Explores the first president s overlooked innovations as a designer of buildings and landscapes. Washington was an exemplary form-giver whose best work was conducted in his own back yards: Mt. Vernon and Wash., D.C. He not only redesigned the exterior and interior of his mansion at Mt. Vernon, but also sculpted the terrain, rearranged vistas, designed farm buildings, and created one of the most beautiful American gardens. And, designed in 1791 by his handpicked choice Peter Charles L Enfant, Wash., D.C., symbolically expresses the principles of the first democratic federal republic in history. As executed by L Enfant, it was Washington s vision cast in stone. Over 200 full-color and black and white drawings and photos. Oversize.
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This year is the bicentennial of Washington's death, and the flood of tributary books continues. Greenberg, an architect and architectural historian, furnishes an unusual perspective as he views Washington as a gifted and influential landscape architect and city planner. Greenberg stresses Washington's firm grasp of the political role that architecture could play in fostering a republican spirit in the infant nation. His role in the planning of the design and construction of our nation's capital is covered here in often fascinating detail. The illustrations, including extensive blueprints of Mt. Vernon, support a highly readable, nontechnical text that should interest artists, architects, and historians. Jay Freeman
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The House That George Built,
This review is from: George Washington, Architect (Hardcover)
Leave it to George Washington, the man who broke the rules in war to defeat the British, to carry on in the field of architecture, designing Mount Vernon as he wished it to be -- not as architects who were consulted by Washington deemed it "should be." Though bits and pieces of Mount Vernon's architecture can be traced to Palladio, and English pattern books by Langley and Swan, Washington relied upon his horse-sense in combining these elements after his own taste to create the facade and interiors. The result was a remarkable bit of architectural sleight of hand: a structure immense in scale, yet unpretentious -- incorporating elements that exude strength, but without pomposity or intimidation -- asymmetrical, without spoiling the overall sense of balance. Washington's preference for Tuscan simplicity evokes a harmonious impression that manages to be both masculine and quaint. It's a storybook house created by the man who gave us our country. Mr. Greenberg's book is top drawer reading for architects, interior designers, homeowners, landscape architects and city planners who wish to recover a master vision -- and apply it to the next iteration of Republican taste.
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