Joseph Urban

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Joseph Urban, around 1900. Caricature by Rudolf Swoboda

Joseph Urban (born May 26, 1872 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; † July 10, 1933 in New York City ) was an initially Austrian , later American architect , illustrator and set designer .

Life

Joseph Urban was one of three children of Joseph Urban (1847–1917), school principal, later district school inspector, and Helene, geb. Weber (1851-1932). He studied architecture under Karl von Hasenauer at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and became a founding member of the Hagenbund in 1890 . In 1897 he married Maria ("Mizzi") Lefler, Heinrich Lefler's sister , with whom he had two daughters: Margarete ("Gretl") (1898-?) And Helene ("Elly") (1900–1931). He divorced Mizzi in 1918 in order to marry the American dancer Mary Beegle (Marian Porter?) In 1919. Two days after his death on July 10, 1933, he was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, in northern New York City.

Together with his brother-in-law Lefler, Urban illustrated some charming picture books and elaborate commemorative publications that celebrated the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph. The gifted man also created numerous sets for the major Viennese theaters. The most important buildings from his time in Vienna are the Rathauskeller (1898), the artists' hall of the Hopfner restaurant in Kärntnerstraße, the exhibition hall of the Hagenbund, which was demolished in the 1960s, and the imperial tribune for the tribute pageant (1908). In 1911 Urban emigrated to the USA and in 1912 became artistic director of the Boston Opera House . Two years later he went to New York City, where he was responsible for the costumes, sets and poster advertising for the Ziegfeld Follies and later the Metropolitan Opera .

As in Vienna, many of his buildings in the USA did not survive the times, with the exception of the Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach , Florida , the New School and the substructure of the Hearst Tower in New York City. Joseph Urban is considered a co-founder of American Art Deco . The Color Gel Urban Blue (Roscolux # 81) was named after him in his honor.

For a short time - from 1922 to 1924 - there was a sales office of the "Wiener Werkstaette America Inc." at 581 / 2nd floor in New York, which Joseph Urban had taken over. Because there was no lasting sales success, the office was closed in 1924.

Buildings and interior design (incomplete)

Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, built 1924–1927
  • Participation in the interior design of the bicycle festival of the Vienna Künstlerhaus, 1897
  • Tomb for Adolph Freiherr von Pittel in Weissenbach an der Triesting , around 1900
  • Austrian Pavilion, Louisiana Purchase Exposition , 1904
  • Villa Carl Redlich, Vienna 19., Kreindlgasse, 1908
  • Sherman Hotel Tiger Room, Chicago, 1920
  • Wiener Werkstätte Showroom, NYC, 1922
  • Mar-a-Lago , Palm Beach, Florida, 1925-1926
  • Demarest Little Castle, Palm Beach, Florida, 1926
  • Paramount Theater, Sunrise Building, Palm Beach, Florida, 1926
  • Biddle House, Palm Beach, 1926
  • Bath and Tennis Club, Palm Beach, Florida, July 1926
  • Ziegfeld Theater , 1926–1927
  • St. Regis Hotel Roof Garden, 1927-1928
  • Gibson Roof Garden Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1928
  • Bossert Hotel, Grill Room, Brooklyn, 1928
  • Bedell Department Store, New York City, 1928
  • William Penn Hotel, Pittsburgh, 1928, 1932
  • (Hearst) International Magazine Building , 1928-1929
  • Central Park Casino, 1929
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art 11th annual exhibition of American Industrial Art, 1929
  • The Gingerbread Castle, Hamburg NJ, 1929
  • New School for Social Research NYC, 1929-1931
  • Atlantic Beach Club, Long Island, NY, 1930-1931
  • Park Avenue Restaurant, 1931
  • Congress Hotel, Joseph Urban Room, Chicago, Illinois, 1932
  • Katherine Brush Apartment, 1933

Filmography (selection)

  • 1920: The World and His Wife
  • 1920: The Restless Sex
  • 1931: East Lynne
  • 1931: The Man Who Came Back

literature

  • Arnold Aronson, Derek E. Ostergard, Matthew Wilson Smith: Architect of Dreams. The Theatrical Vision of Joseph Urban . Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, New York NY 2000, ISBN 1-884919-08-1 ( online [accessed June 21, 2011]).
  • Randolph Carter, Robert Reed Cole: Joseph Urban. Architecture, theater, opera, film . Abbeville Press, New York NY et al. 1992, ISBN 0-89659-912-4 .
  • Paul Goldberger: At the Cooper-Hewitt, Designs of Joseph Urban . In: The New York Times . dated December 20, 1987.
  • Markus Kristan: Joseph Urban. The Viennese years of the Art Nouveau architect and illustrator, 1872–1911 (= Albertina publications. 41). Böhlau, Wien et al. 2000, ISBN 3-205-98650-4 ( preview Google books ).
  • Otto Teegen among others: Joseph Urban . In: Architecture . tape 69 , no. 5 , 1934, pp. 251-290 .
  • Yann Rocher, Théâtres en utopie , Actes Sud, Paris, 2014, pp. 208–217.

Web links

Commons : Joseph Urban  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.architektenlexikon.at/de/659.htm
  2. ↑ Markus Kristan: Joseph Urban. The Viennese years of the Art Nouveau architect and illustrator, 1872–1911 , page 140
  3. ↑ http://sleepyhollowcemetery.org/about/famous-interments/
  4. ↑ Herta Neiß: 100 Years Wiener Werkstätte - Myth and Economic Reality . Vienna 2004, page 68
personal data
SURNAME Urban, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American architect, illustrator, set designer
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1933
Place of death New York City