J. Floyd Yewell Architectural Renderings
Dublin Core
Title
J. Floyd Yewell Architectural Renderings
Subject
Yewell, John Floyd (1885-1963)
Architectural renderings
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center
Visitors' centers - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
Along with the many pencil on tracing paper, ink on linen, and blueprint drawings in the Rockefeller Library’s architectural collections are some colorful presentation drawings and conceptual renderings. One architect who excelled in the production of architectural watercolor renderings, J. Floyd Yewell, played an important role in designing the New Information Center, Motor House, and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in the mid-1950s. Based in New York City, Yewell received a commission from Mario Campioli, Director of Architecture, and A. Edwin Kendrew, Resident Architect, to create concept designs for ideas under discussion to present to John D. Rockefeller Jr. Since the two men were involved in consultation work for another Rockefeller funded restoration project at Van Cortlandt Manor in Westchester County, New York, they turned to Yewell, well-known for his architectural artwork published in a variety of magazines.
His series of perspective views of three major expansion projects underway at Colonial Williamsburg in the mid-1950s reflect the museum’s efforts to enhance the tourist experience and develop facilities to accommodate a higher volume of visitors. John D. Rockefeller Jr. funded the construction of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center to house and showcase his wife’s folk art collection and to offer another activity for guests. A forty-acre site, the New Information Center and Motor House complex allowed for the removal of modern intrusions into the Historic Area and provided much needed parking for 1200 vehicles, facilities for guest orientation and comfort, an economical, family-oriented lodging option for travelers, a hotel administration building, a large cafeteria and gift shop, and swimming pools. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center opened on March 15, 1957 and the New Information Center and the Motor House complex followed soon after on March 31, 1957.
J. Floyd Yewell contributed his talent as a delineator to many projects on the East Coast ranging from high rise buildings in New York City to domestic cottages. The small house movement in the 1920s captured his attention and he submitted drawings to the Own Your Own Home Competition. Examples of his cottage designs can be viewed in 500 Small Houses of the Twenties compiled by Henry Atterbury Smith, part of the Dover Pictorial Series. He also contributed to publications offering guidance on specific artistic techniques, such as Color in Sketching and Rendering by Arthur L. Guptill, 1935. Yewell’s architectural watercolors and prints are now housed in art museums along the East Coast, such as the National Gallery of Art, the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His renderings held by Colonial Williamsburg serve a double purpose of documenting the evolution of major expansion projects in the 1950s and preserving his contributions to advancing the techniques of architectural illustration.
His series of perspective views of three major expansion projects underway at Colonial Williamsburg in the mid-1950s reflect the museum’s efforts to enhance the tourist experience and develop facilities to accommodate a higher volume of visitors. John D. Rockefeller Jr. funded the construction of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center to house and showcase his wife’s folk art collection and to offer another activity for guests. A forty-acre site, the New Information Center and Motor House complex allowed for the removal of modern intrusions into the Historic Area and provided much needed parking for 1200 vehicles, facilities for guest orientation and comfort, an economical, family-oriented lodging option for travelers, a hotel administration building, a large cafeteria and gift shop, and swimming pools. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center opened on March 15, 1957 and the New Information Center and the Motor House complex followed soon after on March 31, 1957.
J. Floyd Yewell contributed his talent as a delineator to many projects on the East Coast ranging from high rise buildings in New York City to domestic cottages. The small house movement in the 1920s captured his attention and he submitted drawings to the Own Your Own Home Competition. Examples of his cottage designs can be viewed in 500 Small Houses of the Twenties compiled by Henry Atterbury Smith, part of the Dover Pictorial Series. He also contributed to publications offering guidance on specific artistic techniques, such as Color in Sketching and Rendering by Arthur L. Guptill, 1935. Yewell’s architectural watercolors and prints are now housed in art museums along the East Coast, such as the National Gallery of Art, the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His renderings held by Colonial Williamsburg serve a double purpose of documenting the evolution of major expansion projects in the 1950s and preserving his contributions to advancing the techniques of architectural illustration.
Creator
Yewell, John Floyd
Date
1955
