Jacques-Henri-Auguste Gréber (10 September 1882 – 5 June 1962) was a French architect specializing in
landscape architecture
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...
and
urban design. He was a strong proponent of the
Beaux-Arts style and a contributor to the
City Beautiful movement, particularly in
Philadelphia and
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
.
Early life and education
Gréber was born in
Paris, the son of sculptor
Henri-Léon Gréber, and attended the
École des Beaux-Arts in that city.
[E. Delaire ''et al.'' ''Les architectes élèves de l'école des Beaux-Arts, 1793–1907'' noted in James T. Maher, ''The Twilight of Splendor: Chronicles of the Age of American Palaces'' 1975:65 note 78.] He was a fine student and won several prizes during his training at the École.
Early Private Commissions
Following graduation in 1908,
[ he left for the United States, where American architects who had trained at the École hired him to help design French gardens for the large houses they built in New England.] He designed many private gardens in the U.S. These include Harbor Hill (1910) in Roslyn, Long Island, New York for Clarence Mackay (with architects McKim, Mead & White
McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), Wil ...
); and at Lynnewood Hall (1913) in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania for Peter A. B. Widener
Peter Arrell Browne Widener (November 13, 1834 – November 6, 1915) was an American businessman, art collector, and patriarch of the Widener family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Widener was ranked #29 on the ''American Heritage'' list of the f ...
(with architect Horace Trumbauer).
His greatest private commission was for investment banker Edward T. Stotesbury at Whitemarsh Hall (1916–1921) in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania (also with Trumbauer). There he created the unsurpassed American example of a French classical garden in the grand manner of André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed the gar ...
.
As his reputation as a landscape architect began to spread, Gréber won his first public commission for the Fairmount Parkway (now Benjamin Franklin Parkway) in Philadelphia. While completing the parkway, he was also commissioned by the French government to make a systematic study of American construction practice. This would form the basis for his influential book ''Architecture in the United States'' (french: L'Architecture aux États -Unis, links=no)
He returned to France in 1919, where he secured a reputation as one of France's leading urban designers. Gréber was appointed to the faculty of the Institute of Urbanism in Paris and was active in the reconstruction and expansion plans of a number of French cities in the interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
.
Wartime Activities
During the Second World War, Gréber remained in Vichy France and became president of the French Society of Urbanists (french: Société française des urbanistes, links=no). As a designated spokesperson for the cause of urbanism in France, he contributed to a collection of essays in which he lauded the Vichy government for providing an orderly national planning program and centralized planning institutions. He was a prominent member of the urban planning hierarchy that oversaw the urban renewal projects of the Vichy government, and was appointed as Inspector General for Urbanism (french: inspecteur générale de l'urbanisme, links=no) in Northern France, a position requiring the consent of the Nazi Oberfeldkommandantur.
Postwar Activities
Following the war, Gréber was invited by Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King to return to Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
and continue his work on a master plan for the city and surrounding region that he had started from 1937 to 1939.
This would culminate in the ''General Report on the Plan for the National Capital'' (1946–1950) or '' Greber Plan'' that would reshape the city in the postwar era.
Major works
Gréber is best known for the 1917 master plan for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia; for his work as master architect for the 1937 Paris International Exposition; and for the Greber Plan for Ottawa and the surrounding National Capital Region. The latter, produced between 1937 and 1950 (with an interruption during the Second World War), included expansion of urban parks, a series of parkways, and a greenbelt surrounding the city. The plan incorporated the construction of a national cenotaph and surrounding plaza area.
In anticipation of the 1926 sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, Gréber created a plan for a mall north of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. This included a "Great Marble Court" surrounded on 3 sides by arcades (with each arch representing a U. S. state) and a pavilion at its center to house the Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell, previously called the State House Bell or Old State House Bell, is an iconic symbol of American independence, located in Philadelphia. Originally placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now renamed Independence ...
. It was not carried out; Independence Mall was created in the 1950s under a different plan. He also collaborated with fellow French-American architect Paul Cret on Philadelphia's Rodin Museum in 1926. He was not always popular with the press: a Philadelphia newspaper dubbed him "Jack Grabber".
In France, between the world wars, Gréber worked on urban plans in Lille, Belfort, Marseille (1930), Abbeville, and Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
, Neuilly, Montrouge,[Maher 1975:65 mentions Paris, Neuilly, Montrouge, Marseille, Ottawa and Philadelphia.] among others. But he is not as well-known today in France as he is in North America.
File:Lynnewood Hall entrance 1916 LOC 11876.jpg, Gardens of Lynnewood Hall (Peter A. B. Widener
Peter Arrell Browne Widener (November 13, 1834 – November 6, 1915) was an American businessman, art collector, and patriarch of the Widener family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Widener was ranked #29 on the ''American Heritage'' list of the f ...
mansion), Elkins Park, PA (Photo: 1916).
File:View to the Museum by Jacques Greber 1918.jpg, "View to the Museum" (1918). Benjamin Franklin Parkway, looking northwest from 20th Street.
File:Ottawagreenbelt.PNG, Greenbelt surrounding Ottawa, Ontario (1950).
See also
* Greber Plan (Ottawa)
*Gatineau Park
Gatineau Park (french: Parc de la Gatineau) is a federal park located in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. Administered by the National Capital Commission as part of the National Capital Region, Gatineau Park is a wedge of land extending ...
* Greenbelt (Ottawa)
Notes
External links
Web site about Clarence H. Mackay and Harbor Hill
Gréber's bronze fountain from Lynnewood Hall
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greber, Jacques
1882 births
1962 deaths
Architects from Paris
20th-century French architects
20th-century American architects
Officiers of the Légion d'honneur