Both then and now, eclecticism informed the protocols
of design. Look closely at the mass of the façade of
Highclere, the positioning of its sills and ornament, imagine
a denser window placement or not and you can see the
work of Louis Sullivan and later modernists to come. The
several large ancillary towers and massive central tower
of Highclere foreshadow early modernist skyscraper
arrangements, from New York's
Rockefeller Center to the several
large visionary structures of Soviet
Moscow that, to this day, dominate
the cityscape in both metropolises.
Highclere
was
like
those
cosmopolitan cities, comprising
multiple economic classes. The
basements of the house, now an
informative museum, formed a
labyrinth of rooms and corridors
where numerous skills within a
rigid hierarchy supported those
who lived in splendor above stairs.
Numerous service buildings extend
beyond one side of the house, where a small section of
the castle's courtyard opens to them. These structures
are modest by comparison.
More so than the basement, this castle's austere and
utilitarian courtyard seems a moody memorial to all those
steadfast servants who carried hot water, wood, coal,
HYLAND
