The war of the architects
In the spring of 1882, Bishop Doane announced a competition for the design of a new American Cathedral to be built in Albany. Over the next year various plans submitted were studied. Ultimately the choice came down to two men: Henry Hobbs Richardson, the dean of American architecture (1838-1886) and the relatively obscure Robert Wilson Gibson (1854-1927).
Richardson had studied under Henri Lebroste and Jacob Ignaz at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1859-1862. While there he conceived of a style based on a revival of elements of French and Spanish architecture of the eleventh century, the Romanesque style that had preceded gothic in European architecture. Richardson's style, like the man himself, was massive. It was characterized by stone walls and dramatic semi-circular arches, and displayed a new dynamism of interior space with continuity and unity consistent throughout. The project for All Saints Cathedral, which Richardson began at least to think about while he was in Europe, eventuated in the most elaborate design of his whole career. It was the only design of his for an important church later than Trinity, Boston. Richardson's early admirers usually regretted that his design was not built, and Richardson bitterly regretted the loss of the commission. He had, however, made little attempt to conform to Bishop Doane's desire for a gothic cathedral. Oddly enough, there are still to this day a few architectural historians who still believe that Richardson designed the Cathedral of All Saints!
Robert Gibson, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and winner of the coveted Soane Medallion had, after completion of his formal training, spent several years touring and sketching the cathedrals of Europe and developing a passionate love of the "primitive" early gothic style. His illustrated sketchbooks, with their humorous and witty comments, were published between 1878 and 1882 in various weekly architectural journals and caught the attention of Bishop Doane, who invited the young architect to Albany. There, in 1883, he designed and built two important commissions in rapid succession: the Albany Rural Cemetery Chapel and Lodge and the Evan-Pruyn House. With these designs the frail and delicate twenty-nine year old architect demonstrated that he was up to the task of designing All Saints. Gibson was sympathetic to the Bishop's desire for an "instantly ancient" cathedral, and even in its unfinished state, the cathedral evokes an ancient grandeur that is both timeless and modern.
The major news and architecture magazines of the day published the plans of the respective architects and their relative merits and flaws were avidly discussed in the press. As Bishop Doane describes it, "Mr. Robert Gibson, who had been living here in Albany, spent hours and hours with me in talking out the details of the plan. I first insisted that we should have a plan which would cover the entire property and be absolutely solid and substantial. Mr. Corning was very anxious to have Richardson made architect. I sent for him, talked the matter out with him, and he finally said he thought it could be built for $150.000, so I said, 'There is no use of thinking about that for I can't get the money.' 'Oh yes, he said, you once start it and money will come from all sorts . . '