Flagg, Ernest (1857–1947). American architect. He promoted French Beaux-Arts ideals in the USA, and is best known for the Singer Loft Building (1902–4), and the Singer Tower (1906–8—demolished), NYC. In those works he promoted the idea of structural rationality he had absorbed from his studies of Viollet-le-Duc. Among his other works may be cited the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1892–7), and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD (1896–8) (in both of which his mastery of academic Classicism was displayed), and Bowcot (1916–18) and Wallcot (1918–22), two fine houses on Staten Island.

Bibliography

Bacon (1986);
Dictionary of American Biography (1974);
Placzek (ed.) (1982)

Ernest Flagg, 1857–1947, American architect, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. The 45-story Singer Building in New York City, which he built in 1908, marked a revolutionary height. Flagg's other works include the Scribner Building, New York City, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and numerous residences. In magazine articles and in his book, Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922), Flagg advocated various structural economies and innovations. These include a method of house planning on a module basis and model tenement housing. He wrote also Le Naos du Parthenon (1928, in French and English), a study in Greek units of proportion.