George B. Post
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George Browne Post (December 15, 1837 - November 28, 1913) was a U.S. architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition. Post was a student of Richard Morris Hunt, but unlike many architects of his generation, he had previously received a degree in civil engineering (New York University, 1858).
Many of his most characteristic projects were for commercial buildings, where new requirements pushed the traditional boundaries of design. Many of them have also been demolished, since their central locations made them vulnerable to rebuilding in the 20th century. Some of his lost buildings were landmarks of their era, nevertheless. His eight-story Equitable Life Assurance Society (1868–70), was the first office building to use elevators. His Western Union Telegraph Building (1872–75) at Dey Street in Lower Manhattan, was the first office building to rise as high as ten stories, a forerunner of skyscrapers to come. When it was erected in "Newspaper Row" facing City Hall Park, Post's 20-story World Building (1889–90) was the tallest building in New York City.
His vast New York Produce Exchange (1881–84) at Number Two Broadway faced Bowling Green. Its grand skylighted hall, based on French retail structures, cast daylight into the lower floors.
At the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, Post produced the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building.
He also designed more staid public and semi-public structures: the New York Stock Exchange Building and the Wisconsin State Capitol. Among the prominent private houses by Post were the French chateau for Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1879–82) that once stood at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, and the palazzo that faced it across the street, for Collis P. Huntington (1889–94). In Newport, Rhode Island he built for the president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, C.C. Baldwin, "Chateau-Nooga" or the Baldwin Cottage (1879–80), a polychromatic exercise in the "Quaint Style" withbargeboards and half-timbering; John La Farge provided stained glass panels.
A true member of the American Renaissance, Post employed noted artists and artisans to produce decorative sculpture and murals. Among those who worked with him were the sculptor Karl Bitter and the painter Elihu Vedder. he was a founding member of the National Arts Club and served as its president from 1898 to 1905.
Post's extensive archives are at the New-York Historical Society. Sarah Bradford Landau, George B. Post, Architect: Picturesque Designer and Determined Realist (1998) inspired the retrospective exhibition at the Society, 1998–99 that reassessed Post's work.
Surviving works by George B. Post
- The original Williamsburgh Savings Bank (1870–75), Brooklyn, New York. Solidly classicizing and capped with a dome
- Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, New York (1878–80)
- New York Cotton Exchange
- New York Stock Exchange (1901–03)
- College of the City of New York Campus (1903–07), in Gothic Revival style
- Montreal Stock Exchange (1904), Montreal, Canada
- Cleveland Trust Company (1908), Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
References
- Landau, Sarah Bradford, George B. Post:Picturesque Designer and Determined Realist, the Monacelli Press, New York, 1998
- ["George B. Post: Great American Architect"] New-York Historical Society exhibition
- [Archinform: George B. Post]
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