Cass Gilbert

Cass Gilbert (1859 to 1934) was an American architect, born in Zanesville, Ohio, and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He began in Minnesota, where the state capitol in St. Paul gave him a national reputation, and moved his practice to New York in 1898. He was an early proponent of the skyscraper: the Woolworth Building, clad in terracotta over a steel frame and nicknamed a Gothic skyscraper, was the tallest building in the world when completed. His public buildings, among them the United States Supreme Court Building and the capitols of Arkansas and West Virginia, are in a Beaux Arts classical manner. He served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908 and 1909, and later as president of the National Academy of Design.