Thomas Jefferson: Architect: The Built Legacy of Our Third President

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Thomas Jefferson, Architect: The Built Legacy of Our Third President, with text by Hugh Howard and photos by Roger Straus III, shows that the third U.S. President not only shaped democracy but also made the classical style of architecture an American architecture. Today, more than any other style, the columns and rotundas of classical Greece and Rome suggest "U.S. government building." Jefferson was a Renaissance man--inventor, politician, philosopher, scientist, doctor--but the dwellings and civic temples he designed are the only tangible legacy of his most Americans actually see every day. Arguably the crown jewel of Jefferson's architectural oeuvre, his Monticello mansion in Virginia receives a worthy 33 pages, with plenty of interior and exterior photographs. The Virginia Capitol also gets a chapter, as does his other home, Poplar Forest, along with other private dwellings Jefferson designed. Also in focus are public buildings such as the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, with its Rotunda at the head of a great lawn flanked by the copious colonnades-a design familiar now in campuses nationwide. Throughout the book, Howard guides us through the halls, sitting rooms, and grounds with writing that is knowledgeable but not overly technical. Straus' photos show off the estates and edifices in peaceable, natural light, illustrating some interiors as they would have been lit in Jefferson's day (i.e., by the sun). If not for Jefferson's vision, the book implies, our nation would look quite different today. -Eric Reyes


Book Description
Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was also its first great architect. The Jeffersonian Classical style has been so influential that, along with Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson, Jefferson is one of the three most recognized architects in American history. Although never formally trained as an architect, Jefferson intensively studied the architecture of Paris when he resided there as minister to France and read extensively on classical architecture, particularly Palladio's Four Books on Architecture, all of which gave him a firm footing in the classical tradition.

Monticello, his own home, was constantly redesigned by Jefferson during his life time, and he referred to it as his essay in architecture. The University of Virginia, which he founded and conceived the architecture for, is perhaps the greatest campus of any American university and certainly one of this country's greatest public spaces anywhere. Both of these are well served by the beautiful panoramic photographs in this volume, which show them in the landscape they are situated in, an integral part of Jefferson's design. Less well known, but included here, is the balance of Jefferson's work as an architect: the Virginia State Capitol and over a dozen private homes which still stand today. Illustrated with splendid color photography by the same author-photographer team that created Rizzoli's Wright for Wright, this is the first volume to combine all the extant work of Jefferson.



About the Author
Hugh Howard is the author of The Preservationist's Project, How Old I s This House?, and Wright for Wright. He is the writer of the A&E network's series In Search of Palladio, and also of House-Dreams, a memoir about building a Federal Revival Style house for his family.

Roger Straus III is a photographer whose work appeared in US 1: America's Original Main Street, Mississippi Currents, and Wright for Wright. He was the principal photographer for Universe's Fallingwater calendar from 1994 to 1999.



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Howard, author of several architecture and home remodeling titles, partners with architectural photographer Straus to create a well-written book filled with 120 beautiful color photographs of buildings whose designs are attributed to Thomas Jefferson. The introduction contains a short biographical sketch of Jefferson, providing background on the architects and buildings that may have been influential to his design philosophy, but the details of Jefferson's life, including his presidency, are skeletal throughout the book. Chapters focus on the Virginia Capitol building; Jefferson's home, Monticello; Jefferson's "home away from home," Poplar Forest; the Academical Village at the University of Virginia; an interesting discussion on homes that may or may not have been designed by Jefferson; and a consideration of Jefferson's architecture as lasting legacy on American architecture. While there are current titles devoted to Monticello and the University of Virginia campus, no other in-print title is devoted to Jefferson's entire body of architecture. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-Valerie Nye, New Mexico State Lib., Santa Fe Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.


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