J.A. van Straaten Jr. (1862-1920) At the end of the last century, Jacques van Straaten Jr. undertook a trip to America as a young architect. What the youthful architect did there is difficult to trace. Apart from a few buildings, there is also no clear American influence within Van Straaten's oeuvre. The fact remains that - almost twenty years before H.P. Berlage - he was one of the first Dutch architects directly confronted with the skyscrapers of the New World. After his return to the Netherlands, his commissions ranged from designs for country houses and canal houses to those for stores and warehouses. His most important commission undoubtedly constitutes the design for the department store De Bijenkorf in Amsterdam. Background and education Jacobus Augustinus ("Jacques") van Straaten jr. was born into an artistic Utrecht family on January 28, 1862. His father had worked as a carpenter and executor on, among other things, the expansion of Utrecht along the Maliesingel. His grandfather, Bruno van Straaten, was an outstanding landscape and portrait painter who had founded the drawing academy in the city of Dom. Of greater national importance, however, was his great uncle: Johannes van Straaten (1781-1858), who still enjoys fame as the founder of the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst in 1842. This was a professional society, which tried to restore the level of craftsmanship in architecture by issuing competitions and publishing visual material. Johannes van Straaten established his firm in Amsterdam in 1806, an example that Van Straaten Jr. would follow nearly a century later. Johannes van Straaten's best-known works in the capital are the Reading Museum on the Rokin (1820), Sinkel's store on the Nieuwendijk (1821) and the main building for the warehouse dock. In collaboration with his son-in-law J.J. Offenberg, he also designed the St. Ignatius Church, nicknamed "the Zaaijer," on Keizersgracht (1837). Van Straaten simultaneously worked as a contractor for the leading neoclassicists. He executed Tieleman Fransiscus Suys' design for the Moses and Aaron Church on Waterlooplein in Amsterdam in 1837-1839. He also took on part of J. Zocher's Beurs (1842). After Jacques van Straaten jr. completed the Hogere Burgerschool of Rolduc, he was apprenticed to the office of the architect P.J.H. Cuypers in Amsterdam in 1879. With Cuypers, the Netherlands found an international connection to the neo-Gothic architectural theories of both Viollet-le-Duc in France and John Ruskin in England. Cuypers emphasized Gothic, rational-constructive principles. In doing so, he preceded rationalism, which would become so important in a later period of Dutch architecture - particularly through Berlage. Cuypers' love for medieval craft went above all with the Catholic revival in Dutch society. Cuypers participated in the founding of the school for Arts and Crafts 'Quellinus' in 1879, located at his former residence 'Oud Leyerhoven' in Amsterdam. The school was to train craftsmen according to medieval recipe as sculptors and architectural draftsmen. At this office, the young Van Straaten was particularly schooled in Gothic and Dutch Renaissance architecture. Employees in Cuypers' office included Augustinus van Delden, Rettenbacher, A. Mulder, John Croll, Klinkhamer, Eduard Cuypers, Schill, Haverkamp, Van Lookeren, Campagne, Beckers, Droste, Tonnaer, Vergouwen, Jolink, Van de Pavert, Bruning and Hulswit. When Van Straaten was an apprentice, Cuypers worked on a number of churches and residential houses in Amsterdam. Preparations for the Rijksmuseum and Central Station in Amsterdam were also in full swing. It is noteworthy that Van Straaten never followed his Christian patron Cuypers in designing religious buildings. Together with his teacher, Van Straaten did work in Haarzuylens at the end of the nineteenth century. Here Cuypers rebuilt the castle de Haer (1891-1896) from a ruin at his own discretion. In doing so, he followed the example of Viollet-le-Duc's restoration of the Chateau de Pierrefonds (1858-79) for Napoleon III in northern France. At Cuypers' invitation, around 1895 Van Straaten designed plans for farmhouses and peasant houses for the area around castle de Haer. England After his training period with Cuypers, Van Straaten left for England in 1883. There he arrived in an architectural transition period, where the Gothic style of A.W.N. Pugin and John Ruskin transitioned into the more modern British architectural styles, including the Arts & Crafts, Queen Anne and Neo-Georgian. These aesthetic movements prioritized the picturesque nature of a design and led to the popularization of typically English forms and a Domestic Revival in architecture. Architects Richard Norman Shaw and William Eden Nesfield popularized the architectural style of native country architecture, from which they distilled certain traditional details such as tall chimney towers and large slate roofs into a rural Old English style. Shaw achieved great fame with country houses such as Leyswood in Sussex (1870) and Cragside in Northumberland (1870-circa 1885). For urban architecture, he developed a mixture of classical English (and Dutch) forms from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as the design for the New Zealand Chambers in London (1871-1873). The Queen Anne thus acquired a common vocabulary in the 1870s, including such elements as brick pilasters and pediments, sash windows, hipped roofs, wooden cupolas, external shutters, brick ornamentation beneath the windows, tall chimneys, cast-iron raillings and a decorative use of sunflowers. Van Straaten received his further training in London with the architect Robert William Edis. Edis' early architectural work, such as the storage sheds on Southwark Street and Paul's Wharf in London, were still heavily influenced by neo-Gothic, but he too was increasingly influenced by the Queen Anne style. Edis moved to a more Renaissance architectural style in the 1880s, as seen in the designs for the Constitutional (1883-1885), the Badminton (1885) and Junior Constitutional Club (1890) in London and the Conservative Club in Glasgow. Edis, by Queen Anne custom, also engaged in the decorative arts and interior design. In his books "Decoration and Furniture of Town Houses" (1880) and "Handbook on Healthy Furniture" (1884), he fought for a more hygienic and functional layout of the interior. For example, he was influential in the design of bedrooms with continuous wall cabinets, negating the accumulation of dust on and under the cabinets. How Van Straaten came into contact with Edis is unknown. In any case, this one was in direct contact with America. Indeed, Edis had been in Kansas planning a city there as early as the 1970s. His interest in the New World never diminished thereafter, as he was elected as British envoy to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, for which he designed the Victoria House. From 1885 Van Straaten attended the Architectural Department of the Royal Academy in the evenings, located in Burlington House. Teaching there was characterized by a wide variety of teaching architects. Although the overall direction since 1870 was in the hands of Richard Phené Spiers, the teaching was actually done by visiting architects. Among other things, Van Straaten took note of the work of Shaw, who during this period had moved from Old English and Queen Anne to Neo-Georgian. This style harkened back to the strict classical style of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century architecture: a simple facade with regularly spaced windows, a heavy cornice and no bay windows. Although it would be unfair to cite Shaw as the sole founder of the Old English or Queen Anne style, he was a major influence on the American Shingle Style through his publications. Shaw was identified with traditional English architecture, and the Queen Anne idea in particular, whereby the national past could be freely plucked from, was appreciated by Americans. Van Straaten's most interesting connection to America was probably Richard Clipston ("Clip") Sturgis, a fellow student of J. van Straaten at the Royal Academy and studio associate at Edis' office. Clip Sturgis' uncle, John Hubbard Sturgis, commuted back and forth between Boston and London as early as 1850. The son of a banker, with a talent for drawing, John Sturgis took lessons from James K. Colling in 1855. The latter was an architect and engineer with a special interest in architectural foliage and known for the book Gothic Ornament (1846-1850). In 1861 John Hubbard Sturgis returned to Boston, where he had been associated with the firm of Bryant & Gilman during the American Civil War. In 1866 he and Charles Brigham started their own firm - Sturgis & Brigham - although he returned to England the same year. Brigham retained charge of the Boston office and Sturgis designed by correspondence until he settled permanently in Boston in 1870. In the following years, John Sturgis traveled back and forth from America to Europe annually, providing a first-hand source of information on architectural developments on both sides of the Atlantic. According to Magaret H. Floyd (1972), John Sturgis belonged to the aesthetic movement in London, which also included Edis and designers such as John Moyr Smith and Bruce Talbert. Moreover, both Edis and Sturgis used a lot of terracotta in their work. Edis did this in the upholstery of the Constitutional Club, among others, and Sturgis introduced the massive use of terracotta to the exterior in America with his design for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1870-1876). Comparing the dates on the drawings of Van Straaten and Clipston Sturgis, we can conclude that they toured Europe together before traveling to America. America: Boston After Van Straaten returned to Utrecht in mid-1886, he spent a short time at home before leaving for America. The desire to "get practical there" had lived with the young Dutchman for some time. For the time, this was certainly not such an exceptional idea, considering that a million-fold flow of European emigrants accompanied him to the other side. The difference with these land movers, however, was that Van Straaten did not leave for economic, political or religious reasons, but always maintained that his American stay was for a period of study. Precisely in 1886, the year Van Straaten left for Boston, American architecture was more than ever in the interest of the European trade press. The cause of all this was the tragic death of H.H. Richardson on April 27, 1886. Since an 1885 poll conducted by the "American Architect" on the ten most beautiful buildings in America revealed that Richardson had designed five of the ten chosen buildings, his fame had spread worldwide. Both the survey and his death caused an increased interest in American architecture. In his decision to leave for America, the friendship between J. van Straaten and R.C. Sturgis must have weighed most heavily. Sturgis, with his architectural and personal connections, was the perfect figure to introduce Van Straaten to the American construction world. By 1886, Charles Brigham had left the office of Sturgis & Brigham, and the younger Sturgis took his place. Sturgis and Van Straaten went to live in Beacon Hill in old Boston. Van Straaten must have been able to see the golden top of the State House from his window (1795-1798). After his uncle's death, Sturgis partnered with W.R. Cabot in 1888. The firm remained located at 19 Exchange Place. That same year, according to the address file, Van Straaten was promoted to architect. During his time in Boston, Van Straaten encountered a wide variety of architectural styles. Although the opinion prevailed in Europe that Americans were a barbaric, underdeveloped people, it would be wrong to assume that Van Straaten dove into a cultural black hole when he left for America. Lewis Mumford, who analyzed the artistic situation between 1865 and 1895 in the book "The Brown Decades" (1931), broke through this idea of a culturally backward America by rightly pointing out individual talents such as Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman in literature, Thomas Eakins and James McNeill Whistler in painting and H.H. Richardson, John Wellborn Root and Louis Henri Sullivan in architecture. The fact remains, however, that America continued to look to Europe and did not begin to work on a national style until the late 1970s. Both in emulating European fashions and in pursuing its own American art, Boston occupied a prominent position. Because of its historically strong ties to Europe, Boston maintained intensive contact with Europe and, partly as a result, captured its position as the intellectual and cultural center of America. The artistic front position also stemmed from the enormous economic and geographic expansion that had begun from 1840. This had turned Boston into a prosperous metropolis, proudly calling itself "the Athens of the New World." The economic expansion and cultural awakening also made itself felt in residential architecture in the late 1950s. There was an opportunity to visualize the new spirit in architecture when the Back Bay was reclaimed. The new houses were built in red bricks of brown sandstone (brownstone). The most prominent architectural element was undoubtedly the mansard roof. Another French element was the symmetrical construction of the facade and the correctly academic detailing around doors and windows. The street facades were composed of tall, narrow facades, with the cornice kept at one height as much as possible so as not to disturb the unity of the streetscape. Interest in the architecture of Paris was heightened by the great building activity of Baron Hausmann and the establishment of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Richard Morris Hunt, Henry Hobson Richardson, Charles Follen McKim and Robert Swain Peabody were the first, who went to study in the French capital. After this, Europe would soon be overrun by Americans, who crawled over the monuments drawing and measuring. The General Grant style, as the Second Empire was sometimes called, disappeared, when the city center was wiped out by fire in 1872. The fire chief Chas. Damrell in fact saw the construction of the mansard buildings as the main cause of this fire. Boston: 1870 to 1893 After the great Paris fire, Boston turned to Victorian Gothic architecture. John Ruskin's moral sermons caught on and people became convinced, that Gothic was the only style for a Christian society, necessary to subdue the pagan, dissolute world. A friend of John Ruskin, Charles Eliot Norton, was also a professor at Harvard College and advocated that Memorial Hall be built in the neo-Gothic style (1870-1878, Ware & Van Brunt). This was followed by several more important buildings in the same style, including the New Old South Church (1877) by Cummings & Sears, the Museum of Fine Arts (1870-1876) and the Church of the Advent (1875). Both of the latter buildings were to the designs of Sturgis & Brigham. A more decorative, experimental style also emerged, with buildings taking on an asymmetrical, broken silhouette. The individuality of the designer was more paramount than ever, leading to an unprecedented free interpretation and combination of French and English elements. However, criticism of the lack of a coherent style in American architecture became increasingly compelling. It had to be possible to arrive at a national American architecture from the various stylistic traditions. After the Civil War, there was a general feeling of aversion to contemporary moral values, and this expressed itself in a longing for the past and the simplicity of the countryside. A nationalistic trend emerged, leading to a flourishing of architecture from America's colonial past. This Colonial Revival was also stimulated by the Queen Anne in England. Two architectural styles thus emerged in America; a more classical Colonial Style and a more rural Shingle Style. In addition to these two styles, Romanesque, Gothic and Beaux-Arts were also part of the architectural world in Boston. H.H. Richardson, for example, became known for his Richardsonian Romanesque, which was characterized by simplicity of form, compactness of mass and monumentality of scale. This produced the powerful character that was popular with contemporaries. In Boston and the surrounding area, Richardson received a large number of commissions from the Ames family, which is interesting because Van Straaten writes in his 1916 biography that he had worked on a design for Frederick Lothrop Ames. Other firms that became important to architecture in Boston were those of McKim, Mead & White, Ralph Adams Cram, and Robert S. Peabody and John Goddard Stearns Jr. The firm where Van Straaten was probably employed, and thus logically most influenced, was that of Sturgis & Cabot. In 1886, the firm received a number of commissions to design private homes from the Thayer family. The head of this family was Nathaniel Thayer, an important banker and founder of the Continental Railroads. Little is known of the commissions for the year 1887 except the names of the clients: H.P. Quincy, Martin Brimmer, Amory Gardner and Mrs. Charles Blake. In June 1887 it was decided to expand the Museum of Fine Arts, as designed by Sturgis & Brigham in 1870. At the same time, John H. Sturgis was also commissioned to construct the Boston Athletic Association Building (1887-89) at the corner of Exeter and Blagden Street. Of a major change at the death of J. Sturgis on Feb. 13, 1888, little is evident in the series of commissions. The firm of Sturgis & Cabot took over all ongoing business. One of the larger commissions was the completion of the Church of the Advent (1875-1892) on Brimmer Street. This was a joint project of Sturgis & Cabot, Henry Vaughan, Cram & Goodhue and George & Peto. In 1888, commissions followed for A. Prime, Morris Addison, F. Cunningham, and a house at 25 Commonwealth Avenue for Colonel O. W. Peabody. A large number of designs in and around the city of Boston followed between 1889 and 1892, with Sturgis' notes paying particular attention to the Troy Orphan Asylum and the Rexleigh School in Salem, Connecticut. The 1916 biography of Van Straaten also lists Frederick L. Ames as a client, although no commission from Ames to Sturgis & Cabot is known for the period 1886-1892. However, John H. Sturgis did remodel F.L. Ames' house at 306 Dartmouth Street in 1882. This house, which had been designed in 1872 by Peabody & Stearns for S.V.R. Thayer, was considerably enlarged by the addition of a pavilion. The spectacular hall with its oak paneling and stairwell give the house a palatial impression. One sign that concretely indicates Van Straaten's involvement in his field in America is his admission to the Boston Society of Architects (B.S.A.) as a "junior member" on Feb. 1, 1887. Monthly meetings of the B.S.A. discussed important designs or held lectures. This was an excellent opportunity for Van Straaten to speak with "already renowned older or talented young artists. The meetings or excursions often included guests from other cities, such as "Mr. Sullivan of Chicago," who attended on Oct. 20, 1891. Sturgis and Van Straaten were also members of the Boston Architectural Club (B.A.C.), a smaller architectural society. This association organized its first exhibition of its members' work in May 1890. Particularly notable in the exhibition catalog is the large number of "European sketches," such as those by Cass Gilbert, J.A. Schweinfurth, Frank Miles Day and Samuel Mead. Among the 800 drawings and photographs are five sketches by Van Straaten: two sketches of Italy and Holland, the tower of Rhenen, a sketch of Haarlem Cathedral and a drawing of antique jewelry. Except perhaps for that last sketch, these are all older drawings by Van Straaten. By R.Cl. Sturgis, on the other hand, included pictures of contemporary works, such as a sketch of a barn commissioned by Howard Stockton and a design for the cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Also hanging were photographs of Sturgis taken from the front porches of the homes of Mrs. Charles Blake, Colonel Peabody and Eugene V.R. Thayer, respectively. The finest drawings - with additions - were published in a separate edition in 1891. Van Straaten is represented with his 1886 sketches of Haarlem, Utrecht and Rotterdam and with a brilliantly detailed sketch of the entrance to the Florentine Cathedral and of the Palazzo Contarini. The sketchbook was warmly recommended by the book reviewer of "The Inland Architect and News Record. However, the critic lamented the great loss of quality of the depicted drawings due to the use of an inferior printing method: "(...) some of the pencil drawings have suffered, noticeably Mr. Van Straatens drawings from the Dutch, this being especially unfortunate, as his are among the best selected subjects in the collection. Mr. Van Straatens drawing of the Palazzo Contarini, the reputed home of Shakespeare's Desdemona, deserves notice for the tenderness of its treatment and the success of its texture effect." America, Saint Louis (Missouri) According to the membership list of the B.S. A., Van Straaten left Boston in 1893. His new address became, "Jacques Van Straaten, c/o Eames & Young, 304 North Eighth Street, St. Louis, Mo." Saint Louis was a prosperous commercial hub, which was evident in the architectural field as well. Theodore C. Link's Union Station (1892-1894) was a fine combination of Richardsonian and French elements, and for a time was even the largest station in the world. Perhaps it was the architectural prosperity of the West that made Van Straaten decide to move away from Boston. In Chicago, new construction methods were developed and tested, which did extremely well on the unexplored lands of the Midwest. In Saint Louis, a number of skyscrapers of ten to fourteen stories in height were created. The most successful design was that of the Wainwright Building (1890-1891) by Louis Sullivan. The architectural firm Eames & Young was founded anno 1886 by William Scofield Eames and Thomas Crane Young. The firm showed the influence of both Richardson and Sullivan in its designs. Young in particular was probably very familiar with the situation in Boston, since he had worked in the offices of Van Brunt & Howe and E.M. Wheelwright, respectively. He had subsequently traveled around Europe, where he had studied at the University of Heidelberg (1880) and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1881), among others. In 1885 he returned to Saint Louis to form a partnership with Eames. Eames had also studied at the Paris École (circa 1880) and he had received private instruction in Rome. Upon his return, he became assistant to the city architect in Saint Louis from 1881 to 1883. Unlike other architects, the partners never developed a coherent, individual style that made their designs recognizable at a glance. Their buildings ranged from monumentalism (the Textile Building for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904) to heavy stone residences, which showed a strong influence of Richardsonian Romanesque; and from a Sullivanesque skyscraper (Boatmen's Bank Building, 1913) to a classical library (the Rosenberg Library in Galveston, Texas, 1902). When van Straaten appeared in Saint Louis, Eames & Young were working on the elaborate Cupples Warehouse Block: a complex of eighteen storage sheds next to the railroad, commissioned by Samuel Cupples and Robert S. Brookings. The buildings formed cubic variations on Richardson's Marshall Field Wholesale Store and Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge's Lionberger Building (1887-1888). Following the lead of the Chicago School, Eames & Young also developed visible frame construction, as in the design for the Walker Building and the building for the Ferguson-McKinney Dry Goods Co. The firm had gained a good, national reputation by the turn of the century and received commissions throughout the country. Typical of this was the invitation to participate in the competition for the Washington University building. It is surprising that Van Straaten was affiliated with a firm of such national scope. Perhaps he provided sketches or something similar for Eames & Young. He may also have used the Saint Louis office merely as a contact address during his wanderings in the area. Since his biography makes no mention of either Saint Louis or Eames & Young, it is doubtful that Van Straaten remained in Saint Louis for long. Netherlands In 1892, Van Straaten returned to the Netherlands. In 1898 he was transferred to Amsterdam in the population register of Utrecht. The Amsterdam address books of 1900 list him at the address Heerengracht 463. From 1905 his one-man business was located at Herengracht 435; seven years later he moved his residence to Keizersgracht 619. The following year he temporarily moved his office to Herengracht 442, returning to Herengracht 435-437 in 1914. In 1899 he married Maria Povel in Hilversum; the following year he could call himself the happy father of a baby daughter. Maria Povel's grandfather soon provided Van Straaten with a large number of connections and commissions, initially from wealthier relatives. Despite his busy pursuits, he visited England regularly. In June 1901, for example, he visited Somerset, as evidenced by a sketch of the cathedral there (dated June 18, 1901). R.Cl. Sturgis often traveled back and forth to England, including in 1901 when he visited Wedmore, Bath and Somerset. In the back of that year's notebook, he noted Van Straaten's address in Amsterdam. This note seems to be the only evidence, that Van Straaten and Sturgis were in contact after 1892. Van Straaten's position in the context of architectural progression Fully in keeping with art historical tradition, J.A. van Straaten should have suffered a profound influence from his stay in America. Even his 1916 biography states, "This time full of activity in America, has been his real, his practical apprenticeship and (...) have given him the broad outlook which has been clearly expressed in many of his later works." Should this indeed be the case, Van Straaten was one of the first Dutch architects directly influenced by American architecture. Although reference can also be made to American prototypes in the work of contemporaries such as A. Salm G. Bzn., W. Molenbroek and H.P. Berlage, they derived their inspiration mainly from secondary sources such as magazines and books. Van Straaten's commissions from the period 1893-1920 show a clear dichotomy of country houses and urban buildings. To establish the extent to which the major American architectural firms left their mark on Van Straaten's work, a brief sketch of the buildings in question is in order. Country house building In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution caused a mass migration to the cities. Those who could afford it retreated to a rural setting to enjoy salubrious peace and quiet. This caused a boom in country house architecture, from which Van Straaten also benefited. The character of country house building ensured that the personal wishes of the user were much more emphatic than was often the case in urban architecture. There was intensive interaction between client and designer, and this led to a wide variety of country-house shapes. In general, however, the focus was on simplicity, tranquility and integration with nature. There were actually no examples of country house construction in the Netherlands. The patrician houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were vast, stately accommodations, in which the romantic longing for the picturesque and a convivial domesticity were hard to find. Partly due to social changes, which made servants difficult to obtain, the size of the country house became smaller. As a guide, they referred to the richer history of English cottages, especially as modernized after the ideas of Morris and Shaw. These smaller country houses combined the various components in such a casual way as to create a picturesque, rural ensemble. Symmetry, regularity and axes were secondary to practicality. The generation of architects who applied these theories united in 1884 to form the Art Workers' Guild. This became the center of Morris' Arts & Crafts movement. Alastair Service, in "Edwardian Architecture," distinguishes two groups of architects in this guild. The first group, which included Edward Prior and William Lethaby, connected directly with the building tradition of Webb and Shaw and sought to design buildings organically. This group did this by allowing the forms of the house to emerge from and integrate with the natural environment and local building materials. The second group of architects was led by Charles Annesley Voysey, who favored a more aesthetic approach to design and greater visual simplicity. He refused to use local building methods and often covered the walls with rough plaster. In addition to bright color, his buildings were characterized by slate roofs with overhanging eaves, wrought-iron supports under the eaves, and walls rhythmically interrupted by buttresses, horizontal fenestration and chimney towers. Van Straaten designed a dozen villas between 1895 and 1910. Unfortunately, most of these have been demolished or are untraceable due to insufficient data. The country houses that can be found show an English influence. Of his first design, a villa for Felix Gombertz in Bussum (1895), it can be seen from a remaining image that Van Straaten harked back to traditional forms and methods. The decorative nature of the shutters, timber framing and small, lattice-like windows allude to a picturesque treatment of the Queen Anne style rather than the austerity of Arts & Crafts. The tall chimney towers with the conjoined pipes are another such English detail. In England after about 1890, the cottage type was replaced by a tighter composition borrowed from the late Renaissance and Baroque styles. Van Straaten's country house for M. van Notten at Vogelenzang (1900) is in fact a transitional work from the rural to the more organized design. A clear element referring to England can be found in the central position of the "hall. This formed an integral part of the living space, from which the main staircase also sprung. An example of a more orderly facade design with evenly distributed windows can be found in the house of Jos. van de Loo in Dieren (1900). Especially in the interior, the transition from a casual arrangement of furniture to the rigid distribution of Dutch classicism is very large. Van Straaten continued a more bounded composition in designs such as Huize Eemhoeve for Sterneberg in Baarn (1906), a hotel in the Bosch of Bredius in Naarden-Bussum (1909) and the country house for Baron Quarles de Quarles in Vogelenzang (1909). The country house for which the term "manor" is most appropriate is the villa for Dresselhuys at Culemborg (1907). This type of country house, characterized by two separate facades connected by a lower semicircular entrance, was based on the patrician country houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . This type of country house could also be spotted in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. For example, Peabody & Stearns used this model for the Vanderbilt residence Rough Point and Robert Andrews, in an article on the change from "cottage" to "manor" (1904), provided an illustration of a country house design by R. Sturgis at Groton, which was based on the same model. Huizinga's villa at Zeist (1904) is of a more mixed character. The villa combined elements of traditional farmhouses, such as the hipped roof and bay windows, with an Italianate open alcove and plaster-covered walls. This villa also shows no American elements. Comparing the above structures with those of Van Straaten's peers, we can say that Van Straaten went along with the generally prevailing standards. One was generally free to choose between the English cottage, the tied baroque composition or emulation of the indigenous tradition based on the farmhouse. From these examples, architects often distilled their own style with a mixture of the various elements. In the Netherlands, the country house designs of K.P.C. de Bazel, J.W. Hanrath and Berlage received the most interest. There is nothing to suggest that Van Straaten wanted to adopt traits from the Shingle or Colonial Style. There are limiting reasons for this. First, brick was the traditional building material in the Netherlands and not wood or natural stone. Moreover, the client's taste played an important, if not decisive role. However, these explanations do not apply to Van Straaten's design of his own country house at Zandvoort (1913). Had he wanted to showcase his American knowledge, this would have been the perfect opportunity. However, Van Straaten preferred a block construction clad in gravel concrete, which had nothing to do with American architecture. City Architecture When describing Dutch architecture around 1900, there are two names that should be mentioned: Cuypers and Berlage. Cuypers' theories of arriving at true architecture by rational means, which he believed to be based on Gothic principles, still had its adherents around the turn of the century. Especially in church construction, these neo-Gothic ideas predominated, although after 1900 a mixture of neo-Gothic and Romanesque elements was increasingly chosen. As for profane architecture, Cuypers opted for a combination of neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance motifs. Partly due to the efforts of the Delft professor E. Gugel, a clear emphasis on imitation of the Dutch Renaissance emerged after 1880. In this endeavor, Gugel was assisted by I. Gosschalk, C.H. Peters and A.W. Weisman. The preference for the Renaissance style, particularly in large public works, incidentally ran parallel with developments in England, where John McKean Brydon - a student of Shaw - revived the English Baroque style of Christopher Wren and others from 1890 to 1905. At the end of the nineteenth century, a struggle arose in the Netherlands between the recognizable, building style borrowed from the past by Cuypers and Gugel and the so-called "Nieuwe Kunst," as propagated by Berlage and De Bazel. This struggle was evident in the design for the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (1898-1903). The winner - Berlage - in fact relied as much on the rationalist principles of constructive honesty as Cuypers, but Berlage did not believe in the complete adoption of a style from the past. According to Berlage, an appropriate architecture had to grow out of modern requirements; the "New Art. These ideas were to lead not only to a renewed form of art, but also to be the beginning of a new - ideal - society. The turn of the century was the time of an awakening international socialism. Socially-minded artists from Holland and especially England maintained intensive contact. They shared the belief that art was a social and moral issue, as well as an interest in all branches of design. Dutch symbolists - such as Toorop, Thorn Prikker and Roland Holst - and architects - such as Berlage, De Bazel and J.L.M. Lauweriks - united in this way with the theories of the Arts & Crafts movement. From these thoughts and in reaction to the neo-styles emerged an international "Art Nouveau," which took on a naturalistic-floral emphasis in Belgium and France and was interpreted mostly geometric-abstract in England, Germany and Austria. In the Netherlands, beginning in the 1990s, Berlage in particular spread abstract formalism in a combination with the rationalism of Viollet-le-Duc. After 1900, however, this experimental phase of Art Nouveau already came to an end. De Bazel and Berlage developed their own style, separate from New Art. Berlage developed his social-humanist principles, which led to a sober brick construction in which decoration remained subordinate to the main masses. The integrity of construction, coupled with the need for functionality, made Berlage the lynchpin, connecting Cuypers' theories with those of the "New Businessmen" of the 1920s. Moreover, integration with the demands of his time brought revolutionary changes in public housing construction, made possible in part by building improvements. Cheap and good housing construction replaced the slums that had been speculated with after the Industrial Revolution. De Basel, who saw collective principles failing, promoted the need for an artist's individual development. This idea would serve as the starting point of the Amsterdam School after 1915. The vast majority of architects of Van Straaten's generation were characterized by a lack of style stability and experimented with the New Art, Berlage etc., or reverted to traditional forms. Think of C.B. Posthumus Meyes , E. Breman and Ed. Cuypers. What position Van Straaten took within this architectural framework should be evident from his most important works. The experimental phase: 1894-1906 Van Straaten's first commission was probably a design for a shophouse with upstairs apartment for the Royal Utrecht Cigar Factory H.G. & H.M. Hagen in Utrecht (1894). The building particularly stood out for its simplicity and was even briefly mentioned in 'Architectura'. The storehouse is built in three stories of red brick with steel floor beams, with the lower floor interspersed with thin layers of Morley stone. The entire façade is divided into five bays, with the two on the left forming the main façade. The lower floor consists of an entrance porch with a decorated molding and three storefront windows formed by large segmental arches. The second and third floors together form the horizontal middle section with decorative sash windows and shutters. The closing of the different bays is done with four spouted gables. The roof is covered with slate tiles, on top of which there is a tall chimney tower with collapsed pipes. It is probably these latter elements, in conjunction with the pursuit of the decorative in the shutters and entryway, that led Leliman and Gugel (1903) to characterize the building as very English. They give the same characterization to the building of the bicycle factory 'Simplex' in Amsterdam (1896). Only a sketch of this store by R.A. van de Pavert has survived. In imitation of the English Tudor style, Van Straaten actually took advantage of the freedom given to English architectural history by the Queen Anne. Plenty of examples of designs in the "Free Tudor" are also known to Shaw. At the end of the nineteenth century, this style was also used in America, although there it was usually reserved for structures of a more formal character, such as churches and university buildings. How difficult it is to clarify the intertwining of transatlantic influences on Van Straaten's work is shown by the decoration of the first floor of the bicycle factory. Indeed, according to M.H. Floyd (1972), the round arch motif depicting animals was a typical element of Sturgis, who, however, seems to have adopted it again from England. Van Straaten completed three designs in 1906, the chronology of which is unknown. In Amsterdam, for example, he was commissioned to remodel a seventeenth-century canal house for the Friesch-Groningsche hypotheekbank (1906). Van Straaten chose a modern façade consisting of five bays, with the middle three forming a large "bow window. This motif and window division closely match the typical forms of Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street in Boston. However, there is a difference: the convex window in Boston extended to the ground, while Van Straaten used some gigantic consoles. We can perhaps attribute this element to the Queen Anne influence he had undergone in England. That at the beginning of the century Van Straaten, like so many, was engaged in experimentation is evident - apart from the bow window forms and the green glazed bricks - also from the abstract decorative forms, which he used above the windows. In 1906, Van Straaten also designed a building with brilliant naturalistic ornamentation: the travel agency for De Vries & Co. a firm of ship charterers (Rokin 65-67). The building, called "Neptune," consisted of five floors, with the middle bay extending one floor higher. The brick block with protruding corner bays rested on a light-colored facade covered with plastic ornamentation - borrowed from the sea world. Here, the austere treatment of the upper floors contrasted sharply with the decorative excess of the lower floor. The combination of fantastic with rational elements also had Berlage's interest at the beginning of the century. In this experimental phase, Van Straaten also designed the office of the life insurance company 'Piëtas' in Utrecht (1906). In 1903, this company had decided to build a new, larger headquarters at the intersection of Drift and Nobelstraat. The commission for the new building fell to Van Straaten, which is not surprising given his association with the city of Dom. In addition, the old headquarters of the Piëtas had been built in 1877 by Van Straaten Sr. under the direction of A.C. Bleys. About the new building of the Piëtas, Tom van Leeuwen writes the following in "Americana": "The 'Piëtas' is the only commercial building in the Netherlands that goes directly, both in form and detail, back to american examples." Some comments can be made to this quote. Looking at the Piëtas, we must agree with Van Leeuwen when he states that Van Straaten's structure clearly shows Richardsonian elements in the dormers, the main porch, the corner tower, the half-tower on the side facade and the use of natural stone. The hypothesis that Van Straaten Jr. used Richardson's Albany City Hall (1880-1882) for his main model is entirely plausible, given Van Straaten's knowledge of this work must have been gained in America. In a further comparison, Van Leeuwen also states, that the long side façade of the Pietas could have been inspired by Thomas Rodd's Union Station in Indianapolis (1886-1888. Indeed, this structure is located at an important railroad junction, which Van Straaten may have passed during his trip from Boston to Saint Louis. The latter assumption sounds plausible, but rests only on a formal likeness of the half-tower. When actually standing in front of the station in Indianapolis, any further comparison fails. A better suggestion for a possible prototype for the Pietas' side facade is an old school building: 'Old Stoney' in Frankfort, Indiana (1892). While the round tower differs from the Pietas, both the main façade and the side façade bear more resemblance to the Utrecht building than either Richardson's or Rodd's. The window divisions, both entryways, the element of a corner and half-tower on the side façade and the placement of the chimneys are all consistent with the Pietas. Also identical is the scale and distribution of the masses, especially on the side façade and in the detail of the two-lights on the far right. Despite these important similarities, which might indicate that Van Straaten indeed knew Old Stoney and used it as a source of inspiration, it must be doubted whether this was indeed the case. Indeed, Richardson's prototype was used as a starting point in numerous structures, especially stations. Presumably, America had several buildings with a design like Old Stoney (or the Pietas). While the building type of the Pietas can at least be called American, the same cannot be said of the details. These are certainly not Richardsonian and mostly not even of American origin. An example of the former is the end piece above the main entrance. Here is placed a sculptural group of a enthroned female figure, depicting the Pieta, flanked by two boys, representing good and evil. Richardson never employed such a plastic elaboration of his romanizing portals. A sophisticated sculptural grouping such as of the Pietas would also contradict the primitive, powerful character of Richardson's work. The same is true of the placement of the knight figure at the corner of the tower. The American closedness of the mass and the powerful emphasis of the corner lot is actually disrupted by Van Straaten with this image and the large windows on the second floor. In addition to some decorative elements depicting animal heads (as, for example, the consoles of the balcony), there was a relief in the round arch of the dormer on the main facade, depicting five sunflowers; a well-known motif of the Queen Anne style. In other details Van Straaten showed some influence of the geometric decoration of Art Nouveau, see, for example, the covering of the inner skeleton, or of naturalistic forms, as in the start of the tower. To summarize, Van Straaten did indeed look to America in terms of the basic form of the Pietas, but he showed other spheres of influence in the detailing. The big question is, why only fourteen years after his return to the Netherlands did Van Straaten clearly start using his architectural knowledge from America. Possibly the Beurs van Berlage, which also showed a number of Richardsonian elements, influenced the design of the Pietas or perhaps Van Straaten was following a wish of his client. After all, the institution of the life insurance company was an American given. Had the latter suggestion been the case, Van Straaten could have referred much more strongly to American architecture without directly exposing himself to the anti-American criticism, which W. Molenbroek and J.F. Staal had to endure. The traditional phase: 1908-1914 In the period up to about 1906, Van Straaten, like so many of his generation, was searching for an appropriate style. He did not allow himself to be tied to a coherent movement, but experimented with several "modern" directions. After 1906 he seems to have concluded this experimental phase and seems to opt for traditional architecture: eclectic, or a neo-style. This becomes visible in 1908 in his designs for the Phoenix society in Delft. This building, which F.J. Nieuwenhuis designed in 1877-1878 in neo-classical style, would be expanded at the beginning of the twentieth century. Besides J.B. van Loghem, among others, Van Straaten also provided three designs. The latter were in eclectic style, making Van Straaten an excellent adaptation to the historicizing spirit of his time. Van Agt (1967) attributes the unusual application of a serliana to a Dutch building to the English influence on Van Straaten's work. However, Shaw, who adopted Scamozzi's three-part window in some designs, also ensured that this motif was used in America. Van Straaten continued his career with a more sober emulation of Dutch classicism in his second building for the Hagen firm (1909). As in Utrecht, this was a single-story corner building with a simple fenestration. The ground floor has such an exposed construction that an advanced skeleton may have been used. The even facade design, the garland reliefs and the treatment of the roof show the predominantly neo-Renaissance character of Van Straaten's work of this period. A similar characterization applies to the design of the Dutch-Indian Escompto Maatschappij in Amsterdam (Keizersgracht 573-75, 1909). In the symmetrically designed facade, in which the five bays are interrupted by brick pilasters of the colossal order, and in the pediment, the design shows its classicist inspiration. The lack of a monumental entrance and the slightly arched windows on either side of the center-risal are probably of English rather than Dutch origin. Some designs where English origins can be determined with more certainty include a house and a garage. For example, in 1911 Van Straaten designed a residence behind the Rijksmuseum for A.W.M. Mensing. This building is a continuation of the classicist style of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as evidenced, among other things, by the corner rustics, the strictly symmetrical design of the façade and the heavy cornice. The house also shows similarities to Richard Shaw's Neo-Georgian work in London, such as the Bolney House of 1883 and 170 Queen's Gate of 1887. Other houses that appear around Museum Square during the same period are of a similar architectural style to Mensing's house, but slightly more lavishly executed. Leliman shows similar buildings by J. London, Jan Stuyt and Jos Cuypers, among others, in his book (1920). In 1912, Van Straaten designed a complex for the Amsterdamsche Rijtuig-Maatschappij on the corner of Hendrik Jacobszstraat 9-11 and Valeriusstraat. The complex consisted of stables and garages with a number of 'tower houses' above. For this design, too, Van Straaten clearly harked back to English elements. The combination of building materials, the large windows, the succession of smaller windows under the eaves, the bay windows and also the details refer to Queen Anne architecture. Undoubtedly, the design for the Amsterdam Bijenkorf (1911-1913) was Van Straaten's most important commission. For the director of this department store, Arthur Isaac, Van Straaten had also designed the Groot Bioscoop Theater on Nieuwendijk 128-132 in 1911. Since Bouw- en Woningtoezicht of Amsterdam allows inspection of the blueprints but not the accompanying documents, information about this building is very scarce. From the construction drawings it can only be concluded that it is a small, but elegant, brick structure in a business rather than traditional style. We know the round arch motif from the oeuvre of American architects, but Van Straaten's choice of materials and especially the proportions of the windows on the second floor differ from it. They may rather have been inspired by Berlage's 1895 office building for "De Nederlanden van 1845" in The Hague. At the address Nieuwendijk 132, Simon Philip Goudsmit had previously established a retail business in wool, yarn and tape: the Bijenkorf. He later expanded this business to include the premises at number 130. In 1870 Goudsmit associated with his cousin Arthur Isaac, after which the store moved to Nieuwendijk 144 in 1895 and Isaac began to specialize in the sale of women's clothing. On August 12, 1908, the contract was signed with contractors De Vlugt and Domhof to build a totally renovated Bijenkorf at the latter address to a design by Van Straaten Jr. The building history of this building shows a turning point in Van Straaten's flourishing practice. In order not to let the renovation on Nieuwendijk 144 stagnate, Isaac decided to temporarily house the business in a wooden auxiliary building. The City of Amsterdam proved willing to lease the old stock exchange site at 90A Damrak for this purpose. Business flourished here to such an extent that Isaac decided to cancel the plans on Nieuwendijk. Van Straaten was officially commissioned to design a building on the Damrak on February 8, 1910. Initially he assumed a store on the first floor and office floors to be rented above. The partnership between Van Straaten and the Bijenkorf ran into major difficulties as the architect's personal circumstances became more and more prominent. The deterioration of Van Straaten's marriage and his alcoholic problems became increasingly egregious after 1911 and were the breaking point for Van Straaten's name and career. In fact, the dispute with Isaac ran so high that the latter wanted to fire the architect but recoiled from the consequences. Isaac escalated the matter in December 1911 by hiring B.A. Lubbers, Van Straaten's right-hand man, as 'executive architect' and buying Van Straaten off with f 50,000. This was followed by a major disagreement over who could call himself the designer of the Bijenkorf. This led to a court case in 1915, which Lubbers won. However, since the final design of 1912 was formally based on that of 1909, Van Straaten was primarily responsible for the design. Construction of the Bijenkorf was to take place in two stages, for which a second auxiliary building was opened on the Stock Exchange Square. Both auxiliary buildings were built to a design by Van Straaten. Meanwhile, the Bijenkorf management and the Dam committee had decided to build a five-story department store with a more monumental appearance, in keeping with its surroundings. The number of entrances was limited and it was decided to pay homage to Jacob van Campen's Palace on the Dam by means of a turret. The Bijenkorf was provided with a reinforced concrete skeleton (the designer was ir. L.A. Sanders), with a combination of granite, sandstone and red clinkers chosen for the decoration. The building was constructed in a mixture of Baroque elements with Beaux-Arts classicism, as had been applied to German and French department stores. Isaac seemed to have deliberately desired a Neo-Romantic style, rather than a New Business style, against general advice. The Bijenkorf fiasco heralded the end of Van Straaten's practice. His marriage, constitution and career were irreparably damaged by the beginning of World War I. After 1914, only a few of Van Straaten's designs are known. He concluded the traditional phase with a design for a store and office building for the firm of C.A. Volk at Herengracht 435-437. This building also housed Van Straaten's own office. The design continued the line begun with the Hagenwinkel and the building for the Nederlandsche Indische Escompto Maatschappij. The brick facade here, too, is soberly ornamented with Dutch Classicist details in the sills and corner rustics. Reliefs of otters and beavers refer to the client's industry: namely, Volk was a fur trader. Other Projects Van Straaten designed a number of other projects, which fall outside the categories of country house construction and urban architecture. In 1895 he was commissioned by P.J.H. Cuypers to design some farmhouses and workers' houses near the castle de Haer in Haarzuylens. In this picturesque setting, which includes some magnificent Old English-style buildings of circa 1847, Van Straaten's dwellings fit in well with the rural surroundings. Van Straaten used some original elements in the widow Spliet's inn. The barn with the succession of windows under the eaves and the turret are stylish examples. Brick motifs in the façade of the residence and the use of traditional building materials, such as thatch and slates, testify to the use of traditional craftsmanship. In the hofstede Slotzicht, the brick glorification at sills, coats of arms, nameplate and roof termination is clearly overdone. The front facade in particular, partly due to the absence of any visible harmonizing system, takes on a cluttered appearance. Fortunately, Van Straaten gave the side facade a more rhythmic fenestration. Also in 1895 Van Straaten made a design drawing for the St. Fransiscusgesticht in Jutphaas, which was illustrated in 'Architectura'. This building also shows Van Straaten's preoccupation with brick decorations. As far as can be deduced from the design drawing, this is one of Van Straaten's few examples of Gothic influence. This exception was certainly prompted by the neo-Gothic church next to the asylum. In this building, too, Van Straaten made use of the conjoined - English - chimney pipes. Around 1910 Van Straaten was working on two major projects, which, however, were never executed. Only one and two drawings, respectively, of both works are known from the 1916 biography, but they certainly deserve more extensive research. The realization of both designs would have been of profound significance for the cityscape of Amsterdam. The first concept was a plan for the Noord-Nederlandsche Opera near Museumplein (1909). For this, Van Straaten had conceived a baroque-classical complex in which several theater and concert halls would be combined with a hotel-restaurant and several residences. The second project was for a hotel on Dam Square, (1911), which stylistically would have closely matched the Bijenkorf and would have lent a more monumental design to the center of Amsterdam. Van Straaten's 1916 biography also mentions a number of undated factory designs, such as those for the firm of Bontamps in Venlo, Herm. Oldekott & Sons on Nieuwezijdse Kolk, Brummer & Co on Barentskade (now Van Diemenstraat), J. C. Boldoot in Sloterdijk, The Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland and the factory for Benier & Co. All buildings, except the first, are located in Amsterdam. Only a picture of the last two designs can be found. The warehouse and drying plant for the Imperial Tobacco Company involves no more than a simple shed. At the factory for the firm Benier & Co. on Schinkelkade (later taken over by Choklat), you may be able to detect stylistic remnants of Richardson's Marshall Field Wholesale Store. The facade articulation of a row of arches closed by a row of smaller square windows is reminiscent of the American building, but that's where the comparison ends. In Memoriam Jacques van Straaten jr. died in Amsterdam on October 19, 1920, of kidney poisoning. He was commemorated with the following words by his former pupil Granpré Molière: "... But I do wish that the memory of what van Straaten has given should not be pushed back too much into the shadow of the Bijenkorf. His work does not deserve that, it has something that has always fascinated me, perhaps all the more so because it is so rare in our time; namely, that natural gift, to strike the right chord in a certain atmosphere, for a certain purpose, freely and unconcernedly. That is a typically Dutch gift; when an art connoisseur would come from outside, and attracted to the characteristic Dutch beauty, would look for the contemporary who wrote the purest in tone, Van Straaten would find his man. Besides, in his art as in his life, he was a charmer; playfully he created those charming details, always light in touch and just right. However, in the time of rushing after the latest, one does not consider the free wanderer, who carelessly whistles his song. And Van Straaten, with his childhood heart wide open to all acclaim, to all temptation, has found here too little food for one, too much substance for the other. The ebbing came too soon, but it could hardly be otherwise. It is almost superfluous to say that this intuitive gift was accompanied by a mastery of drawing; we are left with a collection of the very best travel and study drawings. Who will take the initiative to give them their rightful place? That the latter never happened is related to the second marriage of Van Straaten's wife. She married the general practitioner G.A.M. van Wayenburg, whose practice went bankrupt, shortly after his death. At the public sale of their household effects, Van Straaten's nephew-Cornelis van Straaten-was only able to keep part of Van Straaten's collection of drawings. The rest was subsequently diverted.