John Merven Carrere

John Merven Carrère , 1858-1911, American architect, b. Rio de Janeiro. After graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, he worked under McKim, Mead, and White in New York City, and from 1886 until his death practiced in partnership with Thomas Hastings. The best-known works of Carrère and Hastings are the New York Public Library (commission awarded in competition; completed 1911), the office buildings of the Senate and the House, and the Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C.

Carrère, John Merven (1858–1911). Brazilian-born American architect. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, before joining McKim, Mead, & White in NYC in 1883. In 1886 he opened an office with Thomas Hastings (1860–1929). The firm of Carrère & Hastings was responsible for many buildings, including the New York Public Library (1902–11), but started with the Ponce de Léon Hotel, St Augustine, FL (1886–8), an eclectic mix of Moorish, Spanish, and Renaissance elements, constructed of concrete using shell and coral aggregate. Nearly all the work (and it was extremely varied) of the 1890s was elaborately ornamented with over-scaled embellishments, but gradually turned to more restrained French Classicism and American Colonial Georgian for inspiration. In 1902 the firm built the Blair Building, NYC, and in 1905 the Traders' Block, Toronto, Canada, tall buildings influenced by architecture in Chicago. The Royal Bank of Canada retained Carrère & Hastings for their architecture (e.g. Bank, Main Street, Montréal (1909–12), a restrained Italianate job).

Bibliography

Kalman (1994);
H. Reed (1986);
Jane Turner (1996);
van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)