Exhibit - Table of Contents ........... Esenwein & Johnson - Table of Contents
Later Buildings
Art Nouveau and Other Expressions: Rediscovering the Architecture of Esenwein and
Johnson
A 2005 Exhibit at the Buffalo
and Erie County Historical Society Museum
Curated by Martin Wachadlo
TEXT Beneath Illustrations
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Edward H. Webster Residence |
Myron G. Farmer Residence |
House for Charles Mosier |
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House for Charles Mosier |
AMERICAN RENAISSANCE - Providence Retreat |
AMERICAN RENAISSANCE - Providence Retreat |
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AMERICAN RENAISSANCE - Providence Retreat |
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THE WHITE CITY: Cornice detail. |
THE WHITE CITY: Masten Park High School |
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THE WHITE CITY: Root Building |
THE WHITE CITY: Buffalo General Electric Building |
THE WHITE CITY: Buffalo General Electric Building |
THE WHITE CITY: Buffalo General Electric Building |
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Niagara Hotel |
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FACTORY AESTHETIC: Proposed design for Buffalo Orphan Asylum |
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THE WHITE CITYBeginning in 1910, Esenwein & Johnson designed a series of buildings sheathed in monochromatic glazed white terra cotta with stylized classical ornamentation. Glazed terra cotta was considered an exemplary material for buildings, since it was more easily cleaned than other materials, an important consideration America's coal-fired cities. This series of buildings culminated with the General Electric Building, a towering icon on the city's skyline.
Esenwein & Johnson's successful practice continued during the 1920s., though designs were less stylistically diverse during the more conservative post-World War I years. As architects for the United Hotels Company, then the largest hotel chain in America, they designed the Niagara and other large hotels throughout the northeastern United States and Ontario, most in the Georgian style.
Although Esenwein & Johnson began to explore stylistic innovation once again with the Mayan Art Deco United Office Building in Niagara Falls, the firm could not survive the effects of the Great Depression, and dissolved in 1942.
The partnership was masterful, both at adapting historical styles to modem needs, and in using new and innovative expressions as alternatives to historicism. The firm produced an enormous range of work of uniformly high quality. Many of the designs rank with the best the country has to offer; their series of Art Nouveau buildings may be unique in American architecture. During its sixty-year existence, Esenwein a Johnson played a major role in defining the built environment of Buffalo and Western New York.
