College of Fine Arts - Carnegie Mellon University: Andrew Carnegie had a vision to create a world-class technical school in Pittsburgh. To make that vision a reality — which would eventually become Carnegie Tech and then Carnegie Mellon University — he needed an architect to build a community. Enter Henry Hornbostel, a recent graduate of architecture at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
6 comments:
I’ve always thought the architecture of CFA was so interesting. I remember when I toured campus it was one of the stops, for obvious reasons. I first took notice of its exterior facade in like the second week of school, where I happened to be walking along the side with the chapel-like niches and noticed how they were all obviously referencing various periods in art history. Later in the semester when we were doing the grid drawings of CFA for Studiocraft: Drawing, I obviously became very well acquainted with a particular section of CFA, which I selected mostly because of how graceful and beautiful the ceiling was. So it was really awesome to read about the architect who designed the building in this article—it was especially vindicating to see that indeed, Hornbostel was specifically inspired by a recent trip across Europe when designing the exterior facade of CFA. When reading more about Hornbostel, I found out that he actually personally convinced Andrew Carnegie to establish a school of architecture, and later served as its dean. What a guy!
What I find super cool about this is that we can see all the drafting of this building. This is very similar to what we are currently learning in drafting, and I think that this is super cool to look at. I also think it is really cool that one of the family members of the architect is trying to trace back her family’s roots and work. I think it's super cool that this bloodline can be traced back to CMU. I think it's really cool to see the original draft for the College of Fine Arts digitized, and I think it's really cool that I can see the section view of the drafts and the elevations, which is what we're currently learning so I think that it's very relevant to read this article about family ties in the drafting of the college of fine arts and this is like adjacent to what we're learning in drafting right now.
I think it’s super interesting to read about history and the people that came before us in places that we take for granted. I often forget that our world had nothing in it before us and every building, street, sign, and piece of furniture had to be though of and made by someone. So to read about someone who designed the buildings and campus that I walk through daily is super eye opening to the amount of love and labor that went into my school. What’s more, I like that we can see the drafts that he made and still have his journal that he recorded all his findings and thoughts in. To me, this show genuine appreciation for the work that he put in and the impact that he has left on Carnegie Mellon. Overall, I think I will appreciate CFA and the architecture on campus a lot more than before, knowing how much work went into it and the legacy that it has made.
I think my favorite part about all of this is the architectural drafting we can see from this article. I’ve always found drafting to be so elegant and an elegant drawing of such an elegant building at the College of Fine Arts building is, is really interesting! It's really sweet to see how the family members of Hornbostel are taking the time to look back on his work. I find the scribbles of notes all across his drafting to be quite relatable as to what my personal sketches look like when I am designing scenery or props, chicken scratching of notes all across the paper that will only really make sense to the creator and no one else. I think it's really perfect that the main art building on campus was designed by someone with such a creative mind, Hornbostel really took the time to capture the essence of what the College of Fine Arts would be like before it was even created!
Im sure I would definitely not be in the minority if I said the CFA building was my favorite architectural building on campus, its hard for anything else on campus to even begin to compete with it. I hadn't realized that Hornbostel also design soldiers and sailors, but it makes a LOT of sense. He has a very distinct style with the embellishments he uses and the way he uses geometry in space. The article mentions that he spent a lot of time faithfully studying European architecture in preparation for his designs, which makes sense as well. I LOVE looking at his architectural plans, I know the CMU instagram account posted some of them earlier this year and I spent a lot of time looking at them. Architecture is one of my favorite art forms, I think its so cool how architects work with history and semiotics to build these massive spaces that can evoke emotion through their presence alone.
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