Beaux-Arts Institute of Design

The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design was an art and architectural school at 304 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan, in New York City. It was founded in 1916 by Lloyd Warren for the training of American architects, sculptors and mural painters consistent with the educational agenda of the French École des Beaux-Arts.ValuesAccording to John Harbeson, these values included: The division into ateliers.The tradition of the older students helping the younger.The teaching of design by practicing artists and architects (and the judgment of the competitions by a trained jury of practicing artists and architects).The beginning of the study of design as soon as the student enters the atelier.The system of the esquisse (timed sketches). Also fundamental to Ecole teaching was coordination among architects, sculptors and muralists to create integrated architectural experiences.As of 2008 the building, built in 1928, now houses the Permanent Mission of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United Nations.OriginsBAID grew out of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, a formal club of American architects who had attended the Parisian school.From its beginning in 1894, the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects had been interested in improving architectural education in the U.S.. It took on the task of developing standard architectural "programmes" for design problems to be given as assignments in architecture schools and in independent ateliers. The intent was to raise performance standards, but the effect also was to standardize the way architecture was taught all across the United States. By 1900, most American architecture schools and many independent ateliers were participating. By 1916 the burden of providing problem statements and jurying the work from an increasing number of schools and ateliers exceeded the capacity of the Society, so it established BAID to carry on this work.