In 1913 Steele embarked on a four-month tour of Europe to study European designs. Upon his return to America, he opened his own practice. His early garden plans are generally in the English
Arts and crafts style of
Gertrude Jekyll,
Reginald Blomfield, and
T. H. Mawson, but ornamented with Italianate detailing such as
balustrades,
hedges,
urns, statuary, stone pineapples, and flights of water steps. During
World War I, Steele served in the
American Red Cross in Europe. After war's end he regularly returned in summers. His conversion to an
Art Deco style began in 1925 when he visited the
Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (the 'Art Deco Exposition') and saw its examples of
cubist gardens with mirrors, concrete and coloured gravel. By 1930 Steele was writing with enthusiasm of
André Vera,
Tony Garnier (architect), and
Gabriel Guevrekian. Steele's designs and writings of this period were influential during the stylistic transition from Art Deco to Modernism. He helped shape
Modernism through younger design students at
Harvard, notably
Dan Kiley,
Garrett Eckbo, and
James C. Rose, to who Steele showed the possibilities of modern art and the creativity inherent within the design process. Kiley later wrote that "Steele was the only good designer working during the twenties and thirties, also the only one who was really interested in new things." Eckbo noted that "Fletcher Steele was the transitional figure between the old guard and the moderns. He interests me because he was an experimenter." Steele's own designs, however, were sufficiently removed from the Modern style so that his works were generally out of fashion until the modern era had passed. Steele was based in Boston for more than 50 years. In pursuit of his career he traveled by train extensively in the United States. Toward the end of his life, he lived in
Pittsford, New York. The local library there has a Fletcher Steele Room and books on display from his private collection. Steele is interred in the
Mount Hope Cemetery in
Rochester, New York. His papers are archived in the
Library of Congress, the Rochester Historical Society and in the Franklin Moon Library,
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry,
Syracuse, New York. Images from the Steele manuscript collection can be found in the SUNY D-Space digital repository. == Projects ==