Charles Follen McKim practised at a period when the terms of architecture itself were under argument.
The record lists Charles Follen McKim as American Beaux-Arts architect (1847–1909).
Charles Follen McKim was born at Chester County in 1847. His recorded nationality is United States. He trained at Harvard University and Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Industrialisation gave architecture iron, glass and the lift, and with them the problems of the railway station, the factory and the tall city block.
He is recorded as architect.
Buildings outlast their architects and usually their purposes, which is what makes the discipline unforgiving.
Recognition followed: Royal Gold Medal, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and AIA Gold Medal.
That the work was built in United States shaped it: climate, materials, planning law and who holds the budget all decide what can actually be built.
Charles Follen McKim died in 1909, aged 62. The buildings remain, still in use by people who never knew the name - which is the particular afterlife architecture offers.
Achievements
- Royal Gold Medal
- Fellow of the American Institute of Architects
- AIA Gold Medal
- Trained at Harvard University and Beaux-Arts de Paris
