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Nathan B. Kelley (February 26, 1808 in Warren County, Ohio – November 20, 1871 in Columbus, Ohio) was a United States architect and builder. He was a prolific architect whose designs dominated the cityscape of Columbus, Ohio at the middle of the 19th century. ==Life and work== Little personal information exists about Kelley before he began a major commission in 1835 for the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum, when he was 27 years of age. At about the same time, he was named as (construction) superintendent of the State School for the Blind. In the 1840s, city directories list him as surveyor and engineer for the city of Columbus. His most significant works are the interior space and mechanical systems of the Ohio Statehouse. This massive government building was erected between 1839 and 1861, with Kelley serving as one of four principal architects between 1854 and 1858. When he came to the project, Kelley basically began from scratch, as his predecessors had taken all plans and working drawings away with them. Walls and some flooring were in place, and first steps in erecting iron trusses for the roof had begun. Undaunted by the great scope of work before him, he saw it as fitting challenge for his abilities, stating the project was "a rare field for the exercise of ingenuity and invention in the correction of mistakes, careless conclusions and want of foresight." Seeing the building had no provision for heating or ventilation, Kelley designed an innovative steam heating system that was highly effective, at a time when central heating was a rare and expensive luxury. He was responsible for the finishing touches on the exterior of the building, as well as the design and engineering of most of the interior spaces. Kelley was forced off the project after repeated conflicts with the commission that oversaw the work for the state government. The major source of controversy arose from Kelley's florid and elegant plasterwork and high level of ornamentation, which reflects the use of Classical motifs combined with the decorative sensibilities of the Victorian era, and contrasted sharply with the restrained Greek Revival exterior of the structure. Kelley envisioned a highly decorated interior, in accord with the elegance and noble purpose of the building itself, and the stature of such a place in the developing state. He believed if the work were done in the "bare and bald" style, which the government commission overseeing the work favored, it would meet with little acceptance and have to soon be done over at great cost and effort. The chambers used by the House and Senate are basically as Kelley pictured them, though with some modern additions and alteration of layout, but with decorative scheme intact. They give some indication of what he would have done as far as finishes in the central rotunda, which he planned to be the most ornate and opulent space in the building. He made further recommendations that monumental paintings or murals be installed in the rotunda (the panels intended for this purpose were never hung with art as he wished), and hoped that the government "would see fit to honor the nation's great general" (George Washington) with a statue in the rotunda, which also never came to pass. In Columbus, in addition to the Lunatic asylum, Blind school and Statehouse. Kelley was responsible for the Franklin County (Ohio) Court House (1840), many schools and churches, commercial buildings, and a variety of private residences. His residence for railroad executive Benjamin E. Smith, one of his last active commissions, was completed in 1871, and is still in use as a home for The Columbus Club. Another surviving building is the Hayden Block, a yellow sandstone building on Broad Street directly to the north of the statehouse. Originally a bank and office building, it still is used for those purposes. A powerhouse for the city of Columbus, begun soon before his death and completed by his son James, was located near the Scioto river, on land that is still used by the city for a utility complex. Careful observation of the site indicated the abandoned powerhouse in ruins that ar estill standing. Immediately after his dismissal from the statehouse project, he left the Columbus area and worked in southwest Ohio and in Kentucky. In the western Kentucky city of Hopkinsville,Kelley made a significant contribution to the built landscape. His projects in the city overlap his tenure on the Ohio Statehouse, beginning with the woman's school Bethal College, completed in 1855. He also erected a home for the Leavell family and second all-female institution of higher learning, South Kentucky College (1858). He also built a second mental institution, which still stands and houses patients. Called the Western State Hospital, it is visible on satellite map websites. In his long career, Kelley combined a tenacious ability to champion his own personal artistic choices with a willingness to recognize changes in popular taste and fashion. In his obituary in the Columbus Statesman newspaper, his work was called "of the substantial kind, with a most desirable absence of that confusion of styles which condemns so many expensive buildings." Many of Kelley's buildings in Columbus and other locations did not survive, as growth and development overtook them. His life and career are an example of how someone well regarded and respected in his own time can come to be almost anonymous a century after his death. No image of the man himself exists and his grave in Green Lawn Cemetery was unmarked until 2012, when a preservation group funded a stone monument fashioned from Columbus limestone-the material used for the Ohio Statehouse. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nathan Kelley」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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