Carrère and Hastings’ designs of the early 20th century evoked the essence of the
American Renaissance and Beaux-Arts classicism. Simple, understated forms as well as
their coherent use of materials resulted in elegant compositions and French classical
motifs.
John Mervin Carrère (1858–1911) left Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to study architecture in
Switzerland and eventually in Paris, at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he met his future
partner. Hastings (1860–1929), a native New Yorker, joined the architectural division of
the furniture-making and decorating firm Herter Brothers after study at Columbia
University. He worked mainly under the guidance of Charles Atwood, who at that time
was busy designing W.H.Vanderbilt’s residence on Fifth Avenue. Both men settled in
New York City in 1883, where they worked for the firm of McKim, Mead and White.
It was not until 1886—when Henry Flagler commissioned Carrère and Hastings (not
McKim, Mead and White) to build a hotel in St. Augustine, Florida—that the new
partnership officially opened offices. The success of the hotel’s Spanish Renaissance
design established the firm and brought other commissions from Flagler, who along with
John D.Rockefeller had established the American institution of Standard Oil.
Carrère and Hastings would spend the next four years under Flagler’s wing as they
assisted in the creation of what the oil baron coined the “American Riviera.” The Ponce
Entries A–F 409
de Leon (1888) was followed shortly thereafter by the Alcazar (1888), in which Spanish
and Moorish motifs intermingled. The two architects not only looked to their past designs
but also employed other influences that were appropriate to St. Augustine’s Spanish past.
The historical background of the city, as well as the designers’ own interpretation of the
Spanish style, formed the basis for the structures. In addition to the unique design, the
construction was significant in that the architects used an innovative combination of
concrete and coquina stone (a mixture of shell and coral). Flagler could not pay the
architects in cash, and their fortune was secured when they were paid in Standard Oil
stock.
Carrère and Hastings were responsible for designing some of the most luxurious
country houses in the United States. Their work reached from Palm Beach, with Flagler’s
Whitehall mansion (1902), to Long Island, with the William K.Vanderbilt, Jr., residence
(1903) in Long Neck, both sumptuous buildings whose elaborate landscaping and
gardens existed as an extension of the house plans. The architecture was articulated by
conforming to the layout of the grounds; as a result, the design of the house was initially
conceived from within. The exterior elements, although important signifiers of style,
became a secondary consideration.
Despite their important business and personal connections, it was Carrère and Hastings’
ingenuity that ensured their professional success when they won the commission for the
New York Public Library in 1897 over rivals McKim, Mead and White. The New York
City Library was probably the most vital of Carrère and Hastings’ creations as it marked
the introduction of Beaux-Arts architecture into the realm of civic building. Unlike their
hotels in St. Augustine, the library competition guidelines were strict and therefore
required conservatism and political savvy; the architects’ solution was to embrace a
French Renaissance Revivalism. The French Beaux-Arts style was easily adapted for
such a project because of the general association with France and French culture, most
notably Henri Labrouste’s influential Bibliothèque Ste. Genevieve of 1851, a luxurious
edifice that had established a standard for library buildings.
Carrère and Hastings’ design was undoubtedly chosen because it best
combined the necessary structural elements into one unified mass,
achieved by using ornamental detail in a way that made the parts come
together in a harmonious whole, an effect that is evident in the
entranceway. The triple arcade within the central pavilion projects from
the mass of the building and is flanked by decorative niches that house
sculptural details. The large arched windows flanking each side of the
entrance indicate the location of the large reading rooms within and are
just one example of external design expressing internal
New York Public Library, New York
City, designed by John Carrère and
Thomas Hastings (1897–1911)
function. However, it is in the rear of the building where this concept is most
successful. The lower wall consists of divided windows housed in narrow slits that
illuminate the book stacks, and the iron stacks are duplicated on the facade by stackshaped
windows. This modernist cue was used to soften the otherwise conservative
design and symbolized Hastings’ architectural doctrine “that direct and honest treatment
of modern problems need not imply stark ugliness nor bizarre novelty of ornament.” The
firm spent 14 years building the New York Public Library. It was this commission, along
with Carrère’s involvement in the Pan-American Exposition, that substantiated the firm
and secured their national popularity. They subsequently secured other New York
commissions including Richmond Borough Hall (1906), the New Theater (1909), and the
design for the Manhattan Bridge (1911) as well as the House and Senate Office Buildings
(1906) in Washington, D.C. In the end, the opening of the library in 1911 would have
been a grand and auspicious occasion if not for the sudden death of Carrère, who had
died unexpectedly two months earlier, after being fatally injured by a taxicab.
