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3 - Designs on Monumentalism

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Summary

The credit for the introduction of the American Beaux-Arts educational and stylistic models to Liverpool and their adaptation by the Liverpool School of Architecture has traditionally been given to Charles Reilly. The theory, promoted by Reilly himself, goes that the demise of the integrated course in Architecture and Applied Art and the split of the Applied Art section from the School of Architecture coincided neatly with Reilly's appointment in 1904. In Mary Bennett's The Art Sheds 1894–1905, in which a focus upon the production of the artifacts of the Applied Art section allows for a neater split to be represented than was actually the case, Bennett states

The University itself entered a new phase with the appointment of Charles Reilly to the Roscoe Chair of Architecture in 1904, bringing with him a return to the classical tradition and an enormous advance in influence.

The impression of a watershed having been reached at the time of Reilly's appointment is here promoted further. In the course of this, Reilly has been represented as a new broom sweeping through the Liverpool School, introducing much-needed new systems and methods. In his autobiography Scaffolding in the Sky, Reilly describes the School of Architecture on his arrival as ‘the little Department of Architecture, not yet called a School and certainly not worthy of such a name…’ In this environment, Reilly recalls himself ‘at once… putting away the Gothic casts and putting the Renaissance and classical ones into positions of greater prominence…’ Significantly, of his predecessor Professor Simpson little is said. One of the most striking comments about Simpson, which illustrates Reilly's intention to present himself as the successful promoter of the new ethos, can be seen in Reilly's estimation of the architectural course during Simpson's term at University College, London. Reilly states, ‘Under Professor Simpson it did not seem to make much headway.’ The idea that Reilly formulated a new philosophy on his appointment has also been put forward by John Willett in Art in a City, in which he states, ‘The brief Art Nouveau movement seems to have fizzled out as soon as the Applied Art section parted company with the architects.’

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Marketing Modernisms
The Architecture and Influence of Charles Reilly
, pp. 26 - 53
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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