Ferriss, Hugh( 1889 – 1962 )
Crest of Boulder, Hoover Dam, The Power in Buildings series, September 14 (between 1943
and 1953 ), Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, NYDA. 1000. 001. 00010 , 30. 7 23. 3 cm,
Charcoal on tracing paper on boardAlthough Hugh Ferriss was from a different generation than Louis Sullivan, he represents the atti-
tudes of the architects designing buildings scraping the skies of American cities. Primarily an illus-
trator, it is important to include him in this section because he did much to promote the future of
cities with his drawings and sketches of emotive and dramatically lit urban structures.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he received a professional education in architecture from Washington
University. A school immersed in beaux-arts teaching methods, he graduated in 1911. After complet-
ing school he journeyed to New York City to work for Cass Gilbert. A licensed architect, Ferriss
found work rendering buildings for architects such as Harvey Wiley Corbett. Paul Goldberger writes
that Ferriss became interested in New York City’s new zoning ordinance, and in 1916 he drew a series
of five drawings describing building mass and the pyramid shapes that the ordinances implied. ‘Ferriss’s
drawing style became a crucial factor in shaping the priorities of the 1920 ’s: his visions of the impact of
the zoning law were to affect the age as much as the law itself, as masonry buildings endeavored to take
on the feeling of sculpted mountains, their shape suddenly more important than their historical detail
of even their style’ (Goldberger, 1982 , p. 58 ). Preparing his visions for a utopia, he exhibited
‘Drawings of the Future City’ in 1925 and in 1929 he published Metropolis of Tomorrow. Continuing to
illustrate for a wide variety of architects he commented that his purpose was to convey a certain aspect
of reality in an exciting way when the project was in still primarily in the architect’s mind (Leich,
1980 ). Later in his life he received a grant to travel the United States recording important contempor-
ary architecture, resulting in the book Power in Buildings.
The buildings in Hugh Ferriss’ drawings were not of his design but in a sense he created the
method by which they would be comprehended. They could be considered sketches by virtue of
their conceptual qualities. Ferriss resembles the futurist architect Sant’Elia who seduced an ideal and
appealed to an emotional position. In the New York Times, Peter Blake reviewed the show Power in
Buildings and wrote: ‘ ... Ferriss speaks (and writes) softly, but carries an awfully big pencil’. Blake
was implying their dynamic vision but also their powerful meaning (Leich, 1980 , p. 31 ).
This sketch from the Power in Buildings series (Figure 4. 5 ) presents a dramatic view of Hoover
Dam. In a reversal, strong light is emitting from below exaggerating the height of the observation plat-
form. The stark slope of the concrete mass fades away into emptiness further evoking this perception.
The lone figure helps the viewer comprehend the immense scale. On close inspection the sketch is
entirely freehand utilizing the ambiguous texture of a pliable media. Ferriss was known to have
implored soft pencil, charcoal and crayon, subsequently removing the medium for highlights with a
kneaded eraser or a knife. The use of smudged soft crayon produced an eerie foggy halo. In this case
the soft medium presented both less defined edges and high contrast. Not a preparatory sketch like
others in this book, the design by Gordon B. Kauffmann has been transformed by the hands of Ferriss.
The sketch puts the viewer in awe of the dam’s ability to extract power and the sheer magnitude of its
size. It suggests the light emitting from below represents the glow of the generating electricity.
Hugh Ferriss lived until modernism had reached a peak, but his methods strongly speak of an
architecture of masonry, of mass and solidity. His sketches were less about accuracy and more about
seduction in an attempt to influence the perception of architecture.H5719-Ch04.qxd 7/15/05 3:35 PM Page 109