Though I love Brooklyn architecture, I was never trained as an architect and when I read some of the language in the landmark reports on historic buildings, my eyes glaze over and I struggle sometimes to figure out what they are saying. I have written a lot about the Astral Building, which Charles Pratt built as model housing for the Greenpoint working class. Pratt hired the firm of Lamb and Rich to design the Astral and it is a gem that is landmarked and sits on the National Registry of Historic Places. The first time I set eyes on the Main Building of Pratt I could see the similarites, but it took me a while to figure out what exactly those similarities were. Before we talk about the Main Building lets discuss Hugh Lamo (1848-1903) and Charles A. Rich(l855-1943. They established their firm in 1882, just as the brownstone craze that had shaped much of Brooklyn was starting to cool. Lamb, a native of Scotland, had been previously in partnership with Lorenzo B. Wheeler b, designing many residential buildings on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Rich, born in Beverly, Massachusetts, studied at Chandler Institute and Dartmouth College.Rich was the creative designer; Lamb the business manager. Rich has studied in Europe, which is clear from the frequent use of European styles in his designs. Over the course of seventeen years, the firm earned a reputation as one of the foremost architects in New York City. The firm was best known for its institutional and commercial architecture, but it also designed many residential buildings. Rich and Lamb did not have trademark style, creating designs in neo-Gothic, Chateauesque, neo-Renaissance, Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles. Their most famous building is Teddy Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill, now on the national register of Historic places.
Lamo & Rich executed many commercial and collegiate buildings including works at Barnard, Colgate, Dartmouth, Smith, Williams, and Amherst. They also enjoyed an active practice in residential architecture, designing houses in the Park Slope, Henderson Place, and Hamilton Heights Historic Districts in the Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, and neo-Gothic styles. For the Astral and for the Pratt building Rich chose the Queen Anne style with detailed ornamentation, red brick, and large arched entrances. The Astral strikes me as much grander and more elegant bulding, reminding me in some ways of a castle with its high central element that towers over Franklin Street. The Main Building is much more modest and functional, though it also reminds me of a castle with its high central tower. I do not feel the elegance of grandeur of the Astral, though there is a hint of a cloister with the two rounded entrance arches I learned doing research that Pratt was not sure if his institute would be successful and hedging his bets, he instructed the architects to design the Main building so that it could be repurposed as a factory or a warehouse, which is clear when you take a good look at the facade. in the Romanesque Revival style popular in the 1880s and often used by the firm. The red brick structure is six stories high with picturesque corner towers and a central clock tower. The Main Building is part of a complex that has been designated a New York City landmark as well as a national treasure. In 2011, the school was chosen by Architectural Digest as one of the 10 most architecturally significant campuses in the country. Two years later, a massive fire burned the top two floors of the Main Building incinerating many of the art and design projects students were creating at Pratt. Luckily, the building survived and graces the central area of this campus with such beautiful buildings.