Louis Ayres
Encyclopedia
William Louis Ayres better known by his professional name Louis Ayres, was an American
architect
who was one of the most prominent designers of monuments, memorials, and buildings in the nation in the early part of the 20th century. His style is characterized as Medievalist
, often emphasizing elements of Romanesque Revival
and Italian Renaissance
, and Byzantine Revival architecture. He is best known for designing the United States Memorial Chapel at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial
and the Herbert C. Hoover U.S. Department of Commerce Building
.
, to Mr. and Mrs. Chester D. Ayres. He graduated from Trinity School
, a prep school
located in Manhattan
, New York City
, New York
. He attended Rutgers University
, graduating in 1896 with a degree in electrical engineering
. After graduation, he spent three years with the firm of McKim, Mead, and White
, but left (along with several other architects in the firm) to join the fim of York and Sawyer
. He became a partner in the firm in 1910.
By 1921, he was one of the most prominent architects in the nation. From 1921 to 1925, he served on the prestigious Commission of Fine Arts
, the federal advisory panel which had statutory approval over all major building projects in Washington, D.C. His four-year term expired in 1925, and he did not seek reappointment. The same year, he was one of the three judges on a panel which awarded the commission for the Liberty Memorial
in Kansas City, Missouri
, to Harold Van Buren Magonigle
.
(ABMC) in 1923 in part to consolidate the United States Department of War
's divisions for military cemeteries and for stone and bronze battlefield map memorials, and in part to build, operate, and maintain American military cemeteries overseas. The ABMC was deeply influenced by Charles Moore, the chair of the Commission of Fine Arts and whose agency had final approval over the design of the cemeteries and memorials. The ABMC's plans changed and changed again over the next several years, and by 1925 it was ready to hire ""the most prominent architects in the country" for its plans. Ayres was commissioned to design the chapel at Meuse-Argonne, the largest and most important of the three sites. Ayres submitted two simple, classical designs and one French Romanesque design. Although both a classical and Romanesque design were approved for construction, the final chapel is Romanesque in style, shorter than proposed, and the colonnade
s on either side of it reduced in length. The chapel was dedicated on Memorial Day
in 1937, the 20th anniversary of the American entry into World War I.
Ayres' continued to serve the architectural profession in many important ways in the 1920s. He was one of three judges on a panel which in 1925 awarded the design for the proposed Theodore Roosevelt
memorial to be built in West Potomac Park
in Washington, D.C.
In 1926, Rutgers University presented him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
. He also was a member of the Prix de Rome
scholarship and Rome Prize
fellowship committees from 1926 to 1938.
government office building complex.
The U.S. federal government had struggled with the need to build a number of large governmental office buildings since the mid-1910s, but little had been done. In January 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of federal office buildings be built near the White House
. In 1926, the U.S. Congress enacted the Public Buildings Act
, which, among other things, authorized the United States Department of the Treasury
to begin construction on the Federal Triangle
complex of buildings. However, disagreements among the three planning bodies overseeing the project (Commission on Fine Arts, Public Buildings Commission, and U.S. Treasury) proved so fundamental that a year-long delay ensued. To end the disagreement, a Board of Architectural Consultants was created on May 19, 1927, to advise the groups on the development of the project. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Charles S. Dewey
recommended Ayres as one of the consultants, and his appointment was almost immediately approved. Design work on all buildings was postponed in May 1927 to allow the Board to conduct its work. The Board of Architectural Consultants first met on May 23, 1927, at which time it considered a plan to create a single building ringing Federal Triangle rather than six to eight individual structures. In June 1927, Ayres and the other consultants approved construction of the Department of Commerce and Internal Revenue Service
structures as stand-alone buildings on the previously proposed sites. A month later, Ayres and the other Board membeers proposed constructing eight buildings, connected by plazas, semi-circular colonnade
s, and other architectural and landscaping elements. The Department of Commerce building was set on the west side of 15th Street NW between B and D Streets NW.
For the architectural style of the buildings, Ayres and the other Board members relied heavily on recommendation of the 1902 McMillan Plan
that federal buildings in the District of Columbia be built in the Neoclassical style. Both the Board and Treasury Secretary Mellon rejected the Modern
style then heavily in vogue. Rather than a mass of tall, imposing buildings, two unifying open spaces (intended for ceremonial use, and under discussion by the Board at least by March 1928) would be utilized. The first would be a Circular Plaza (inspired by the Place Vendôme
) bisected by 12th Street NW, and which would require the demolition of the Old Post Office Pavilion
. The second would be a rectangular Grand Plaza on the east side of 14th Street NW between the proposed Department of Commerce
building (west side of 14th Street NW) and the proposed Post Office Department
building (east side of 13th Street NW). The construction of the Grand Plaza would have required the demolition of the District Building
.
York and Sawyer was commissioned to design the Commerce building. This choice had been made almost 15 years earlier, oddly enough. A new headquarters for the Department of Commerce had been proposed in 1912 and a contract for the design work awarded to the architectural firm of York and Sawyer. Although this building was never built, Congress honored the contract and in the Public Buildings Act named the firm again as the Commerce building's designer. York and Sawyer put Louis Ayres in charge of the building's design. But not all design choices were left up to Ayres. By March 1927, government officials had already decided that the Commerce building should be 1000 feet (304.8 m) long—making it the then-largest building in the District of Columbia. Work on the building site was expected to begin by March 31, 1927. Survey work at the site began on that date even though final plans for the project were still unclear. But the May 1927 work moratorium put all decisions regarding the Commerce building design on hold. In September 1927, the Commission of Fine Arts met to discuss proposed plans for both the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings.
Even though he was designing the Commerce building, Ayres continued to participate in the work of the Board of Architectural Consultants. He and the other Board members reviewed all designs for the Federal Triangle project in the fall of 1927, and emolition work began on the Commerce site in September 1927.
By mid-1927, Ayres was proposing a grandiose building to anchor the western end of Federal Triangle. The proposed building had 1605066 ft2 of interior space (more than 60 percent larger than originally planned). The structure was essentially rectangular, with seven wings and six interior courtyards that was one city block wide and three blocks long. There were 15 entrances and 16 interior stairways. Its seven stories were clad in granite
and limestone
. More than 8 miles (12.9 km) of corridors accessed 37 acres (15 ha) of office space designed to house 10,000 workers, accommodate 8 million patents in a publicly accessible manner, include a public aquarium
with 40 tanks and 2,000 fish, and house a 200,000-item library. Ayres asked James Earle Fraser (sculptor), a sculptor and colleague on the Commission of Fine Arts, to design and sculpt the various external features of the building. At first Fraser said he had far too many other commissions and could not work on the Commerce building, but Ayres and Fraser developed a cooperative work style that eventually was adopted for most of the buildings in the Federal Triangle: Fraser consulted with Ayres and other architects to develop appropriate themes and content and then built or fashioned models of his designs. Then his assistants enlarged the models into full-scale sculptures and did the physical work of actually carving the art. Ayres designed four massive pediment
s for the building, which Fraser filled with sculptures with the themes "Aviation," "Mining," "Fisheries," and "Foreign and Domestic Commerce." Ayres contracted with interior designer Barnet Phillips to design and implement the interior elements of the building. Ayres had planned a main lobby that was Neoclassical in design. Phillips designed rusticated
walls, placed arches over every doorway, placed Doric columns
throughout the lobby, added a painted and coffer
ed ceiling, and laid terrazzo
and marble
down for the lobby floor.
Ayres confronted a vitally important design problem concerning the nature of the soil. Due to the formerly marsh
y condition of the soil and the existence of several submerged streams nearby, Ayres designed a structure that would stand on more than 18,000 pilings
. However, water pressure from the submerged Tiber Creek would make it difficult to drive the piles. Ayres and his team devised a plan whereby a deep-sea diver
descended into the underground Tiber Creek and drilled a hole 20 feet (6.1 m) deep into the earth. A hose would be inserted into the hole, and water pumped from the earth until the water table dropped and the driving of the piles could be accomplished. The building's foundation was more than three feet thick in places in order to withstand the hydraulic pressure put on it by the submerged Tiber Creek. Water from the Tiber was utilized as an air conditioning system to cool the building.
Ayres submitted his design for the Commerce building to the Public Buildings Commission, which gave its approval on November 1, 1927. The previous size of the building was reaffirmed. Excavation of the site began on November 21, 1927. However, although Ayres had proposed an Italian Renaissance style for the Commerce building, few of the other building proposals had adopted a classical design. On November 25, 1927, the Commission on Fine Arts adopted a requirement that all the Federal Triangle buildings have a "uniform appearance" and height (six stories), limiting the Board's design deliberations (and Ayres' proposal for the Commerce building). Treasury Secretary
Andrew W. Mellon
imposed a requirement in December 1927 that all the buildings be built in the Neoclassical architectural style. Ayres modified the exterior design of his structure accordingly.
By March 1928, newspapers were reporting that the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings would be constructed first. Ayres' design, however, was still in flux, as the Board of Architectural Consultants refused to give its approval to his plan. Although the size of the Commerce building had stabilized by March 1928, some Board members still suggested that both 15th and 14th Streets NW be submerged in tunnels beneath the structure. Despite the ongoing dispute over the design, additional demolition contracts were awarded for the site in April 1928.
The Board of Architectural Consultants and Ayres met in July 1928 to consider ways in which the construction program might be sped up, and devised plans to have four approved buildings (Internal Revenue, Justice, Labor, and Ayres' Commerce structure) completed by 1932. By October 1928, the Board of Architectural Consultants had agreed with prior decisions that no office building should be constructed on the National Mall, and that this space should be reserved for museums.
Ayres' design faced one final hurdle in the fall of 1929. Although the Board unveiled its proposed design for the project in April 1929, the design still lacked a unifying architectural look. Subsequently, John Russell Pope was asked in September 1929 to bring a more uniform style to the buildings. Nonetheless, within this more uniform approach, a variety of styles could be used, and were: Italian Renaissance
for the Department of Commerce building, Corinthian
for the National Archives
building, and Ionic
for the Post Office Department.
Meanwhile, Ayres and the Board of Architectural Consultants worked with sculptors, painters, and others to design more than 100 statues, fountains, bronze doors, murals, plaques, and panels (both interior and exterior) throughout the complex.
Ayres was involved in approving two major changes to Federal Triangle in early 1930. The Board and other planning groups had long agreed to site the Justice Department building on the block bounded by 7th, 9th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But this plan changed in March 1930. Architect John Russell Pope made a proposal to have the Justice and Archives buildings switch sites so that the Justice building would have more space. Although the change would entail major design alterations in both buildings, Secretary Mellon favored the idea. The Commission on Fine Arts approved the plan, and Mellon met with the Board of Architectural Consultants in late March 1930 to discuss the idea. Although this initial meeting left the issue unresolved, Ayres and the Board later agreed to Mellon's wishes in April and the two buildings switched plots.
President (and former Commerce Secretary) Herbert Hoover
laid the cornerstone of the Commerce building on June 10, 1929, using the same trowel
President George Washington
had used to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol
. The contract for its limestone facade—according to at least one newspaper account, the largest stone contract in world history—was awarded in April. The cost of the building had risen to $17.5 million. Ayres' Department of Commerce building opened on January 4, 1932.
Ayres continued his work on the Board of Architectural Consultants into the mid-1930s. From 1931 to 1936, the Board struggled to accommodate the need for automobile parking at the complex while also making Federal Triangle pedestrian-friendly. The Board began studying traffic issues in late 1927. A major study of parking needs and solutions was conducted in 1931, and traffic and parking patterns assessed again after the Department of Commerce building opened in early 1932. To achieve some of the traffic and parking goals, Ayres and the Board voted to eliminate the east-west streets and diagonal avenues, leaving only the north-south streets through the area, and 12th and 9th Streets NW were submerged in tunnels beneath the National Mall. In the first major change to the Board's "final" plan of 1929, a proposed "Grand Plaza" between the Commerce and Post Office buildings was abandoned in favor of a parking lot. The Board considered a number of other solutions to the need to accommodate the more than 7,500 cars expected to arrive every day (including an underground bus terminal and underground parking garage under the Grand Plaza), but in the end only approved a small number of underground parking spaces beneath the Apex Building
.
The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects
awarded him its Medal of Honor in 1933. In 1936, he was elected to the National Academy of Design
.
He wed Mrs. Edith Twining (née Donald, widow of Major
Kinsley Twining) On November 28, 1928. He became stepfather to Twining's son and daughter, and his stepson Kinsley Twining became American vice-consul in Singapore.
His Bowery Savings Bank building is particularly notable. The structure has "one of the great interior spaces of New York", according to one architectural guide.
Ayres' was not only a noted architect in his own right, but he helped lead many successful design teams as well. His teams won for York & Sawyer commissions for the Federal Building in Honolulu, Hawaii
, (since replaced by the Prince Kuhio Federal Building
) and 33 Liberty Street
, Manhattan, New York City (the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
building).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who was one of the most prominent designers of monuments, memorials, and buildings in the nation in the early part of the 20th century. His style is characterized as Medievalist
Medievalism
Medievalism is the system of belief and practice characteristic of the Middle Ages, or devotion to elements of that period, which has been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and various vehicles of popular culture.Since the 18th century, a...
, often emphasizing elements of Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
and Italian Renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
, and Byzantine Revival architecture. He is best known for designing the United States Memorial Chapel at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial
Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial
The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War I cemetery in France. It is located east of the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon in Meuse. The cemetery contains the largest number of American military dead in Europe , most of whom lost their lives during the Meuse-Argonne...
and the Herbert C. Hoover U.S. Department of Commerce Building
Herbert C. Hoover Building
The Herbert C. Hoover Building is the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Department of Commerce.The building is located at 1401 Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C., on the block bounded by Constitution Avenue NW to the south, Pennsylvania Avenue NW to the north, 15th...
.
Life and career
He was born in 1874 in Bergen Point, New JerseyBergen Point, New Jersey
Bergen Point is a point of land on the north side of the outlet of Kill van Kull into Newark Bay, and the neighborhood that radiates from it in the southwestern part of Bayonne, New Jersey, closest to the Bayonne Bridge. Historically the term has been used more broadly as synonymous with Constable...
, to Mr. and Mrs. Chester D. Ayres. He graduated from Trinity School
Trinity School (New York City)
Trinity School is a private, preparatory, co-educational day school for grades K-12 located in New York City, USA, and a member of both the New York Interschool and the Ivy Preparatory School League...
, a prep school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
located in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He attended Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, graduating in 1896 with a degree in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
. After graduation, he spent three years with the firm of McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...
, but left (along with several other architects in the firm) to join the fim of York and Sawyer
York and Sawyer
The architectural firm of York and Sawyer produced many outstanding structures, exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The partners Edward York and Philip Sawyer had both trained in the office of McKim, Mead, and White...
. He became a partner in the firm in 1910.
By 1921, he was one of the most prominent architects in the nation. From 1921 to 1925, he served on the prestigious Commission of Fine Arts
United States Commission of Fine Arts
The United States Commission of Fine Arts , established in 1910 by an act of Congress, is an advisory agency of the Federal government.The CFA is mandated to review and provide advice on "matters of design and aesthetics", involving federal projects and planning in Washington, D.C...
, the federal advisory panel which had statutory approval over all major building projects in Washington, D.C. His four-year term expired in 1925, and he did not seek reappointment. The same year, he was one of the three judges on a panel which awarded the commission for the Liberty Memorial
Liberty Memorial
The Liberty Memorial, located in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, is a memorial to the fallen soldiers of World War I and houses the The National World War I Museum, as designated by the United States Congress in 2004.. Groundbreaking commenced November 1, 1921, and the city held a site dedication...
in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, to Harold Van Buren Magonigle
Harold Van Buren Magonigle
Harold Van Buren Magonigle was an American architect best known for his memorials.Born in New Jersey, Magonigle worked for Calvert Vaux, Rotch & Tilden and McKim Mead & White before opening his own practice in 1903...
.
Meuse-Argonne Chapel
One of Ayres' most prominent commissions came in in 1925, when he was asked to design a chapel for an American military cemetery in Europe. Congress created the American Battle Monuments CommissionAmerican Battle Monuments Commission
The American Battle Monuments Commission is a small independent agency of the United States government. Established by Congress in 1923, it is responsible for:...
(ABMC) in 1923 in part to consolidate the United States Department of War
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
's divisions for military cemeteries and for stone and bronze battlefield map memorials, and in part to build, operate, and maintain American military cemeteries overseas. The ABMC was deeply influenced by Charles Moore, the chair of the Commission of Fine Arts and whose agency had final approval over the design of the cemeteries and memorials. The ABMC's plans changed and changed again over the next several years, and by 1925 it was ready to hire ""the most prominent architects in the country" for its plans. Ayres was commissioned to design the chapel at Meuse-Argonne, the largest and most important of the three sites. Ayres submitted two simple, classical designs and one French Romanesque design. Although both a classical and Romanesque design were approved for construction, the final chapel is Romanesque in style, shorter than proposed, and the colonnade
Colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....
s on either side of it reduced in length. The chapel was dedicated on Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
in 1937, the 20th anniversary of the American entry into World War I.
Ayres' continued to serve the architectural profession in many important ways in the 1920s. He was one of three judges on a panel which in 1925 awarded the design for the proposed Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
memorial to be built in West Potomac Park
West Potomac Park
West Potomac Park is a U.S. national park in Washington, D.C., adjacent to the National Mall. It includes the parkland that extends south of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, from the Lincoln Memorial to the grounds of the Washington Monument...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
In 1926, Rutgers University presented him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
Doctor of Humane Letters
The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science, government, literature or religion, which are awarded degrees of Doctor of Science, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Letters, or Doctor of...
. He also was a member of the Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
scholarship and Rome Prize
Rome Prize
The Rome Prize is an American award made annually by the American Academy in Rome, through a national competition, to 15 emerging artists and to 15 scholars The Rome Prize is an American award made annually by the American Academy in Rome, through a national competition, to 15 emerging artists...
fellowship committees from 1926 to 1938.
Federal Triangle
In 1927, Ayres won a major commission to design the U.S. Department of Commerce building, an award which became one of his most important architectural designs. He also played a major role on a board which helped plan the Federal TriangleFederal Triangle
The Federal Triangle is a triangular area in Washington, D.C. formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, all of which are part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic...
government office building complex.
The U.S. federal government had struggled with the need to build a number of large governmental office buildings since the mid-1910s, but little had been done. In January 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of federal office buildings be built near the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. In 1926, the U.S. Congress enacted the Public Buildings Act
Public Buildings Act
The Public Buildings Act of 1926, also known as the Elliot-Fernald Act, was a statute which governed the construction of federal buildings throughout the United States, and authorized funding for this construction. Its primary sponsor in the House of Representatives was Representative Richard N...
, which, among other things, authorized the United States Department of the Treasury
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
to begin construction on the Federal Triangle
Federal Triangle
The Federal Triangle is a triangular area in Washington, D.C. formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, all of which are part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic...
complex of buildings. However, disagreements among the three planning bodies overseeing the project (Commission on Fine Arts, Public Buildings Commission, and U.S. Treasury) proved so fundamental that a year-long delay ensued. To end the disagreement, a Board of Architectural Consultants was created on May 19, 1927, to advise the groups on the development of the project. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Charles S. Dewey
Charles S. Dewey
Charles Schuveldt Dewey was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.Born in Cadiz, Ohio, Dewey moved in infancy to Chicago, Illinois.He attended public schools and St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire....
recommended Ayres as one of the consultants, and his appointment was almost immediately approved. Design work on all buildings was postponed in May 1927 to allow the Board to conduct its work. The Board of Architectural Consultants first met on May 23, 1927, at which time it considered a plan to create a single building ringing Federal Triangle rather than six to eight individual structures. In June 1927, Ayres and the other consultants approved construction of the Department of Commerce and Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
structures as stand-alone buildings on the previously proposed sites. A month later, Ayres and the other Board membeers proposed constructing eight buildings, connected by plazas, semi-circular colonnade
Colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....
s, and other architectural and landscaping elements. The Department of Commerce building was set on the west side of 15th Street NW between B and D Streets NW.
McMillan Plan
The McMillan Plan was an architectural plan for the development of Washington, D.C., formulated in 1902 by the Senate Park Improvement Commission of the District of Columbia which had been formed by Congress the previous year.-United States Park Commission:...
that federal buildings in the District of Columbia be built in the Neoclassical style. Both the Board and Treasury Secretary Mellon rejected the Modern
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
style then heavily in vogue. Rather than a mass of tall, imposing buildings, two unifying open spaces (intended for ceremonial use, and under discussion by the Board at least by March 1928) would be utilized. The first would be a Circular Plaza (inspired by the Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the...
) bisected by 12th Street NW, and which would require the demolition of the Old Post Office Pavilion
Old Post Office Pavilion
The Old Post Office Pavilion, also known as Old Post Office and Clock Tower and officially renamed the Nancy Hanks Center in 1983, is a building of the United States federal government. Built in 1892-99, it is located at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue , NW, in Washington, D.C...
. The second would be a rectangular Grand Plaza on the east side of 14th Street NW between the proposed Department of Commerce
United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
building (west side of 14th Street NW) and the proposed Post Office Department
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
building (east side of 13th Street NW). The construction of the Grand Plaza would have required the demolition of the District Building
John A. Wilson Building
The John A. Wilson Building, popularly known simply as the Wilson Building or the JAWB, houses the offices and chambers of the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia. Originally called the District Building, it was renamed in 1994 to commemorate former Council Chair John A. Wilson...
.
York and Sawyer was commissioned to design the Commerce building. This choice had been made almost 15 years earlier, oddly enough. A new headquarters for the Department of Commerce had been proposed in 1912 and a contract for the design work awarded to the architectural firm of York and Sawyer. Although this building was never built, Congress honored the contract and in the Public Buildings Act named the firm again as the Commerce building's designer. York and Sawyer put Louis Ayres in charge of the building's design. But not all design choices were left up to Ayres. By March 1927, government officials had already decided that the Commerce building should be 1000 feet (304.8 m) long—making it the then-largest building in the District of Columbia. Work on the building site was expected to begin by March 31, 1927. Survey work at the site began on that date even though final plans for the project were still unclear. But the May 1927 work moratorium put all decisions regarding the Commerce building design on hold. In September 1927, the Commission of Fine Arts met to discuss proposed plans for both the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings.
Even though he was designing the Commerce building, Ayres continued to participate in the work of the Board of Architectural Consultants. He and the other Board members reviewed all designs for the Federal Triangle project in the fall of 1927, and emolition work began on the Commerce site in September 1927.
By mid-1927, Ayres was proposing a grandiose building to anchor the western end of Federal Triangle. The proposed building had 1605066 ft2 of interior space (more than 60 percent larger than originally planned). The structure was essentially rectangular, with seven wings and six interior courtyards that was one city block wide and three blocks long. There were 15 entrances and 16 interior stairways. Its seven stories were clad in granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
. More than 8 miles (12.9 km) of corridors accessed 37 acres (15 ha) of office space designed to house 10,000 workers, accommodate 8 million patents in a publicly accessible manner, include a public aquarium
Public aquarium
A public aquarium is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, housing living aquatic species for viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept by home aquarists, as well as smaller tanks. Since the first public aquariums were built in the mid-19th century, they have become popular...
with 40 tanks and 2,000 fish, and house a 200,000-item library. Ayres asked James Earle Fraser (sculptor), a sculptor and colleague on the Commission of Fine Arts, to design and sculpt the various external features of the building. At first Fraser said he had far too many other commissions and could not work on the Commerce building, but Ayres and Fraser developed a cooperative work style that eventually was adopted for most of the buildings in the Federal Triangle: Fraser consulted with Ayres and other architects to develop appropriate themes and content and then built or fashioned models of his designs. Then his assistants enlarged the models into full-scale sculptures and did the physical work of actually carving the art. Ayres designed four massive pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s for the building, which Fraser filled with sculptures with the themes "Aviation," "Mining," "Fisheries," and "Foreign and Domestic Commerce." Ayres contracted with interior designer Barnet Phillips to design and implement the interior elements of the building. Ayres had planned a main lobby that was Neoclassical in design. Phillips designed rusticated
Rustication (architecture)
thumb|upright|Two different styles of rustication in the [[Palazzo Medici-Riccardi]] in [[Florence]].In classical architecture rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar...
walls, placed arches over every doorway, placed Doric columns
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
throughout the lobby, added a painted and coffer
Coffer
A coffer in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault...
ed ceiling, and laid terrazzo
Terrazzo
Terrazzo is a composite material poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of marble, quartz, granite, glass or other suitable chips, sprinkled or unsprinkled, and poured with a binder that is cementitious, chemical or a combination of both...
and marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
down for the lobby floor.
Ayres confronted a vitally important design problem concerning the nature of the soil. Due to the formerly marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
y condition of the soil and the existence of several submerged streams nearby, Ayres designed a structure that would stand on more than 18,000 pilings
Deep foundation
A deep foundation is a type of foundation distinguished from shallow foundations by the depth they are embedded into the ground. There are many reasons a geotechnical engineer would recommend a deep foundation over a shallow foundation, but some of the common reasons are very large design loads, a...
. However, water pressure from the submerged Tiber Creek would make it difficult to drive the piles. Ayres and his team devised a plan whereby a deep-sea diver
Surface supplied diving
Surface supplied diving refers to divers using equipment supplied with breathing gas using a diver's umbilical from the surface, either from the shore or from a diving support vessel sometimes indirectly via a diving bell...
descended into the underground Tiber Creek and drilled a hole 20 feet (6.1 m) deep into the earth. A hose would be inserted into the hole, and water pumped from the earth until the water table dropped and the driving of the piles could be accomplished. The building's foundation was more than three feet thick in places in order to withstand the hydraulic pressure put on it by the submerged Tiber Creek. Water from the Tiber was utilized as an air conditioning system to cool the building.
Ayres submitted his design for the Commerce building to the Public Buildings Commission, which gave its approval on November 1, 1927. The previous size of the building was reaffirmed. Excavation of the site began on November 21, 1927. However, although Ayres had proposed an Italian Renaissance style for the Commerce building, few of the other building proposals had adopted a classical design. On November 25, 1927, the Commission on Fine Arts adopted a requirement that all the Federal Triangle buildings have a "uniform appearance" and height (six stories), limiting the Board's design deliberations (and Ayres' proposal for the Commerce building). Treasury Secretary
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew William Mellon was an American banker, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector and Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1921 until February 12, 1932.-Early life:...
imposed a requirement in December 1927 that all the buildings be built in the Neoclassical architectural style. Ayres modified the exterior design of his structure accordingly.
By March 1928, newspapers were reporting that the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings would be constructed first. Ayres' design, however, was still in flux, as the Board of Architectural Consultants refused to give its approval to his plan. Although the size of the Commerce building had stabilized by March 1928, some Board members still suggested that both 15th and 14th Streets NW be submerged in tunnels beneath the structure. Despite the ongoing dispute over the design, additional demolition contracts were awarded for the site in April 1928.
The Board of Architectural Consultants and Ayres met in July 1928 to consider ways in which the construction program might be sped up, and devised plans to have four approved buildings (Internal Revenue, Justice, Labor, and Ayres' Commerce structure) completed by 1932. By October 1928, the Board of Architectural Consultants had agreed with prior decisions that no office building should be constructed on the National Mall, and that this space should be reserved for museums.
Ayres' design faced one final hurdle in the fall of 1929. Although the Board unveiled its proposed design for the project in April 1929, the design still lacked a unifying architectural look. Subsequently, John Russell Pope was asked in September 1929 to bring a more uniform style to the buildings. Nonetheless, within this more uniform approach, a variety of styles could be used, and were: Italian Renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
for the Department of Commerce building, Corinthian
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
for the National Archives
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
building, and Ionic
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
for the Post Office Department.
Meanwhile, Ayres and the Board of Architectural Consultants worked with sculptors, painters, and others to design more than 100 statues, fountains, bronze doors, murals, plaques, and panels (both interior and exterior) throughout the complex.
Ayres was involved in approving two major changes to Federal Triangle in early 1930. The Board and other planning groups had long agreed to site the Justice Department building on the block bounded by 7th, 9th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But this plan changed in March 1930. Architect John Russell Pope made a proposal to have the Justice and Archives buildings switch sites so that the Justice building would have more space. Although the change would entail major design alterations in both buildings, Secretary Mellon favored the idea. The Commission on Fine Arts approved the plan, and Mellon met with the Board of Architectural Consultants in late March 1930 to discuss the idea. Although this initial meeting left the issue unresolved, Ayres and the Board later agreed to Mellon's wishes in April and the two buildings switched plots.
President (and former Commerce Secretary) Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
laid the cornerstone of the Commerce building on June 10, 1929, using the same trowel
Trowel
A trowel is one of several similar hand tools used for digging, smoothing, or otherwise moving around small amounts of viscous or particulate material.-Hand tools:...
President George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
had used to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
. The contract for its limestone facade—according to at least one newspaper account, the largest stone contract in world history—was awarded in April. The cost of the building had risen to $17.5 million. Ayres' Department of Commerce building opened on January 4, 1932.
Ayres continued his work on the Board of Architectural Consultants into the mid-1930s. From 1931 to 1936, the Board struggled to accommodate the need for automobile parking at the complex while also making Federal Triangle pedestrian-friendly. The Board began studying traffic issues in late 1927. A major study of parking needs and solutions was conducted in 1931, and traffic and parking patterns assessed again after the Department of Commerce building opened in early 1932. To achieve some of the traffic and parking goals, Ayres and the Board voted to eliminate the east-west streets and diagonal avenues, leaving only the north-south streets through the area, and 12th and 9th Streets NW were submerged in tunnels beneath the National Mall. In the first major change to the Board's "final" plan of 1929, a proposed "Grand Plaza" between the Commerce and Post Office buildings was abandoned in favor of a parking lot. The Board considered a number of other solutions to the need to accommodate the more than 7,500 cars expected to arrive every day (including an underground bus terminal and underground parking garage under the Grand Plaza), but in the end only approved a small number of underground parking spaces beneath the Apex Building
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
.
The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
awarded him its Medal of Honor in 1933. In 1936, he was elected to the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
.
He wed Mrs. Edith Twining (née Donald, widow of Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Kinsley Twining) On November 28, 1928. He became stepfather to Twining's son and daughter, and his stepson Kinsley Twining became American vice-consul in Singapore.
Notable buildings and memorials
Among Ayres' more recognized and important buildings are:- Bowery Savings Bank, Elizabeth and Grand Streets, Manhattan, New York City, New York
- Brick Presbyterian Church
- Broadway Savings Bank
- Guaranty Trust Company building
- Herbert C. Hoover United States Department of Commerce building
- New York Academy of Medicine building
- Rockefeller Hospital
- United States Memorial Chapel at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial
His Bowery Savings Bank building is particularly notable. The structure has "one of the great interior spaces of New York", according to one architectural guide.
Ayres' was not only a noted architect in his own right, but he helped lead many successful design teams as well. His teams won for York & Sawyer commissions for the Federal Building in Honolulu, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, (since replaced by the Prince Kuhio Federal Building
Prince Kuhio Federal Building
The Prince Kūhiō Federal Building, formally the Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaole Federal Building and United States Courthouse, is the official seat of the United States federal government and its local branches of various agencies and departments in the state of Hawaii...
) and 33 Liberty Street
33 Liberty Street
33 Liberty Street is the current home of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It is located in downtown Manhattan in New York City, New York State, USA. Built in 1924, it is where the monetary policy of the United States is executed by trading dollars and United States Treasuries...
, Manhattan, New York City (the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is located at 33 Liberty Street, New York, NY. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses New York state, the 12 northern counties of New Jersey,...
building).