Grosvenor Atterbury

Grosvenor Atterbury (July 7, 1869 in Detroit, MI – October 18, 1956 in Southampton, NY) was an American architect, urban planner and writer. He studied at Yale University, where he was an editor of campus humor magazine The Yale Record^[1] After travelling in Europe, he studied architecture at Columbia University and worked in the offices of McKim, Mead & White.

Grosvenor Atterbury
Born	Grosvenor Atterbury (1869-07-07)July 7, 1869 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Died	October 18, 1956(1956-10-18) (aged 87) Southampton, New York, U.S.
Education	Columbia University Yale University
Occupation(s)	Architect, Urban Planner and Writer
Known for	Forest Hills Gardens (1909) House of the Redeemer (1916) Wereholme (1917) Aldus Chapin Higgins House (1921) Holy Trinity Rectory (1927) Rockefeller Hall (1933)
Honors	National Academy of Design

Much of Atterbury's early work consisted of weekend houses for wealthy industrialists. Atterbury was given the commission for the model housing community of Forest Hills Gardens which began in 1909 under the sponsorship of the Russell Sage Foundation.

For Forest Hills, Atterbury developed an innovative construction method: each house was built from approximately 170 standardized precast concrete panels, fabricated off-site and assembled by crane. The system was sophisticated even by modern standards: panels were cast with integral hollow insulation chambers; casting formwork incorporated an internal sleeve, allowing molds to be "broken" before concrete had completely set; and panels were moved to the site in only two operations (formwork to truck and truck to crane).

Atterbury's system influenced the work of mid-1920s European modern architects like Ernst May, who used panelized prefab concrete systems in a number of celebrated experimental housing projects in Frankfurt. In this way Atterbury can be considered a progenitor of the Modern Movement.

Atterbury was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1918 as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1940.

Atterbury worked on various projects with John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in the 1930s, including what today is Stone Barns Food and Agriculture Center, and the Gatehouse and Entrance Wall to Kykuit Estate, as well as the six stucco houses built for estate employees. The six houses were designed as the core of Pocantico Village that Rockefeller was building as Kykuit was being completed, and to complement the style of the Union Church and Pocantico Hills Central School, which he had completed.^[2]

Works

Surprise Valley Farm (1916), Arthur Curtiss James property in Newport, Rhode Island, photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston in 1917. Architect: Grosvenor Atterbury, 1914-1916. These buildings have survived as part of the SVF Foundation founded to preserve endangered breeds of livestock.

• Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY. The building was commissioned by Samuel Longstreth Parrish to fellow Southampton resident, the architect Grosvenor Atterbury. It was constructed in 1897 in downtown Southampton at 25 Jobs Lane.
• Connecticut Hall restoration, New Haven, Connecticut, 1905
• Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel (formerly Fulton Building), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1906
• Tenney Memorial Chapel, Walnut Grove Cemetery, Methuen, Massachusetts, 1906
• The Boulders, 99 Shore Ave. Greenwood Lake, New York, 1911
• The Church-in-the-Gardens, New York City, 1915
• Surprise Valley Farm, Newport, Rhode Island, 1914-1916
• Industrial village (the pottery houses) for Holston Corporation, 1915-1916^[3]
• House of the Redeemer, New York City, 1916
• Wereholme, Islip, New York, 1917
• Carriage Paths, Bridges and Gatehouses, Acadia National Park and vicinity Acadia National Park, Maine, 1919
• Aldus Chapin Higgins House, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1921
• Sage House (formerly Russell Sage Foundation Building), New York City, 1922 to 1926
• Holy Trinity Rectory, a four-storey brick rectory at 341 East 87th Street, Manhattan, 1927 (for $50,000).^[4]
• Kykuit Gate House and Entrance Wall, and Administrative Building, Pocantico Hills, New York, 1930
• Pond Mansion, Tucson, Arizona, 1930
• Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, New York, 1930-33 ^[5]
• Six cottages commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for estate employees, Kykuit, Pocantico Hills, New York, 1930-33 ^[2]
• Rockefeller Hall, Winter Harbor, Maine, 1933, commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and built by the National Park Service to house Navy personnel in the French Norman Revival-style.^[6]
• Children's Village of the Hartford Orphan Asylum, 1680 Albany Ave. Hartford, Connecticut
• Shore Road Historic District, Shore Rd. Cold Spring Harbor, New York

See also

• Atterbury Hill, Southampton.

References

1. "Grosvenor Atterbury". The twelfth general catalogue of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity. New York: Psi Upsilon. May, 1917. p. 158.
2. Pennoyer, Peter (2009). The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury. 500 Fifth Avenue, N.Y., N.Y. 10110: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., p. 230, 266
3. Pennoyer, Peter (2009). The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury. 500 Fifth Avenue, N.Y., N.Y. 10110: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-393-73222-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
4. Office for Metropolitan History Archived 2013-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, "Manhattan NB Database 1900-1986," (Accessed 25 Dec 2010).
5. Pennoyer, Peter (2009). The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury. 500 Fifth Avenue, N.Y., N.Y. 10110: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., p. 266
6. "Rockefeller Hall, Winter Harbor | Maine Preservation". Archived from the original on 2014-12-26. Retrieved 2013-12-07.

External links

• Grosvenor Atterbury papers and photographs, circa 1900-1994. Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
• Designing for High and Low, by Christopher Gray, Oct. 22, 2009, New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/realestate/25scapes.html