Sixteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Throughout history, the United States is lauded with numerous achievements referring to its architectural and interior feats. A few notable examples of such monuments are the Empire State Building, the White House, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral; however, when viewing these examples, many of the architectural and interior motifs exhibited by these monuments do not originate from the country. Rather, these design elements are pulled from pre-existing architectural and interior flavors; motifs cherry-picked from other pre-existing stylings, such as the French stylings of Art Deco, the Greek roots of Neoclassical, and the English origins of Gothic revival respectively. With these notable examples of architectural and interior design shown prominently in the American zeitgeist, it begs the question whether the United States has a styling of its own? At a brief glance, the architectural styles of American Colonial, Folk Victoria, and Neo-eclectic would come to mind since these are prominent styles associated with America architecture and interior design. However, on further inspection, these styles synonymous with American design are heavily based on best practices of other older and foreign motifs. American Colonial referencing the stylings of post-medieval motifs, Folk Victoria building upon 19th century Victorian stylings, and Neo-eclectic following the practices found in postmodernism. Therefore, I pose the history of American architectural and interior stylizing greatly reflects its own history, that of pulling the best practices of other stylings and adapting them into a melting pot of practices to form its own architectural and interior identity.