ember, 
19 20 
19 
IS “ITALIAN” ARCHITECTURE REALLY ITALIAN? 
A Discussion of the Use and Misuse in America of a Type of Architecture Whose Success 
Depends Upon the Three Factors of Design , Detail and Surroundings 
GUY LOWELL 
AMERICA has attained ac- 
ii knowledged pre-eminence 
in several of the branches of art 
during the last twenty years. 
This is particularly true of 
architecture, but our art has not 
been developed under the in¬ 
fluence of American surround¬ 
ings alone. It has been strong¬ 
ly affected by imported artistic 
traditions; the styles we have 
adopted have been firmly found¬ 
ed on foreign styles; we have 
taken the best that Europe had 
to offer by way of examples and 
we have wisely studied the ar¬ 
tistic precedents of other lands 
so as to convert them skilfully 
to our own use. 
What is true of art in general, 
what is true of architecture, is 
particularly true of dwelling 
houses, and many of the charm¬ 
ing designs which we now see in 
all parts of this wide country are 
strongly reminiscent of what we 
have seen and admired on our 
foreign travels. It may have 
been the manoir or chateau sur¬ 
rounded by the tall poplar trees 
of France or mirrored in her 
lazy rivers; it may have been 
the villa overhanging the Alpine 
lake or clinging to the Tuscan 
hillsides; it may have been the 
cottage framed in by the clipped 
hedges and park-like trees of 
England. 
The Renaissance Influence 
There has been above all one 
powerful factor influencing the 
evolution of our American archi¬ 
tecture. As one looks back, 
one comes to feel that there has 
been no more potent influence 
in bringing our American archi¬ 
tecture to its present high point 
of accomplishment than has 
been the influence of the Italian 
Renaissance as interpreted per¬ 
haps first for us by the late 
Charles McKim and as con¬ 
tinued in the work of his dis¬ 
ciples like York, Sawyer, Platt, 
Tracy, Schwartout, Magonigle, 
Faville, whose work has all 
Nothing could be more Italian than the way the house sets on the hill¬ 
side above the canyon, with the sparsely wooded mountains behind it. 
The mass of the house shows the variety of levels so often seen in the 
architecture on Italian hillsides. Guy Lowell, architect 
been strongly influenced by 
what McKim himself taught us; 
and their teachings in turn, 
since we Americans are crea¬ 
tures of habit, have, had a strong 
influence on other architects. 
It is quite natural, then, that 
those motives and those propor¬ 
tions and refinements which 
have been developed by the more 
skilful architects should have 
been copied and adapted by 
others with less skill who have 
felt that in copying the forms 
of Italian architecture, they 
were expressing the spirit of 
Italian art. This unfortunately 
has not always been so. It is 
no wonder then that the feeling 
should have arisen that much 
which professes to be Italian in 
character is not really so, for 
often the buildings have no 
power to recall those charming 
and picturesque houses which 
the traveller has frequently ad¬ 
mired and wished to see trans¬ 
planted to the soil of his own 
country. 
Design, Details and Surroundings 
So the question is often put 
as to why “Italian” architecture 
in America does not really seem 
Italian. The usual explanation, 
which however does not seem to 
me to be the real one, is that a 
great deal of the charm of 
Italian work lies in its obvious 
“antiqueness.” As a matter of 
fact, there are many charming 
buildings in Italy fitting in ad¬ 
mirably with the landscape, 
which have been built in recent 
times, alongside of the older 
buildings from which they are 
copied, and it is quite obvious 
that their charm is not the re¬ 
sult of mildewed plaster, of 
worm-eaten beams and of foot¬ 
worn flagstones, but is due to 
design, to the handling of de¬ 
tail, to the harmonious sur¬ 
roundings above all. If, then, 
we can get in this country a 
skilfully designed house with 
sympathetically handled details, 
