Design New England - May/June 2008

On May 16, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America will sponsor a weekend-long architectural drawing tour of Newport, Rhode Island. An artist’s eye helps, though the tour is open to anyone with an affinity for classical style. At each of six stops — including the Touro Synagogue, Redwood Library, and Palladian Brick Market — artists and architects will offer instruction in drawing and sketching techniques. There will also be lectures and lessons by noted historians. The program is $825 for nonmembers, with discounts for students and members. To register, call Leah Aron at 212- 730-9646 ext. 101, or visit classicist.org.

PETER VANDERWARKER

uel McIntire carried Palladian ideas forward in his graceful Federal creations of the turn of the 19th century, such as the Gardner-Pingree house on Essex Street.

Even ensuing styles, like the Greek Revival, owe a certain debt to Palladio, says Boston architect John Tittmann. “The model of looking at books to find authority underlies the Greek Revival — though not Palladian, the idea of looking at a book is in a way Palladian, a way of approaching architecture.”

What book Philip Johnson was looking at when he designed One International Place in 1987 isn’t clear, but one thing is sure: He liked Palladian windows, using what the architecture critic Catesby Leigh describes as “a

Palladian cookie cutter, punching out scads of the familiar tripartite windows” across several facades. This was a postmodern wink — or was it a joke? — and one wonders

^{for more}_details,how Palladio would have taken see it. Looking out across a McMan- ^resourcession subdivision and its “ Palladian pollution,” as a 1990 Boston Globe article termed it, his ghost may very well be thinking that things have gotten a bit macaroni.

Fortunately, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America in New York is combating the problem. With chapters across the country, including New England, the group works to advance appreciation of classicism and to put its tenets into practice through partnerships with home builders. “So many architects practice in this tradition now,” says Victor Deupi, the institute’s director of education, “and still the demand grows. We’re even getting cooperation from builders and manufacturers wanting to get the details right, so there’s hope for Palladian windows!”