Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

300 feet long—he used an experimental system of glass-and-metal

roof construction. Encouraged by the success of this system, Paxton

submitted a winning glass-and-iron building plan to the design com-

petition for the hall to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, organized

to present “works of industry of all nations” in London. Paxton con-

structed the exhibition building, the Crystal Palace (FIG. 30-48),

with prefabricated parts. This allowed the vast structure to be

erected in the then-unheard-of time of six months and dismantled

at the exhibition’s closing to avoid permanent obstruction of the

park. The plan borrowed much from ancient Roman and Christian

basilicas, with a central flat-roofed “nave” and a barrel-vaulted

crossing “transept.” The design provided ample interior space to

contain displays of huge machines as well as to accommodate deco-

rative touches in the form of large working fountains and giant trees.

The public admired the building so much that the workers who dis-

mantled it erected an enlarged version of the Crystal Palace at a new

location on the outskirts of London at Sydenham, where it remained

until fire destroyed it in 1936. A few old black-and-white pho-

tographs and several color lithographs (FIG. 30-48) preserve a record

of the Crystal Palace’s appearance.

30-47Henri Labrouste,

reading room of the Bibliothèque

Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, France,

1843–1850.

The exterior of this Parisian

library looks like a Renaissance

palazzo, but the interior has an

exposed cast-iron skeleton,

which still incorporates classical

Corinthian capitals and

Renaissance scrolls.

30-48Joseph Paxton,Crystal Palace, London, England, 1850–1851; enlarged and relocated at Sydenham, England, 1852–1854. Detail of a color

lithograph by Achille-Louis Martinet,ca. 1862. Private collection.

The tensile strength of iron permitted Paxton to experiment with a new system of glass-and-metal roof construction. Built with prefabricated parts,

the vast Crystal Palace required only six months to erect.

Architecture 813

30-48AROEBLING,
Brooklyn
Bridge,
1867–1883.