. >> on the first board of regents was a man named robert dale owen. he saw this style of architecture as becoming an american-style even though it was based on european models and it is romanesque revival and gothic and a little bit of everything. it could never really be called american style of architecture, its roots are more in the romantic revival of the mid-19th century. he pushed really hard for it. they had a competition of 13 architects submitted plans but only one was allowed to submit 2 -- two plans and that was james renwick jr. all of the other architects submitted plans in the high gothic style with the high arches. renwick was privy to the fact they really wanted the romanesque arch style. he designed this building with a lot of input from robert dale owen. >> they did it on purpose to get away from the greek style of the other buildings being built. >> it was the first non-ecclesiastical but also national building in this style of architecture. there were a lot of churches in gothic revival, universities had many buildings, yale and ha

he designed of input from robert dale owen. >> they did it on purpose to get away from the bleak style of the other buildings being built. >> it was the first non-ecclesiastical but also in this styleing of architecture. there were a lot of churches in gothic revival, universities had it many buildings, yell and harvard. -- yale and harvard. we are not a government building but we're on that level. >> what did the public think? >> it was mixed. it was dorothea dix who saw the building being built and she wrote a letter to the president and said that in a near proximity to the white house stance the smithsonian edifice or matters -- massive deficient edifices and went on for a long couple of paragraphs and hated it. other people loved it. horacio hated it. he said it stamped itself on the beautiful dome of congress as ink upon paper. .t was a blot >> brutal, weren't they? building impractical just because of all of the little mix and crannies and -- nooks and crannies and towers that are pretty much useless. what's -- once science started developing more, the functions that they require