McKissick Museum - USC
About:
Name: University of South Carolina McKissick Museum
Location: 816 Bull St. Columbia, SC 29208
Explanation:
The McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina derives from a Neoclassical and Greek style of architecture known as Beaux-Art architecture. When Comparing the Mckissick Museum to buildings like the Paris Opera House by Charles Garnier, the Altes Museum by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, or even the Viceroy’s House by Edwin Landseer Lutyens, qualities like decorative ornamentation in statuary form, colossal portico in Ionic order and a smooth ashlar-like finish distinctively illustrate the style of Neoclassicism. (77)
Description:
On the outside of the Mckissick Museum there are six symmetrical columns, all represented with volutes in Ionic order. These columns are created of stone and have smooth finished shafts. On top of the capitals, the entablature has flat horizontal protrusions with a simplistic frieze – only having the inscription of the buildings name. Above the entablature there is decorative ornamentation represented in large statuary form. North of the applied decorative statuary sits a dome atop the buildings roof, which is completely enclosed with no oculus. The dome is placed on a geometric base that has eight sides and is lined with Romanesque arched window treatments. Like the Altes Museum or the Viceroy’s House, the Mckissick Museum goes against classical elements of temple architecture by placing the entrance of the building on the side – elongating the view of the buildings exterior when seen frontwards. The entryway to the museum is introduced with a staircase of 9 steps that leads individuals to three separate doorways, each leading into the foyer of the museum. All together, the exterior of the Mckissick Museum is very symmetrical and is lined with a series of vertically rectangular windows. In between each window there are shallow pilasters that do no work, but instead accentuate decorative elements of Beaux-Art architecture. At the east and west ends of the building there are mirrored elements of architecture that are similar to the main entrance of the building – each side having four symmetrical columns in Ionic order, their own entryway with one door but with no steps, and pilasters that divide each window. (263)