Warehouses for W. J. Smith, Esq, KCMO

In this drawing the architect W.C. Root renders a warehouse for W.J. Smith, ESQ in a popular style with architects at the time. The first floor of the building has large windows in threes punctuated with entry doors. The windows continue in pairs to the second and third stories with layered trapezoidal keystones over each. The fourth-floor windows break the pattern with a series of lunette-shaped archways over each window series. The windows get smaller with the subsequent fifth and sixth floors, quickening the pace of the windows with each. This stylistic choice serves to create the illusion of height from the ground, an idea introduced to the field of architecture by Henry Hobson Richardson and his Marshall Field Warehouse Store that was built in 1887 and was likely the inspiration of this drawing. The architect used orange watercolor to differentiate surfaces on the facade of the building and blue to separate it from the sky above. What was likely an early American flag flies from a pole on the foremost corner.
Warehouses for WJ Smith, Esq. KCMO
Inventory
Collection Number
17199
Building
Current Location
Missouri Valley Room
Floor
5th
Description
Details
This is a print of an architectural drawing by W. C. Roots of a warehouse for W. J. Smith in Kansas City, Missouri featured in the April 1895 issue of American Architect and Building News.
Artist
Framed
Yes
 - Glass
Width
3/4 inch
Height
21 1/4 inches
Length
31 3/4 inches
Donor
Library Owns
No
Permissions
Reproduce the Work in Library publications/publicity, including film or videotape
Yes
Reproduce
Library has Photography Rights
Yes
Photograph
Permit the general public to photograph the work
Yes
Slides/Video