The Treasury Building

Robert Mills' (1781-1859) Treasury Building, in Washington, D. C., is a prime example of the neoclassical architecture that the politicians, planners, and architects of the nineteenth century felt was appropriate for the American capitol. The building is located on the west side of Fifteenth Street, between Pennsylvania and New York Avenues. It was constructed in the years 1836-42. An analysis of its setting, scale, technique, and function demonstrates how the rationality and grandeur of this style were used by Mills to give suitable form to official Washington.

President Andrew Jackson appointed Mills Surveyor of Public Buildings in 1836. Mills was also responsible for the Patent Office (1836-40, now the National Portrait Gallery), the Old Post Office (1839-42, now the International Trade Commission), and the Washington Monument (1836-88). Mills was a student of Benjamin Latrobe (1764-1820), who had preceded him in his official position, and who was largely responsible "for creating a rational and classical language for the public buildings of the new democracy" (Watkin, 1986, p. 442). Any analysis of Mills' buildings must, therefore, recognize that, for him, "architectural beauty resided in the logical and economical handling of the building program as expressed through the immutable principles of classicism" (Kostof, 1995, p. 635). In addition to these aesthetic concerns, the evocation of the classical world was intended to impress the viewer with the United Stat

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me balustrade that is found on the west facade resumes on the north and south, projecting slightly over the porch blocks--but barely visible behind the pediments. The west side of the building is more like a plain office block. It was added much later--filling out Mill's original E-shaped plan, and turning it into a sort of rectangular figure 8. The setting of the Treasury building is impressive. Its location, on the block east of the White House, with open space at either end of the block, tends to isolate it somewhat. This is important, because the east facade needs to be seen on its own. The sheer size of the colonnade, coupled with the fact that it offers no clue as to the building's function, gives it a rather mysterious appearance. The fact that it cannot be identified also increases the viewer's sense of the building as part of a vast complex of buildings, such as would have been found in the religious and civic centers of Greek or Roman cities. The position of the building, among the stretch of classically influenced buildings between the Capitol and the White House, reinforces the sense of grandeur and power that comes from assembling such a large number of impressive, classicized buildings in a relatively small

Category: Arts - T