Cass Gilbert - Notable Works

Notable Works

• Saint Paul Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
  • Cretin Hall, Loras Hall, the Service Center, a classroom building, the refectory building, the administration building in 1894, and Grace Hall in 1913 were commissioned by James J. Hill. Only Cretin, Loras, the Service Center, and Grace still stand.
• Minnesota State Capitol, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1895–1905.
  • Designed in High Renaissance style, the building is not merely a replica of the United States Capitol. Local newspapers made a fuss when Gilbert sent to Georgia for marble, but the result, in which a hemispherical dome caps a high drum not unlike that of St. Peter's Basilica, crowning a building housing the bicameral legislature and the state supreme court, was so nobly handsome that West Virginia and Arkansas contracted for Gilbert capitols as well. Its brick dome is held in hoops of steel.
• St. Clement's Episcopal Church, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1895.
  • Designed in the traditional English country church style, with a lychgate and close, bell tower, and parish hall (renovated in 2006). Funded by a generous donation from Mrs. Theodore Eaton, widow of the rector of St. Clement's Episcopal Church in New York City. Includes original furniture, baptismal font, encaustic tile floor in choir, elaborate rood screen, linen-fold paneling, and parquet oak floor in sanctuary. The altar features Tiffany Studios stained glass window depicting the empty cross.
• The Broadway-Chambers Building (277 Broadway), Manhattan, 1899–1900.
  • Gilbert's first building in New York City.
• Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, Manhattan, 1902–1907.
  • Facing Bowling Green park in Lower Manhattan
• Saint Louis Art Museum (Palace of the Fine Arts), St. Louis, Missouri, 1904
  • Built for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and the only major building of the fair built as a permanent structure.
• 90 West Street, New York City, Manhattan, 1905–1907.
  • Severely damaged during the September 11, 2001 attacks, this building in lower Manhattan has since been completely restored.
• Metals Bank Building, Butte, Montana, 1906.
  • Commissioned by F. Augustus Heinze, this eight-story low-rise building has an internal steel frame. It was the second to be built in Butte after the 1901 Hirbour Building, which also has eight stories.
• A series of master plans for the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota, 1907.
• Spalding Building, Portland, Oregon, 1911.
  • A 12-story early skyscraper based on the construction principles of a classical column.
• Battle Hall, Austin, Texas, 1911.
  • For the University of Texas at Austin.
• New Haven Free Public Library, Mary E. Ives Memorial Library
  • At the corner of Elm and Temple Streets in downtown New Haven, architect Gilbert designed the brick and marble building to harmonize with the traditional architecture of New Haven, and especially with the United Church nearby. The building was formally dedicated to the City of New Haven on May 27, 1911.
• St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis, Missouri, 1912
  • The main library for the city's public library system, in a severe classicizing style, has an oval central pavilion surrounded by four light courts. The outer facades of the free-standing building are of lightly rusticated Maine granite. The Olive Street front is disposed like a colossal arcade, with contrasting marble bas-relief panels. A projecting three-bay central block, like a pared-down triumphal arch, provides a monumental entrance. At the rear the Central Library faced a sunken garden. The interiors feature some light-transmitting glass floors. The ceiling of the Periodicals Room is modified from Michelangelo's ceiling in the Laurentian Library.
• Woolworth Building, Manhattan, 1913.
  • A Gothic Revival skyscraper clad in glazed terracotta panels, it was the tallest building in the world when built. Bas-reliefs in the lobby depict Woolworth and Gilbert with Woolworth holding nickels and dimes.
• PNC Tower, Cincinnati.
  • Originally built as the headquarters for the Union Central Life Insurance Company.
• Fountain, Ridgefield, Connecticut, 1914–16.
  • This fountain, at the intersection of Routes 35 and 33, was designed and donated to the town by Cass Gilbert, who lived in the town for a period. In 2004, a drunk driver crashed into the fountain and completely destroyed it; a replica has since been completed.
• Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, 1917.
  • Oberlin College.

• Chase Headquarters Building, Waterbury, Connecticut, 1917-1919.
  • This building was designed as the headquarters of the Chase Company and forms part of the Waterbury Municipal Center Complex, a unique concentration of Gilbert's architecture comprising the Waterbury City Hall, the Chase Bank Building and the Chase company headquarters, Chase's house, a dispensary and Lincoln House, a headquarters building for the city's charities.
• Brooklyn Army Terminal, Sunset Park area of Brooklyn, NY, 1918.
• Treasury Annex, Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C., 1919.
• The Detroit Public Library, main branch, 1921.
• The First Division Monument, President's Park, Washington D.C., 1924.
• West Virginia State Capitol, Charleston, West Virginia, 1924–1932.
• The James Scott Memorial Fountain, Belle Isle, Detroit, MI, 1925.
• United States Chamber of Commerce headquarters, Washington, D.C., 1925.
• Plans for cladding the George Washington Bridge support towers, New York City, in masonry, 1926. Not carried out.
• New York Life Building, 1926.
• Gibraltar Building, 1927. headquarters for Prudential Insurance in Newark
• Embassy of the United States in Ottawa, Ottawa, 1932.
• United States Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., 1935.
  • Gilbert's last major project, guided to completion by his son, Cass Gilbert Jr. He died a year before it was completed. A vast Roman temple in the Corinthian order is penetrated by a cross range articulated with pilasters in very low relief. The central tablet in the richly sculpted frieze reads . His design for the U.S. Supreme Court chambers was based upon his design for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals at the state capitol in Charleston. The pediment sculptures Liberty attended by order and Authority (great lawgivers Moses, Confucius, and Solon are on the West Portico) were executed by Hermon Atkins MacNeil.
• Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, Manhattan, 1933.