Morris Plains, New JerseyGreystone ParkAlmost 2,000 square feet per patient. Who was it really built for?673,700 sq ft built for 350 patients; it later held more than 7,700.
Photo: Blake Lewis · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Does It Add Up? · Asheville, North Carolina, United States
Biltmore House
The open question
Sixty stonemasons for the largest house in America in six years. Does that add up?
On the record
178,926 sq ft of Indiana limestone built 1889–95 by about 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons; a 3-mile rail spur, a brick kiln and a woodworking factory were built on site.
Sources
More from Does It Add Up?
Morris Plains, New JerseyGreystone ParkAlmost 2,000 square feet per patient. Who was it really built for?673,700 sq ft built for 350 patients; it later held more than 7,700.
Weston, West VirginiaTrans-Allegheny Lunatic AsylumHand-cut stone on this scale, in a rural county. Where did the masons come from?One of the largest hand-cut stone buildings in the US, designed for 250.
AustinTexas State CapitolThey had to bring stonecutters from Scotland and use convicts. If the skills weren't here, how were so many stone buildings going up across the country?Built 1882–88 of donated Granite Mountain red granite, by up to a thousand convicts and migrant workers at a time, including 86 granite cutters from Scotland. The builders were paid with over three million acres of land.
London, EnglandPalace of WestminsterIf the Gothic expert couldn't put his own name on his designs, whose names are on the others?Barry's 1836 competition win was drawn with Pugin's help; Barry was inexperienced with Gothic and relied on Pugin, who had to submit designs in other architects' names.