Special thanks to Linda London Ltd.
Classicism at Home
February 9th, 2021
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) is a nonprofit membership organization committed to promoting and preserving the practice, understanding, and appreciation of classical design. Learn more at classicist.org.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF PLACE
Designers understand the urgency of reducing humanity’s negative environmental impact, yet perpetuate the same mythology of technology that relies on exploiting nature. Responding to climate change by building hard infrastructures and favoring high-tech homogeneous design, we are ignoring millennia old knowledge of how to live in symbiosis with nature. Without implementing soft systems that use biodiversity as a building block, designs remains inherently unsustainable.

In this talk hosted on December 15, 2020, Julia Watson discussed her research into thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from places like Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, Iran, Iraq, India, and Indonesia. She spoke on how we can rediscover an ancient mythology in a contemporary context, radicalizing the spirit of human nature.


The Architecture of Place was a collaborative series from the ICAA, INTBAU, and the Prince’s Foundation that brought together the established and emerging voices working to create a better built future. You can find more information on the full series here.

The ICAA would like to thank The Benton Family Foundation for its generous support of this lecture series, along with series sponsor McCrery Architects.

Additional thanks to INTBAU's supporters for this series, Fairfax & Sammons, ADAM Architecture, and Size Group. Additional thanks to The Prince's Foundation's supporter, Mr. Paul Beirne.
TRENDING IN THE ICAA ARCHIVES
Formality & Informality
with Arne Maynard
The ICAA's deep archive of lectures, courses, documentaries, and ongoing series is hosted on our YouTube channel, with view totals numbering in the hundreds of thousands. From time-to-time we are pleased to highlight some of the biggest hits in Classicism at Home.

Today we are highlighting a favorite among those who appreciate the fine balance between architecture and its surrounding landscape and gardens. Landscape designer Arne Maynard's classic lecture, "Formality & Informality," delivered at the ICAA in 2017, offers his insights into the considerations he brings to the gardens he creates, and how he seeks to highlight formal and informal elements, depending on context.



The lecture was generously sponsored by Hollander Design Landscape Architects, Howard and Nancy Marks, and Karen Pascoe. Filming of the discussion was made possible thanks to Kane Brothers Water Features.
ICAA IN THE NEWS & RECOMMENDED READING
Classicism in Publications &
ICAA Member Firms in the News
The ICAA and ICAA Member Firms are often featured in both print and online publications, and we are pleased to periodically provide a guide to stories that share our Members' incredible work and highlight topics of interest to the keen classicist.
Do you have an article you would like to recommend for inclusion in Classicism at Home? Feel free to reach out by emailing marketing@classicist.org.
CHRISTOPHER H. BROWNE DRAWING TOURS
Drawing Tours Return at the ICAA!
After a long hiatus, the ICAA is excited to announce that the Christopher H. Browne Drawing Tour program will return in the fall of 2021! Since 1991, the Drawing and Study course has been a cornerstone of the ICAA’s education program. The program follows in the footsteps of architects journeying abroad, and at home, to study and document precedents for the purpose of informing the design of new buildings and places.

This fall, the ICAA will present the first-ever Christopher H. Browne Savannah Drawing Tour. In addition, the upcoming 2022 Christopher H. Browne Edinburgh Drawing Tour will introduce a new location to our international drawing tour series. Both programs are now open for registration, with full itineraries to be announced soon.

Each year, the ICAA offers four scholarships to drawing tour students or emerging professionals, who receive the moniker "Christopher H. Browne Scholars." Additional scholarships for the Savannah Drawing Tour are available thanks to the ICAA’s Southeast Chapter

THE MCKIM LECTURE
Announcing the 20th Annual McKim Lecture
with Ben Pentreath
Please note: This program is free and open to ICAA Members only. Non-members wishing to view the lecture will have the opportunity to watch a recording of the event afterwards.

The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) is proud to partner with the University Club and the One West 54th Street Foundation to present the Annual McKim Lecture, named in honor of renowned architect, Charles McKim. Ben Pentreath will deliver the 2021 virtual lecture entitled "Lessons from History" and examine how crucial it is for a harmonious union between modernity and classicism.

Ben Pentreath is one of the United Kingdom’s leading architectural and interior designers. His London-based design studio has established a powerful reputation across a wide-ranging variety of disciplines. With a background in Art History, which he studied at the University of Edinburgh before attending HRH the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture, Ben worked for five years in New York and then with the Prince’s Foundation, before starting his own practice in 2004. In 2008, Ben opened a tiny eponymous design store, Pentreath & Hall, which has become one of the most influential design shops in London.


The 20th Annual McKim Lecture is made possible thanks
to the following generous sponsors:

Partner Sponsor

Supporter Sponsors
Linda London Ltd.
Vella Interiors Inc.
THE CLASSICIST
Submissions Are Now Being Accepted for
The Classicist No. 18
The Classicist is an annual, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the classical tradition in architecture and the allied arts. Featuring professional and student portfolios as well as academic articles authored by leaders in the field, this beautiful, color-illustrated journal serves as a forum for contemporary, classical practice as well as a source of inspiration and information for students, practitioners, teachers, patrons, and enthusiasts.

The ICAA invites submissions for the Professional Portfolio of the Classicist No. 18, which will be published in the fall of 2021 and is focused on the Mid-Atlantic region. If you are a practitioner who has completed work in the region in the past 10 years, please submit your projects for inclusion by filling out this form

The Classicist No. 17, edited by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and focused on Florida, is now available for purchase here.
CONTINUING EDUCATION ONLINE
Lead Sponsor for Continuing Education courses: Uberto Construction.
Thursday, February 18
6:00 PM EST / 3:00 PM PST

1.5 credits towards the Certificate in Classical Architecture (The Literature of Classical Architecture)

The ancient Vitruvian analogy between the human being and architecture was reconsidered in the Early Renaissance, most profoundly by Leon Battista Alberti. His writings emphasize the role of a human being as an ideal type, worthy of representation in the visual arts. According to Alberti, beauty in architecture is innate, which means that a person cannot help but respond in a positive way to a well-proportioned building. Alberti even believed that if an army were to enter a city with the intention of destroying it, but the buildings are beautiful, the warriors would lay down their weapons and act in a peaceful manner. This utopian theory provides insight into architecture’s extraordinary role of maintaining civic life. In his theoretical writings, Alberti assisted architects by outlining the steps to be followed when designing a building.

This premiere of a video course presented by Peter Kohane, Senior Lecturer of Architecture at UNSW Sydney, will review Alberti’s principles and discuss both their relation to the architecture of the Renaissance and how they can be applied to architectural debates today. The video premiere will be followed by live Q&A with Dr. Kohane.


Please note: This course is a prerecorded lecture. At 6:00 PM EST on Thursday, February 18, the course will be premiered via Zoom alongside a special live Q&A with course instructor Peter Kohane. The program is free to the public and the video will also be freely available to watch on the ICAA website, but you must preregister for the program below in order to guarantee a space for the premiere and Q&A. You will receive a Zoom link prior to the start of the course.
March 15th & 16th
6:00 PM EST / 3:00 PM PST

3 AIA CES Learning Units|Elective and 3 credits towards the Certificate in Classical Architecture (Elective)

The age-old impulse to build a villa is a fundamentally paradoxical one which, nevertheless, strikes at the heart of what it means to build and what it means to dwell on this earth. A villa, set, as it inevitably is, in a garden, is a “home away from home.” Why do we seek such a place? What ultimately, does the villa and its garden represent? How have architects and landscape architects addressed these over the centuries? This two-part lecture program will explore the villa and garden tradition from antiquity to the present.


This course will be held virtually via Zoom. Registrants will receive a Zoom link one day prior to the program.

This course is presented as part of the Bunny Mellon Curricula at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA is very grateful to the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation for its generous support of this program, along with the Curricula's Lead Co-Sponsor Edmund D. Hollander Landscape Architecture Design and Continuing Education and Public Programs Co-Sponsor Charlotte Moss.
MEMBER EVENTS & LECTURES
Please note that these events are free and open to ICAA Members only. Non-members will have the opportunity to watch a recording of the events afterwards.
Lead Annual Public Programs Sponsor: RINCK
Seasonal Public Programs Sponsor: Dell Mitchell Architects
Seasonal Public Programs Sponsor: Hyde Park Mouldings
Wednesday, February 24th
6:00 PM EST / 3:00 PM PST

For over fifty years, Robert A.M. Stern Architects has designed extraordinary houses and residences around the world, each suffused with a rich understanding of traditional architecture and an intuitive sense of how to shape a home to the needs of modern life. Many of the firm’s important early commissions were houses, and while RAMSA has since evolved into an internationally renowned with an extraordinarily broad portfolio, an unflagging dedication to timeless residential design has remained a cornerstone of its practice.

Join four of the firm’s distinguished residential Partners and coauthors of the new book Houses: Robert A.M. Stern ArchitectsRoger Seifter, Randy Correll, Grant Marani, and Gary Brewer—in conversation with Architectural Digest Features Editor, Sam Cochran, for an in-depth look at some of their recent and most exciting projects from around the country in a variety of different architecture styles, many of which have never been seen before.

Due to Renew Your Membership?

If your membership is due for renewal, or if you would like to join and support the ICAA, you can do so on our website.

By renewing today, you will remain connected to the ICAA’s diverse programming, publications, and community, while also supporting our educational programs and courses, lectures, workshops, scholarships, and more.
ICAA PLINTH EVENTS
Tuesday, February 23
6:00 PM EST

Please note: This program is free and open to PLINTH Members Only. Non-members wishing to view the lecture will have the opportunity to watch a recording of the event afterwards.

The centerpiece of the newly opened, highly-anticipated Moynihan Train Hall is a monumental Art Deco clock, designed by Peter Pennoyer Architects and inspired by the Jazz Age architecture of New York City and the golden age of railroad travel. The clock which has been praised by the New York Times, Architectural Digest and many others was a late addition to the development of the train hall and required intense work in the architects’ office and in the factories of Hyde Park Moldings and Americlock Inc. to meet the Governor’s New Year’s Eve deadline.

How does a team design, coordinate and create a 12 foot by 6 foot clock that will be suspended 25 feet in the air in six months? Join Peter Pennoyer, Steven Worthington and Colin Richardson—the team at Peter Pennoyer Architects that led the effort—for a behind-the-scenes virtual tour of the design and construction of the clock, from inception to installation. They will share their early inspiration, discuss the challenges they faced and talk about what it means to have a public commission at the center of a New York City landmark.


PLINTH is an active and energetic young members group of the National Chapter of the ICAA comprised of students, emerging professionals, and all those interested in developing and advancing the appreciation of classical tradition. If you are interested in joining PLINTH, please reach out to programming@classicist.org.
ICAA CHAPTER ONLINE COURSES & LECTURES
Additional Offerings
There is so much more available online at classicist.org: filmed lectures and public programs, panel discussions, and numerous online articles provide an opportunity to stay connected with the ICAA.