The Classicist No 7

The only journal of its kind in North America, 'The Classicist' series features articles on architectural theory and portfolios presenting the work of contemporary architectural practitioners, students, and fine artists.

Publisher description

Ancient architects and artists had a way of striking resonant chords in the viewers of their work. This book points to a possible way of returning a sense of unity to the visual arts through a combination of theoretical ideas and practical methods, of narrative description and visual exercises.Proportion, the use of number and geometry as design tools, is seen in the context of the search for the beautiful. From the theoretic, symbolic mathematics of the Pythagoreans, Platonists, and Neo-Platonists, the book proposes an aesthetic theory, a way of approaching beauty, rooted in the idea of psyche and expressed through the ancient sciences of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Topics treated include: an explanation of the concept of symbolic or qualitative number; an introduction to Pythagorean and Platonic numerical philosophy; the nature of beauty and its relation to number; the derivation of the ancient musical octave; the Golden Section, its mathematics, geometry, and relation to philosophy, particularly its role as a geometrical logos; and the connection of these ideas to the numerical-geometrical canons of classical architecture. These concepts are illustrated step by step as applied to the elements and archetypal compositions of classical architecture, such as the order and portico, using arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic ratio methods.The proportional idea is illustrated with reconstructions of exemplary buildings based on the methods described, following through the historical periods of Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Middle ages, the Italian Renaissance, and the Enlightenment. Though the book is focused on architecture, the methods presented may be used by artists and designers in any visual field. The book suggests several pathways on which contemporary designers might move toward creating a sane and beautiful world through a merger of art and science.

The only journal of its kind in North America, 'The Classicist' series features articles on architectural theory and portfolios presenting the work of contemporary architectural practitioners, students, and fine artists.

In a career that spanned the first half of this century, Philip Trammell Shutze produced over 750 architectural works. Because his production was so large, this first book to examine his buildings concentrates on the more important ones, which as a body represent an architectural achievement of a very high order of refinement, grace, and beauty. Although Shutze practiced from 1912 to 1968, covering the period of the ascendancy of modernism through its final triumph, he remained a firmly committed classicist, practicing out of an office in Atlanta where he produced an extraordinary body of monumental commercial and institutional buildings and country villas. After graduating from Georgia Tech, Shutze stayed a year at Columbia University before he won the prestigious Rome Prize in 1915. Travelling to Rome later that year, he became a member of one of the earliest classes of fellows to occupy the recently completed American Academy on the Janiculum overlooking the city. The magnificent palazzo designed by America's most renowned architectural firm, McKim, Mead, and White, did not however please the fellows, who found it "too new," and therefore not authentic (Shutze would later devote much attention to techniques for instantly aging building facades). With the coming of the First World War, Shutze and most of his classmates stayed in Rome as Red Cross volunteers, but when the war was over they returned to he Academy and to their studies. During his five years in Rome, Shutze immersed himself in learning everything he could about the great buildings of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. He painstakingly measured those buildings as well as the monuments of the Roman Empire, committing the smallest of details to paper and to memory. Returning to the U.S. in 1920, Shutze worked in New York for Mott Schmidt, who designed townhouses for such families as the Astors, Morgans, and Vanderbilts, and he also worked for F. Burrall Hoffman, whose masterpiece is Villa Vizcaya in Miami. Within a few years, though, he returned to Georgia where he remained as the epitome of the "gentleman architect," designing some of the most beautiful buildings ever to grace the American landscape.

-A lavish and beautifully illustrated sourcebook of classically inspired architectural detail -A valuable resource for architects, interior designers, builders and home decorators -Featuring a foreword by renowned interior designer David Easton -Highlights projects by US architects including Marc Ferguson & Oscar Shamamian, Peter Pennoyer, Quinlan Terry and Gil Schafer. Features a foreword by David Easton, arguably America's most respected decorator. Contributors also include historians Jeremy Musson and David Watkin. In The Art of Classical Details, classically trained architect Phillip Dodd takes a close-up look at some of the finest examples of neo-classical architecture in the world today. Covering the fundamentals of classical architecture, such as Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite columns, and featuring the work of skilled contemporary classicists, including Julian Bicknell and Ken Tate, The Art of Classical Details is the definitive guide to today's world of neoclassical architectural detailing.

"Outstanding individuals have the whole world as their memorial."--PericlesThe influence of ancient Greek civilization has been felt throughout modern Western history. Greek ideas can be found in the laws that govern our lives, the buildings in which we live, the books we read, and the vocabulary we use every day. Because these ideas have become so much a part of our daily life, we tend to forget that they originated more than 2,500 years ago.Ancient Greeks chronicles the lives and accomplishments of Greek figures whose influence continues to be felt today. We read about Greeks from all walks of life, including one of the greatest physicians who ever lived, the father of logic, and a brilliant mathematician who once said, "Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum strong enough, and I will single-handedly move the world." And move the world he did, but with his ideas, not a mighty fulcrum.In 42 essays, authors Rosalie and Charles Baker explore the lives of many personalities, from the most famous Greeks to people who are usually overlooked, including:Aesop, author of timeless fables that continue to provide lessons todayLycurgus, the legendary ruler of SpartaPlato, the great philosopher who established the Academy in AthensPhidippides, a courier and long-distance runner whose run from Marathon to Athens became the basis of the modern marathonSappho, one of the best female poets of classical antiquityHippocrates, one of the greatest physicians who ever livedAlcibiades, a patriot-turned-traitor who was exiled from GreeceIctinus, the architect responsible for the design of the ParthenonAristotle, the father of logic who tutored the teenage Alexander the GreatAlexander the Great, who ruled Greece, defeated the great Persian empire, conquered lands bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including Egypt, and won control of lands stretching into India (and all that before his 33rd birthday)Zeno, founder of the philosophy known as StoicismThe biographies span the years 700 B.C. to 200 B.C., from Homer, the master of epic poetry and the author of the Iliad, to Eratosthenes, a brilliant mathematician who was the first to calculate the earth's circumference. A handy fact box that lists birth and death dates and the major accomplishments of each person profiled, abundant photographs and specially commissioned maps, a timeline, a glossary of Greek terms, an index of Greeks by profession, a pronunciation guide, and suggestions for further reading all add to the usefulness of this exceptional reference. With figures from fields as diverse as literature, mathematics, politics, the military, philosophy, and science, Ancient Greeks provides a comprehensive examination of the origins of modern civilization.

The peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, The Classicist No. 11 features illustrations, photographs, and essays by leading classicists.

Arthur Brown Jr. (1874-1957) is one of the most important, yet underpublished, architects of the twentieth century.

For those interested in contemporary permutations of neo-classical architecture, this volume offers a photo essay of the work of 14 architectural firms. Among them are Robert Adam Architects Ltd, Norman Davenport Askins, John Blatteau Associates, Fairfax & Sammons, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Michael G. Imber, and Porphyrios Associates. The build