Customer Reviews

H. H. Richardson: Complete Architectural Works

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H.H. Richardson is often credited as the first architect to craft a unique American style. He influenced Louis Sullivan, who taught Frank Lloyd Wright, who inspired Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler and John Lautner. That encompasses a lot of American architecture. This guide provides the reader with a succinct description of each of Richardson's works, with addresses and even maps to help the interested architectural tourist to visit the actual sites. Reading the book is informative. Visiting the sites is breathtaking.

Henry Hobson Richardson was the most influential architect in America after the Civil War and can be credited from rescuing much of the country from tepid Victorianism. An alumni of Harvard and the École des Beaux-Arts, he invented a rich, highly evocative, and enduring style that was instantly popular and remains iconic to this day ("Richardson Romanesque"). In addition to a remarkable number of major commissions won in competitions, he also designed some of the best `shingle style' houses in existence (Stoughton House, etc). Richardson also schooled employees that went on to found their own firms and become leaders the profession (Charles Follen McKim and Stanford White for example).

Ironically, few biographies or monographs of Richardson's work or firm remain in publication: this is one of the few, and it's well worth reading. The text includes a Biographical Note, Introduction, Catalogue of Buildings and Projects (151 projects from 1866 individually listed with addresses, brief biographies, illustrations where possible, and their ultimate fate) in a 435 page text, plus an Appendix that includes a Summary of Collections related to Richardson, Maps (geographical distribution of works in the US, MA, CT, Boston, Albany), preservation status (National Historic Landmarks and National Register of Historic Places), and Geographical Index by Zip Code. The author has produced a work worthy of his subject.

Currently the best biography of Richardson remains Henry Russell Hitchcock's `The Architecture of H. H. Richardson and His Times' (first published in 1936: it includes 114 illustrations in small format). `Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works' by Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer includes some of Richardson's major works - it was first published in 1888 and reisued by Dover in 1969. Finally, `Selected Drawings: H. H. Richadson and His Office' by James F. O'Gorman (published by MIT in 1974) provides a useful selected collection of office drawings.

This is the most complete work on H.H. Richardson. Purchased for a friend of mine, this book provides a year by year analysis of one of America's most famous architects. It is well illustrated with often rare plans and sketches, a lot of never before seen stuff. Well recommended for any architecture lover!

The only book on Richardsons works that has interior floor plans. Limited, but it had the one I was most interested in. Would of prefered a hard bound copy. Happy I could find this one though. Since I only cared about Ames lodge, I haven't actually read the book through. Its worth the expenditure of your money if your a Richardson fan. Fahey.....