James Bogardus

James Bogardus , 1800-1874, American architect, b. Catskill, N.Y. Among the first to use cast iron in the construction of building facades, Bogardus was noted for his commercial building designs in New York City. Bogardus's success with cast-iron exteriors led eventually to the adoption of steel-frame construction for entire buildings. See cast-iron architecture .

Bogardus, James (1800–74). American inventor, designer, engineer, and industrialist. In 1847 he exhibited a model of a prefabricated iron factory, and was commissioned (1848) to make an ornamental five-storey iron façade for Dr John Milhau's (1785–1874) drug-store on Broadway, NYC, the first of several other fronts, which had a profound influence on the development of cast-iron construction, prefabricated cast-iron structural frames, and kits-of-parts that could be quickly assembled on site. He proposed an exhibition-house for the 1853 New York Exposition which was to have had a roof suspended from a central tower. He published Cast Iron Buildings: Their Construction and Advantages (1856, revised 1858). Regrettably, most of his work has been destroyed, but a few buildings survive: two in Manhattan and one in Cooperstown, NY.

Bibliography

Benevolo (1971);
Bogardus (1856);
Condit (1968);
Gayle & and Gillon (1974)