Renwick, James (1818–95). American architect, mostly active in NYC. He is best remembered for Grace Church, Broadway (1843–6—one of the first in the USA in which a scholarly feeling for
Gothic Revival of the
Second Pointed variety was demonstrated), and St Patrick's Cathedral (1858–79). The original design (1853–7) of St Patrick's, the most important building for Roman Catholics in the USA at the time, was an eclectic tour-de-force made possible after Renwick augmented his knowledge of Continental Gothic during a study-visit to France in 1855. It drew on architectural themes from Rheims, Amiens, and Cologne Cathedrals for the exterior, and York
Minster, Exeter Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey for the interior, but, as built, was severely modified and skimped, even to the loss of the proposed octagonal
crossing-tower. He also designed the Smithsonian Institution (1847–55—a
Picturesque composition incorporating aspects of English, French, and German round-arched exemplars) and the Corcoran (now Renwick) Gallery (1859–71—in a
Second Empire style), both in Washington, DC, and Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY (1861–5—a simplified version of the
Renaissance Tuileries Palace, Paris, with other Renaissance influences).
Bibliography
Dictionary of American Biography (1943);
Hitchcock (1977);
P&J (1970–86);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Rattner (1969);
Jane Turner (1996);
W&K (1983)
