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Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?
February 16, 2010
Recently, I have been looking at the black and white monograph of the work of Mellor, Meigs, and Howe (The Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1923), the Philadelphia based architectural firm known for the many Main Line houses and estates they built in the early decades of the 1900s.
Their architecture is famous. Their houses are considered gems of American domestic architecture of the early 20th century. However, it is their interiors that draw me back to regularly look at this book. In fact, I revere their interiors: handsome volumes designed with the spare and refined use of traditional details. I admire how the furniture is sparsely arranged and there is a reliance on the sculpture of the architectural forms. These types of arrangements are unpopular today; they are criticized for being too leggy without today’s typical use of curtains and upholstery to visually anchor them. These rooms are not considered comfortable by today’s standards.
I am not sure how something currently considered unworkable or unusable could inspire me so greatly. Maybe my interest in these rooms is part of the trend toward having less furniture in traditional rooms. It could also be another sign of the move away from absurdly over scaled upholstery, such as the chair and a half proportion seen a great deal these past years—that popular form that is bigger than a big club chair and smaller than a love seat.
Or, another explanation might be that like so many rooms that we see illustrated in books and periodicals, the rooms were arranged specifically for the book’s photography and not for actual everyday use.
Last week, in our office, we were studying this view of a windowed alcove with an 18th-century fall-front desk, an upright wooden desk chair, and geraniums lining the window ledge. There is a random arrangement of pictures on the wall. I thought to make it current, all you had to do is “just add lap-top.” Then a colleague suggested adding a “comfortable” desk chair, to which I asked if we have ever really seen a good looking one of these in current form. I think adding such a chair would ruin the whole room.
As ideas pass through my mind, sure enough they find application at a later date. For a Fifth Avenue apartment we are working on now, I see inviting window ledges and of course, a simple perch for a laptop…
Images from top: “A Monograph of the Work of Mellor, Meigs and Howe” cover page; living room fireplace of the George Howe, Esq. house; dining room of Dr. Francis W. Murray house; fireplace wall of garden room of the estate of Mrs. Arthur V. Meigs; southwest window of Living Room of the Heatly C. Dulles, Esq. All images from A Monograph of the Work of Mellor, Meigs and Howe, by Paul Wenzel and Maurice Krakow, The Architectural Book Publishing, Co, New York, 1923.
Posted by Thomas Jayne on February 16, 2010 |
Comments (10)
January 3, 2012
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?jim commented:
the reason that these rooms may appear spare is due to the elongating effect of the camera lens used. i have been in many of m,m&h homes in chestnut hill and the scale and proportions of the rooms and furniture is very comfortable and correct. as an architect who builds new old houses m,m&h have much to teach us today.
January 3, 2012
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?jim commented:
the reason that these rooms may appear spare is due to the elongating effect of the camera lens used. i have been in many of m,m&h homes in chestnut hill and the scale and proportions of the rooms and furniture is very comfortable and correct. as an architect who builds new old houses m,m&h have much to teach us today.
January 3, 2012
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?chip farley commented:
i'm a homebuilder and architectural fanatic ( for loss of a better term). when i came upon m,m, &h, i was blown away.... the newbold place.... these were designed as country places... a lifestyle... the house being only part of the whole. the elevations, the landscape design, the interplay of it all... i just love it. i've worn out the pages of my volumes. i wouldn't ever term it "copycat"... we all continually reinterpret the best of what we see.... and the artistry of arthur meigs must have something.
April 28, 2011
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?von Britt commented:
extreme copy*cat firm until geo howe came on board & continued their "wall street pastoral" mimicry when he left in '28 to pursue the modernist ways.
December 21, 2010
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?J Ryal commented:
I just listed for sale a Mellor, Meigs home located in St David's...very close to SJ Bowen's home I believe. (Built in 1912, a few years before Howe joined the firm.) It's a gem!
December 7, 2010
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?DCU commented:
I have always imagined lying on the davenport in the garden room as described in the book...looking through the spider's web on a sunny afternoon. SJBowen you are lucky indeed.
February 24, 2010
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?bobbi commented:
February 18, 2010
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?beatrice commented:
February 17, 2010
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?SJBowen commented:
February 17, 2010
In response to:
Mellor, Meigs, and Howe: Inspiring but Unusable?jayne commented:
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