Adolf Cluss

Cluss (* July 14, 1825 in Heilbronn, † July 24, 1905 in Washington, DC, United States ) was a German - American architect. He belonged until 1858 to the inner circle of Communists led by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and after 1864 was the most important architects of Washington.

Cluss came Heilbronner builder and industrialist family Cluss. He left his hometown in 1844 as carpenter's apprentice at a young age. From 1846 Cluss worked as an architect in Mainz, where he counts in April 1848 the founders of the Workers' Educational Association. He arrived in Brussels with Karl Marx in contact and joined the League of the Just ( since 1847 League of Communists ) to.

In the summer of 1848 he left Germany and landed on 15 September 1848 the emigrant ship Zurich in New York. In the U.S. Cluss worked in Washington, first as an engineer, mostly in the Navy, from the early 1860s as an architect. His ties to the communist movement - as its leader in the U.S., he was for some time - he broke off in 1858.

In the decades from 1860 to 1890 he worked as a successful architect in Washington. He designed dozens of public buildings, including at least eleven schools, market halls, government buildings, museums, and private homes. In 1872 he was the official City Engineer and member of the Committee on Public Works. He had therefore the supervision of central works that changed the face of Washington in the 1870s: the concreting of roads, construction of a sewage system and the planting of thousands of trees on the streets.

A particularly influential proved its school buildings, until today there are two of them: Franklin School and Sumner School, both in Washington's inner city. He designed four significant buildings on the National Mall, including the Arts and Industries Building of the Smithsonian Institution. Two market halls, Center Market and Eastern Market, based on his designs. Eastern Market is still used as a market hall on Capitol Hill.

For the elite of Washington, he built private houses. In 1880 he established Washington 's first apartment building, Portland Flats, a six-story building with 39 apartments. From its private houses is likely to get any; Portland Flats had 1962 soft an office building.

Due to his early political leanings and because red brick was his favorite building material, the later convinced Republicans was also known as " red Architect " known.