1931 in architecture

The year 1931 in architecture involved some significant events.

Events

• December 5 – The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (1883) is dynamited.
• The first of the Architects (Registration) Acts is passed in the United Kingdom.
• The first of the historic districts in the United States is designated in Charleston, South Carolina, by the city government.

Buildings and structures

See also: Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1931

Buildings

Sudbury Town Station in London, England

Villa Savoye in Paris, France

Robinson Crusoe House and Atlantis House on Böttcherstraße in Bremen, Germany

• January 22 – Haus des Rundfunks in Berlin, designed by Hans Poelzig, inaugurated as headquarters of German national broadcaster Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft. ^[1]
• January 23 – Viceroy's House, New Delhi, India, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, first occupied.
• May 1 – The Empire State Building is completed in New York City as the tallest building in the world.
• July 1 – The rebuilt Milano Centrale railway station opens in Italy.
• July 19 – Sudbury Town station on the London Underground Piccadilly line opens as rebuilt by Charles Holden, the first of his iconic modern designs for the network. ^[2]
• July – Royal Corinthian Yacht Club clubhouse, Burnham-on-Crouch, eastern England, designed by Joseph Emberton, is opened. ^[3]
• 21 West Street in New York City, designed by Starrett & van Vleck, completed.
• Villa Savoye in Paris, designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, using reinforced concrete and demonstrating Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture, is completed. ^{[4] [5]}
• Commerce Court North is completed in Toronto, Ontario and becomes the tallest building in the British Empire (1931–1962).
• George Washington Bridge the longest suspension bridge in the world by the length of central span (1931–1937), is completed.
• St Olaf House (Hay's Wharf head offices), Tooley Street, London Borough of Southwark, designed by H. S. Goodhart-Rendel. ^[6]
• Raleigh Bicycle Company head offices in Nottingham, England, designed by Thomas Cecil Howitt, completed. ^[7]
• Aiton & Co. factory office, Derby, England, designed by Norah Aiton and Betty Scott, completed. ^[8]
• India Tyres offices at Inchinnan, Scotland, designed by Thomas Wallis of Wallis, Gilbert and Partners, completed and opened.
• Atlantis House and Robinson Crusoe House in Böttcherstraße, Bremen, designed by Bernhard Hoetger, complete the street's construction in the style of Brick Expressionism. ^[9]
• City Hall, Hilversum, North Holland, designed by Willem Marinus Dudok, is completed.
• India Gate in New Delhi is completed.
• Student Union at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, designed by Sven Markelius and Uno Åhrén.
• South Houses, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, designed by Gordon Kaufmann.
• Washington Singer Building on the Streatham Campus of the University of Exeter in England, designed by Vincent Harris.
• New Synagogue, Žilina, Czechoslovakia, designed by Peter Behrens, is completed.
• High and Over, Amersham, one of the first modernist houses in England, designed by Amyas Connell, is completed.
• House for two brothers in Brno, designed by Otto Eisler, is completed. ^[10]
• Apartment Building at 342, Muntaner Street, Barcelona, designed by Josep Lluís Sert, is completed.
• The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois is demolished.
• Stella Maris on the island of Norderney by Dominikus Böhm is completed

Awards

• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Edwin Cooper.
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Georges Dengler.

Births

Alessandro Mendini

• April 23 – Roland Paoletti, British architect (died 2013)
• May 3 – Aldo Rossi, Italian architect and designer (died 1997)
• May 7 – Ricardo Legorreta, Mexican architect (died 2011)
• May 29 – Mario Maioli, Italian architect and painter ^[11]
• July 17 – Edward Cullinan, English architect (died 2019)
• July 23 – Arata Isozaki, Japanese architect (died 2022)
• August 16 – Alessandro Mendini, Italian architect and designer (died 2019)
• October 3 – Denise Scott Brown, Rhodesian-born American architect
• October 7 – Mark Girouard, English architectural writer and historian (died 2022) ^[12]

Deaths

• March 7 – Theo van Doesburg, Dutch polymath, leader of De Stijl (born 1883)
• July 17 – William Lethaby, English Arts and Crafts architect and designer (born 1857)
• September 1 – Nahum Barnet, Melbourne-based Australian architect (born 1855)
• September 20 – Max Littmann, German architect (born 1862)
• December 3 – Frederick Walters, Scottish architect of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, notable for his Roman Catholic churches (born 1849)

References

1. "Haus des Rundfunks". Berlin (in German). Bezirksamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
2. Lawrence, David (2008). Bright Underground spaces: the London Tube station architecture of Charles Holden. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN   978-1-85414-320-4.
3. "Joseph Emberton, Architect". 2004. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
4. "Villa Savoye à Poissy". Centre des monuments nationaux. Retrieved 2013-03-21.
5. Courland, Robert (2012). Concrete Planet. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. p. 326.
6. Historic England. "St Olaf House (Grade II*) (1385977)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 12 October 2011.
7. Hopkirk, Elizabeth (2018-08-22). "Nottingham bike HQ is England's 400,000th listed building". bd. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
8. Walker, Lynne (1994). "The Forgotten Architecture of Vision: Aiton & Scott's Factory Office for Aiton & Co., Derby, 1930-1". Twentieth Century Architecture (1). Twentieth Century Society: 23–30. JSTOR   41859417.
9. "Sky Hall". Guidebook Bremen. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
10. "The Villa of Moritz and Otto Eisler, Czech Republic - GreatVillas.org". Archived from the original on 2016-07-01. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
11. Mario Maioli.
12. "Mark Girouard, author of classic works on architecture and social history including Life in the English Country House – Obituary". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2022-08-17.(subscription required)