Here, for the first time in this century, is an opportunity to reexamine the philosophy of the Beaux-Arts school of architecture, whose two-hundred-year history represented the body of ideas and buildings against which the modern movement rebelled. Based on the doctrines of architecture formulated by the French Academy during the eighteenth century, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts system of instruction stressed drawing as the primary means of visualizing architectural form. The Concours du Grand Prix de Romewas the ultimate test of ability, and thus the index of the Academy's ideals throughout this period. This book reproduces, in more than 200 drawings, projects for the Grand Prix and for virtually every other type of competition or assignment at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Included are drawings by students who subsequently became preeminent as professional architects—among them Henri Labrouste, architect of the Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve, and Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris Opera. All illustrations are accompanied by extensive explanatory captions, and a selection of important larger studies appear on specially folded inserts, enabling the reader to view them in unusually clear and precise detail. Complementing the student work reproduced here is a selection of photographs by major Beaux-Arts buildings executed in France and the United States. In all, the book contains 423 illustrations, 23 in color, and 10 inserts. The Architecture of the Ecole des Beaux-Artsoffers an enlightening analysis of the school. The authors examine Beaux-Arts concepts of theory and practice and assess major work by each of the school's main factions. The essay by Richard Chafee covers the school's complex political and administrative history and is followed by a survey of the school's evolving notions of architectural composition—from Charles Percier through Garnier—by David Van Zanten. Neil Levine discusses the emergence of the Neo-Grecand the ideas of Labrouste, which in their preoccupation with literature and meaning in architecture parallel some recent concerns. In the final essay, Arthur Drexler examines such issues as the uses of the past, the ethical implications of style versus "non-style," and the techniques of visualizing buildings that have influenced the development of modern architecture.

"This book presents for the first time a comprehensive overview of the seminal early work of a century of American architects--including Richard Morris Hunt, H. H. Richardson, Raymond Hood, and Charles Follen McKim--who studied at the prestigious and influential École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, before going on to design and build many of this nation's most important buildings and monuments."--Cover, page [4].

In the early twentieth century, Chinese traditional architecture and the French-derived methods of the École des Beaux-Arts converged in the United States when Chinese students were given scholarships to train as architects at American universities whose design curricula were dominated by Beaux-Arts methods. Upon their return home in the 1920s and 1930s, these graduates began to practice architecture and create China’s first architectural schools, often transferring a version of what they had learned in the U.S. to Chinese situations. The resulting complex series of design-related transplantations had major implications for China between 1911 and 1949, as it simultaneously underwent cataclysmic social, economic, and political changes. After 1949 and the founding of the People’s Republic, China experienced a radically different wave of influence from the Beaux-Arts through advisors from the Soviet Union who, first under Stalin and later Khrushchev, brought Beaux-Arts ideals in the guise of socialist progress. In the early twenty-first century, China is still feeling the effects of these events. Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts examines the coalescing of the two major architectural systems, placing significant shifts in architectural theory and practice in China within relevant, contemporary, cultural, and educational contexts. Fifteen major scholars from around the world analyze and synthesize these crucial events to shed light on the dramatic architectural and urban changes occurring in China today—many of which have global ramifications. This stimulating and generously illustrated work is divided into three sections, framed by an introduction and a postscript. The first focuses on the convergence of Chinese architecture and the École des Beaux-Arts, outlining the salient aspects of each and suggesting how and why the two "met" in the U.S. The second section centers on the question of how Chinese architects were influenced by the Beaux-Arts and how Chinese architecture was changed as a result. The third takes an even closer look at the Beaux-Arts influence, addressing how innovative practices, new schools of architecture, and buildings whose designs were linked to Beaux-Arts assumptions led to distinctive new paradigms that were rooted in a changing China. By virtue of its scope, scale, and scholarship, this volume promises to become a classic in the fields of Chinese and Western architectural history. Contributors: Tony Atkin, Peter J. Carroll, Yung Ho Chang,Jeffrey W. Cody, Kerry Sizheng Fan, Fu Chao-Ching, Gu Daqing, Seng Kuan,Delin Lai, Xing Ruan, Joseph Rykwert, Nancy S. Steinhardt, David VanZanten, Rudolf Wagner, Zhang Jie, Zhao Chen.

The description for this book, The Beaux-Arts Tradition in French Architecture: Illustrated by the Grands Prix de Rome, will be forthcoming.

Academic architectural education started with the inauguration of the Académie d'Architecture on 3 December 1671 in France. It was the first institution to be devoted solely to the study of architecture, and its school was the first dedicated to the explicit training of architectural students. The Académie was abolished in 1793, during the revolutionary turmoil that besieged France at the end of the eighteenth century, although the architectural educational tradition that arose from it was resurrected with the formation of the École des Beaux-Arts and prevails in the ideologies and activities of schools of architecture throughout the world today. This book traces the previously neglected history of the Académie’s development and its enduring influence on subsequent architectural schools throughout the following centuries to the present day. Providing a valuable context for current discussions in architectural education, The Rise of Academic Architectural Education is a useful resource for students and researchers interested in the history and theory of art and architecture.