
• Glasgow School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, is begun in Scotland.
• Arts and Crafts movement houses in England:
  • Long Copse, Ewhurst, Surrey, designed by Alfred Hoare Powell, built.
  • Munstead Wood, designed by Edwin Lutyens for Gertrude Jekyll, begun.
• The Flatiron Building of Atlanta, Georgia, United States is completed, five years before New York City's more famous structure.
• First Church of Christ, Scientist (Chicago, Illinois), designed by Solon Spencer Beman, is built.
• The Battenberg Mausoleum, Sofia, designed by Hermann Mayer, is completed.
• The Weaver building, a mill at Swansea in Wales, becomes the first building in the United Kingdom to be constructed from reinforced concrete, by L. G. Mouchel to Hennebique patents.^[1]
• Dresden Hauptbahnhof railway station in Germany, designed by Ernst Giese and Paul Weidner, is completed.
• Restoration and remodelling of Castelldefels Castle in Spain by Enric Sagnier is completed.

Awards

• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Pierre Cuypers.

Births

• January 2 – William Henry Harrison, American architect working in Whittier, California (died 1988)
• January 23 – Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (died 2000)
• February 11 – Jacob Christie Kielland, Norwegian architect (died 1972)
• February 25 – Elisabeth Coit, American architect (died 1987)
• April 18 – Charles N. Agree, American architect working in Detroit (died 1982)
• May 15 – Rudolf Schwarz, German architect (died 1961)
• August 16 – Helge Thiis, Norwegian architect and restorer (died 1972)
• September 9 – Nancy Lancaster, née Perkins, American-born interior decorator (died 1994)
• F. X. Velarde, English Catholic church architect (died 1960)

Deaths

• January 10 – David Brandon, Scottish-born architect (born 1813)
• March 25 – Charles Eliot, American landscape architect (born 1859)
• May 6 – George Gilbert Scott, Jr., English architect (born 1839)
• June 22 – William Mason, New Zealand architect (born 1810)
• December 11 – John Loughborough Pearson, British architect (born 1817)^[2]
• William Lang, American architect (born 1846)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Weaver & Co mill, site of. Engineering Timelines. 2010-11-01.
2. Web site: Goold. David. John Loughborough Pearson – Dictionary of Scottish Architects. www.scottisharchitects.org.uk. 19 January 2018.