Special thanks to Vella Interiors

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 20TH ANNUAL MCKIM LECTURE

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 to have 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 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.

Ahead of this year's 20th Annual McKim Lecture, featuring architect and designer Ben Pentreath, we are pleased to highlight one of Ben's previous lectures for the ICAA, delivered in the summer of 2019, as part of the ICAA's 2019 New York Summer Series accompanying the Treasures from Chatsworth exhibition presented by Sotheby's.

In Adventures with the English Country House, Ben begins with his exploration of Chatsworth House, and expands on an exploration of the history of English country houses, the distinctly endangered status they achieved in the post-war era, and their revitalized appreciation in the years since. Included are in-depth looks at some of Ben's own restoration projects, and the renewed inspiration that these historic homes provide to contemporary architects and designers.

The 2019 New York Summer Series was made possible thanks to the following sponsors:

In a lecture hosted by the Southern California Chapter on June 11th, 2020, designer Charles King Sadler explored the life and work of the renowned and innovative landscape designer Ellen Biddle Shipman. From her time in the Cornish Art Colony, to her collaborations with Charles Platt, Shipman achieved a remarkable career in the early part of the twentieth century. Using the particular design elements employed at The Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, LA, Mr. Sadler explores Shipman’s unique skill at creating formal garden rooms while providing seamlessly designed transitions. Mr. Sadler also highlights Mrs. Shipman's classical design philosophy and her particular skill in navigating and implementing the wishes of the property owners she worked with.

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 Hollander Design Landscape Architects, Film Series Co-Sponsor Janice Parker, and Continuing Education and Public Programs Co-Sponsor Charlotte Moss.

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.

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.

Lead Sponsor for Continuing Education courses: Uberto Construction.

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.

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 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.

This practical hands-on drawing course covers the third subject in the Introduction to the Elements of Classical Architecture sequence - the nomenclature, grammar, and proportional relationships of the canonical Doric order. The course is centered around freehand drawing of the Doric column and entablature. All instruction is live and on-line. This introduction forms part of a foundation for understanding all of the classical orders from the practitioner’s perspective, and lays the groundwork for exploring their use within an architectural composition.

Lead Annual Public Programs Sponsor: RINCK

Seasonal Public Programs Sponsor: Dell Mitchell Architects

Seasonal Public Programs Sponsor: Hyde Park Mouldings

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 firm 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 Architects—Roger 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.

Please join award-winning landscape architect and author, Janice Parker for a virtual lecture on Tuesday, March 30, as she shares her insights on the collaborative design process. Janice will delve deep into the reasoning and methodology of the collaborative spirit that has formed the foundation for her most successful projects. This process has many aspects, beginning with providing patrons the support and guidance they need to make informed choices. As a landscape architect, it is essential to unite the talent, vision and aesthetic sensitivity of the architect, interior designer, and lighting designer to achieve the most distinguished finished project. Janice will explore the core philosophies of collaboration, developed over a lifetime learning, that have led to successful outcomes and discuss strategies that can help designers avoid common missteps.

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.

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.

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.