William Alciphron Boring (September 9, 1859 – May 5, 1937) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

noted for co-designing the Immigration Station at

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mil ...

in New York harbor.

Career

Boring studied first at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, then spent an additional year (1885) as a student 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 ...

. In 1886, he maintained a partnership in Los Angeles with architects Solomon I. Haas (1857–1945) and E.L. Caukins. From 1887 to 1890 Boring studied architecture 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 centur ...

in Paris along with his friend

Edward Lippincott Tilton Edward Lippincott Tilton (19 October 1861 – 5 January 1933) was an American architect, with a practice in New York City, where he was born. He specialized in the design of libraries, completing about one hundred in the U.S. and Canada, inc ...

. Boring and Tilton returned to New York in 1890 to work in the office of

McKim, Mead, and 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), W ...

. In 1891 Boring and Tilton left

to form their own architectural partnership. Among their notable works were the Casino in Belle Haven, Connecticut (1891) and the

Hotel Colorado Hotel Colorado is an 1893 Italianate structure in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, United States, and one of the oldest hotels in Colorado. History Established by silver magnate and banker Walter Devereux, construction began in 1891 at a cost of $850, ...

in the resort town of

Glenwood Springs, Colorado Glenwood Springs is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat of Garfield County, Colorado, Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 9,963 at the 2020 Uni ...

(1891). The partnership's work culminated in the 1897 design for the new federal Immigration Station at

. This work was honored with a gold medal for Architecture at the Exposition Universelle, Paris (1900); a gold medal at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo (1901); and a silver medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis (1904). The partnership of Boring & Tilton ended in 1904. The men started working independently of one another but continued to share offices and equipment until 1915. In 1913, Boring 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 f ...

as an Associate member. In 1916, Boring joined the faculty of the

Columbia School of Architecture Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) is the architecture school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. It is regarded as an important and highly prestigious architecture school.

, where he eventually became Director in 1919 and Dean from 1931 to 1932. As dean of architecture at Columbia Boring, and especially his successor

Joseph Hudnut Joseph F. Hudnut (1886–1968) was an American architect scholar and professor who was the first dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He was responsible for bringing the German modernist architects Walter Gropius and Marcel ...

, encouraged the then-nascent modernism and incorporated studies in town planning.

Works

Early works

*Fire House Number 1, now a state historic site known as the

Old Plaza Firehouse The Old Plaza Firehouse is the oldest fire station in the city of Los Angeles, built in 1884. It is located near Olvera Street in the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District. It was named California Historical Landmark No. 730 on April 8, 1960. Desi ...

; Los Angeles, California, 1884

With Edward Lippincott Tilton

* 1891: Casino, Belle Haven, Connecticut * 1891–1893:

, Glenwood Springs, Colorado (placed on the List of Registered Historic Places in Colorado) * 1896: Morristown School, Morristown, New Jersey (Morristown–Beard School today) * 1897–1901: United States Immigrant Station, on

in the Port of New York (added to the Statue of Liberty National Monument on May 11, 1965, placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on October 15, 1966 * 1899: Town Hall, East Orange, New Jersey * 1902–1903: Astor Warehouse, 29–35 Ninth Avenue, Manhattan, New York City * 1900–1905:

Tome School The Tome School is a private school in North East in Cecil County in the U.S. state of Maryland. Founded in 1894 by Jacob Tome, it is one of the oldest schools in Maryland. It enrolls grades K–12. As of 2022, the Head of School is Christine Szym ...

for Boys, Port Deposit, Maryland * 1901: Marine barracks,

Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...

, Brooklyn, New York City * 1904–1905: Brooklyn Heights Casino, Fort Hill Estate, Brooklyn, New York City * 1917: Lemmonier Library, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana

Solo designs

* 1906: apartment building at 520 Park Avenue in Manhattan (demolished in 1932) * 1907–1908: American Seamen's Friend Society Sailors' Home and Institute, 505 507 West Street, Manhattan * 1907–1908: St. Agatha's School for Girls, later

St. Agnes Boys High School Saint Agnes Boys High School was a small, all-boys, private Catholic high school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was run by the Marist Brothers in conjunction with the Archdiocese of New York. The mascot of St. Agnes was t ...

, 555 West End Avenue, Manhattan (landmark, 2016 condos) * 1909: apartment building at 540 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York City * 1910: Casino Mansion Apartments, 200 Hicks Street, Brooklyn, New York City * 1911: apartment building at 521 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York City

References

Notes Bibliography * Mackay, Robert B.; Baker, Anthony K. and Traynor, Carol A. (eds.) ''Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860–1940'' (1997) New York: Norton * Morrone, Francis ''An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn'' (2001) Gibbs Smith,

External links

* * * * *
William A. Boring architectural drawings and papers, circa 1859–1937
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boring, William 1859 births 1937 deaths Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation alumni 19th-century American architects American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts 20th-century American architects People from Carlinville, Illinois Architects from Illinois