John Mead Howells, (; August 14, 1868 – September 22, 1959), was an American architect.

Early life and education

Born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, the son of author

William Dean Howells William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...

, he earned an undergraduate degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1891 and completed further architectural studies there in 1894 before studying at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

, in Paris, where he earned a diploma in 1897.

Career

Howells moved to New York City and founded the architectural firm

Howells & Stokes Howells & Stokes was an American architectural firm founded in 1897 by John Mead Howells and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes. The firm dissolved in 1917. Howells & Stokes designed, among other structures, St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University; Wo ...

with

Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (April 11, 1867 – December 18, 1944) was an American architect. Stokes was a pioneer in social housing who co-authored the 1901 New York tenement house law. For twenty years he worked on '' The Iconography of Manhat ...

, who had also studied at the École. The partnership designed such works as St. Paul's Chapel at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and

Stormfield Stormfield was the mansion built in Redding, Connecticut for author Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain, who lived there from 1908 until his death in 1910. He derived the property's name from the short story "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heav ...

, an Italianate villa commissioned by

Samuel Clemens Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

, a longtime friend of his father. Ending the partnership in 1913, Howells would focus his practice on office buildings in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style, some of which he completed with

Raymond Hood Raymond Mathewson Hood (March 29, 1881 – August 14, 1934) was an American architect who worked in the Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles. He is best known for his designs of the Tribune Tower, American Radiator Building, and Rockefeller Center. Th ...

, whom he had met during his time at the École, and whom he had invited to become a partner when he was selected to enter the Chicago Tribune building competition in 1922. These projects include the prize-winning design of the

Tribune Tower The Tribune Tower is a , 36-floor neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built between 1923 and 1925, the international design competition for the tower became a historic event in 20th-ce ...

in Chicago and the

American Radiator Building The American Radiator Building (also known as the American Standard Building) is an early skyscraper at 40 West 40th Street, just south of Bryant Park, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was designed by Raymond Hood an ...

and

Daily News Building The Daily News Building, also known as The News Building, is a skyscraper at 220 East 42nd Street in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The original building was designed by architects Raymond Hood and John Me ...

in New York City. Howells also designed the

Beekman Tower The Beekman Tower, also known as the Panhellenic Tower, is a 26-story Art Deco skyscraper situated at the corner of First Avenue and East 49th Street in Midtown Manhattan, in New York City. The building was constructed between 1927 and 1928 to ...

in New York and the plan for the University of Brussels in Belgium in 1922 at the request of U.S. Secretary of Commerce

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

. Howells's institutional works include the Engineering Quadrangle at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, built in phases from 1909 to 1928; Memorial Hall at

in 1927; and Willoughby Hall at

in 1957. Howells served as president of the

Society of Beaux-Arts Architects A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...

and the Society of Architects Diplômes. He was elected to the

National Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

, named a Chevalier by the French

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

and an officer of the

Order of the Crown (Belgium) The Order of the Crown (french: Ordre de la Couronne, nl, Kroonorde) is a national order of the Kingdom of Belgium. The Order is one of Belgium's highest honors. History The Order was established on October 15, 1897 by King Leopold II * ...

, and served on the

U.S. Commission of Fine Arts The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States, and was established in 1910. The CFA has review (but not approval) authority over the "design and aesthetics" of all construction with ...

from 1933 to 1937. Howells wrote several books on architectural history.Thomas E. Luebke, ed., ''Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts'' (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 546. In 1944 he was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

as an Associate Academician.

Gallery

File:New York Daily News building 1930.jpg,

, with

File:Pratt Engineering Bldg rainy jeh.jpg, Engineering Quadrangle, Pratt Institute's File:Tribune Tower, Chicago, Illinois (9181667444) (cropped).jpg,

in Chicago File:Panhellenic Tower 1st Av 49 St hotel jeh.jpg,

References

External links

*
Howells at NYC Architecture

Howells & Stokes architectural records and drawings, 1900-1940
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howells, John Mead 1868 births 19th-century American architects Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni 1959 deaths American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts Fellows of the American Institute of Architects 20th-century American architects Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters