Compositional Types in American Commercial Architecture Richard Longstreth Architecture Degree—University of Pa Ph.d. in Architectural History—UC Berkeley

Richard Longstreth. East Providence, Rhode Island Richard Longstreth. East Providence, Rhode Island. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, 1976. Richard Longstreth, ed. A Matter of Taste: Willis Polk's writings on Architecture in the Wave. San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1979. Richard W. Longstreth. "The Problem with 'Style.'" The Forum: Bulletin of the Committee on Preservation, Society of Architectural Historians 6, Nos. 1/2 (December, 1984). Richard Longstreth. "J. C. Nichols, the Country Club Plaza, and Notions of Modernity." Harvard Architecture Review 5 (1986): 121-135. Richard Longstreth. "Compositional Types in American Commercial Architecture" Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, II. Camille Wells, ed. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press for the Vernacular Architecture Forum, 1986. Pp. 12-23. Richard Longstreth. The Buildings of Main Street: A Guide to American Commercial Architecture. Building Watchers Series. Washington, DC: Preservation Press, 1987. Richard Longstreth. "When the Present Becomes the Past." Past Meets Future: Saving America's Historic Environments. Antoinette Lee, ed. Washington, DC: Preservation Press, 1992. Pp. 13-225, 249-253. Richard Longstreth. "Don't Get Out: The Automobile's Impact on Five Building Types in Los Angeles, 1921-1941." ARRIS [Journal of the Southeast Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians] 7 (1996): 32-56. Richard Longstreth. "The Mixed Blessings of Success: The Hecht Company and Department Store Branch Development after World War II." Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, VI. Carter L. Hudgins and Elizabeth Collins Cromley, eds. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1997. Pp. 244-262. Richard Longstreth. City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, the Automobile, and Retailing in Los Angeles, 1920-1950. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997. Richard Longstreth. The Drive-In, the Supermarket, and the Transformation of Commercial Space in Los Angeles, 1914-1941. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Longstreth, Richard. "The Extraordinary Post-War Suburb." Forum Journal 15, No.1 (Fall 2000): 16-25. Longstreth, Richard. "Modern Dilemma: ‘I Don’t Understand It, It Doesn’t Look Old to Me.’" Common Ground 8, No. 2 (Summer 2003): 10-15. Longstreth, Richard. "The Unusual Transformation of Downtown Washington in the Early Twentieth Century." Washington History 13 (Fall/Winter 2001-02): 30-71. Longstreth, Richard. "The Last Landscape." In Preserving Modern Landscape Architecture II: Making Postwar Landscapes Visible, Charles A. Birmbaum ed., with Jane Brown Gillette and Nancy Slade. Washington, DC: Spacemaker Press, 2004: 118-125. Longstreth, Richard. "Sears, Roebuck and the Remaking of the Department Store, 1924-42." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 65, no. 2 (June 2006): 238-79.

What is the news? Commercial architecture is just beginning to be understood. Tall buildings are most often studied Studied for formal details, or structural systems Rarely studied in broader terms Functionally Recent studies of roadside architecture as representational, but not commercial architecture.

What did he do research? National Trust Main Street Program Provide means of classification Salient qualities (what does he mean?) Not pseudo-stylistic features. Critique of style. It has lost its meaning in myriad details Needs a more holistic approach

The typology Requirements Simple Nationally applicable Classification as a basis for further research Based upon the work of Fred Kniffen

What’s not important Massing may, or may not be important in classification. (Why?) Floor plans are irrelevant. (Why?) Multi-functional Commercial buildings are different than domestic buildings. (Why?) Absence of regional differences. Competition between communities resulted in conformity

What compositional type?

What’s important Facade. Exceptions are corner lots. Does not just contain elements, it is designed. Decorated wall planes. Exceptions are corner lots. Variations in the details of store-fronts save the cast-iron front buildings. Conform to a few compositional arrangements

Typology and mental template Typology is a researcher abstraction and does not reflect how owners or designers thought about buildings. Changes in 1950s to composition of buildings. Modernist approach. Little use for composition. Suburban development and importance of automobile.