Past Made Future, Part 1: Mesoamerican Architecture

In the 1920s there was a rise in popular interest in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica.  This popularity coincided with archaeological discoveries made famous by newspaper accounts and movie news reels.  (Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922 is just one example.)  The newly unearthed structures and artifacts from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica, inspired many artists, designers, and architects of the time, giving them a whole new visual vocabulary with which to experiment.

"Mayan Temple"
1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition

This post focuses on the influence of Mesoamerican cultures on the architects of Chicago during the 1910s, 20's, and 30s. (Posts on Egypt and Mesopotamia to come later.) "Mesoamerica" encompasses the geographic region of Mexico and Central America, and "Mesoamerican" denotes the societies that thrived in this region before the arrival of Europeans in the 15th and 16th centuries:  Maya, Zapotec, Aztec, etc. 

Well before the 1910s, Frank Lloyd Wright was looking to Mesoamerican architecture as a source for modern architectural forms. His interest grew out of two events: (1) the anthropology displays at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and (2) the published accounts of early Central American expeditions by pioneering archaeologists like Alfred Maudslay and Désiré Charnay.

Specifically, the architecture of the Maya and the Zapotec provided Wright with historical precedents that served as viable alternatives to European classical architecture. In his book The Future of Architecture, Wright observed that...

“In Maya [architecture] we see a grand simplicity and concept of form. Probably it is greater elemental architecture than anything remaining on record.”

For Wright, this "elemental architecture" was akin to his concept of "organic architecture." He saw Maya ruins as being of the land; a kind of natural architectural expression that seemed to grow from the landscape.

Perhaps the earliest "Mesoamerican building" that Wright designed was the A.D.German Warehouse (1915) located in Richland Center, Wisconsin.  Take a look at the structure as it stands today compared to an Alfred Maudslay photograph of a the "House of the Governors" at Uxmal. This photo (and others by Maudslay) was on public display at the 1893 world's fair and later at Chicago's Field Museum:

Left: Frank Lloyd Wright, A.D. German Warehouse (1915)
Right: House of the Governors, Uxmal

Although not an exact copy, the similarities between Wright's warehouse and the Uxmal temple are striking.  Wright was known for his ability to take multiple influences and synthesize them into something new (despite his insistence that all his architectural ideas were purely original inventions!)  The A.D. German Warehouse is an example of this synthesis of ancient and modern forms which served, for Wright, as a viable alternative to the Beaux Arts Classicism popular at the time.

Wright's fascination with Mesoamerican architecture culminated in his southern California houses of the 1920s, including the Ennis House, Barnsdale House, and the Storer House (see rendering below).  Art historian Barbara Braun described these California houses as Wright's "vision of Maya temples" -- Wright himself called them "California romanza" implying a romanticized view (and use) of the Precolumbian past. It's interesting to compare Wright's renderings of his California houses with the early photographs of Maya ruins that he had seen in museums and books. It's clear that these photos of ancient stone buildings, overgrown with vegetation, informed Wright's aesthetic and influenced his concepts of "organic architecture."  

Wright's Storer House  (1923) -- Hollywood, California 

image courtesy Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-1867

The fascination with Mesoamerican architecture was not restricted to Wright.  Other architects working in the United States were also heavily influenced by Mesoamerican forms and ornamentation, notably Robert Stacy-Judd and Francisco Mujica. And in Mexico in the years after the Revolution, there was an entire cultural renaissance inspired by the Precolumbian past as interpreted and championed by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Juan O'Gorman, and other Mexican artists and architects.

In the United States the "Maya Revival Style" of the 1920s and 1930s was largely a California phenomenon. But aspects of this movement made their way into Chicago architecture.  The most literal was the "Mayan Building" constructed for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago:

COP_17_0002_00038_002, Century of Progress Records, 1927-1952
University of Illinois at Chicago Library.

The Mayan Building  (1933-1934)
Century of Progress Exposition, Chicago 

This exposition hall was based on a section of the Nunnery Quadrangle in Uxmal, Mexico (Yucatan), a famous example of Post-Classic Maya architecture in the Puuc style. Archaeologist Frans Blom of Tulane University's Department of Middle American Research was in charge of the project. Photographs, drawings, maps, and plaster casts collected from the site in Uxmal ensured the accuracy of the final design. The interior contained exhibits of Maya artifacts from the collections of Tulane University.

Unfortunately, the Mayan Building -- like all the other exposition structures -- was demolished soon after the fair closed in the fall of 1934.  But other buildings from this time period, although less literal in their use of Mesoamerican forms and ornamentation, survive today.  Two examples include the Wyeth Pharmaceutical Labs and the Engineering Building

McCormick Business Center, Skokie, Illinois
originally Wyeth Laboratories (1930s), architect unknown

The Wyeth Pharmaceutical Laboratories (now the McCormick Business Center) is located on McCormick Boulevard in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois.  Designed as a factory, the building is long and low (essentially covering two large city blocks) yet retains a monumental quality. It sports an unusual entryway which appears to be modeled after the corbelled arches used extensively in Maya architecture:

Left: Entryway to old Wyeth Laboratories (1930s)
Right: The Labna Arch as drawn by Frederick Catherwood (1843)

Chicago Tribune articles of the time period state 1931 or 1932, but the Illinois Landmark Commission website states 1938.

A more vertical and urban example is the Engineering Building located at 205 W. Wacker Drive (completed in 1928) and designed by the Burnham Brothers (the sons of Daniel H. Burnham). Ornamentation framing the lower level windows seems influenced by the florid forms of Mayan glyphs.

The Engineering Building (1928), Burnham Brothers
"Mayan glyph" motif framing windows

Along the building's roof line, the projecting and ornamented piers contrast with the smooth, buff-colored brick of the building's middle levels. This is a similar convention used in Post-Classic Mayan buildings of the Yucatan.

The Engineering Building (1928), Burnham Brothers
known today as 205 W. Wacker

Neither the Wyeth Lab Building nor the Engineering Building is a copy of Maya architecture -- far from it.  But the architects of these two buildings took cues from Mesoamerican architecture and in doing so created something new and modern.

Future posts will focus on the influence of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian forms on Chicago architecture of the 1920s and 30s.  More to come...

Sources used to research this post:

Barbara Braun, "Frank Lloyd Wright: Visions of Maya Temples" from Pre-Columbian Art and the Post-Columbian World, 1993.

Marjorie Ingle, The Mayan Revival Style, 1984.

Pauline Saliga, "Engineering Building" from The Sky's The Limit, 1990.

SAIC Architectural Survey on the Landmarks Illinois website, http://landmarksil.org/saic_building.php?id=717

Special thanks to Bruce Brigell of the Skokie Public Library.