Palladian Architecture - Neo-Palladian - North American Palladianism

North American Palladianism

Palladio's influence in North America is evident almost from the beginning of architect-designed building there though the Anglo-Irish philosopher, George Berkeley, may in fact have been America's pioneering Palladian. Acquiring a large farmhouse in Middletown, near Newport in the late 1720s, Berkeley dubbed it "Whitehall" and improved it with a Palladian doorcase derived from William Kent's Designs of Inigo Jones (1727), which he may have brought with him from London; Palladio's work was included in the library of a thousand volumes he amassed for the purpose and sent to Yale College. In 1749 Peter Harrison adopted the design of his Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island, more directly from Palladio's Quattro Libri, while his Brick Market, also in Newport, of a decade later is also Palladian in conception.

The Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland (illustration) is perhaps the finest example of Palladian architecture in the United States. It is the only existing work of colonial academic architecture that was principally designed from a plate in Andrea Palladio’s Quattro Libri.The house was designed by the architect William Buckland in 1773–74 for wealthy farmer Matthias Hammond of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It was modeled on the design of the Villa Pisani in Montagnana, Italy in Book II, Chapter XIV of I Quattro Libri dell’Achitettura.

The politician and architect Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) once referred to Palladio's Quattro Libri as his bible. Jefferson acquired an intense appreciation of Palladio's architectural concepts, and his designs for his own beloved Monticello, the James Barbour Barboursville estate, Virginia State Capitol, and the University of Virginia were based on drawings from Palladio's book. Realizing the powerful political significance pertaining to ancient Roman buildings, Jefferson designed his civic buildings in the Palladian style. Monticello (remodelled between 1796 and 1808) is quite clearly based on Palladio's Villa Capra, however, with modifications, in a style which is described in America today as Colonial Georgian. Jefferson's Pantheon, or Rotunda, at the University of Virginia is undeniably Palladian in concept and style.

In Virginia and Carolina, the Palladian manner is epitomised in numerous Tidewater plantation houses, such as Stratford Hall or Westover Plantation, or Drayton Hall near Charleston. These examples are all classic American colonial examples of a Palladian taste that was transmitted through engravings, for the benefit of masons—and patrons, too—who had no first-hand experience of European building practice. A feature of American Palladianism was the re-emergence of the great portico, which again, as in Italy, fulfilled the need of protection from the sun; the portico in various forms and size became a dominant feature of American colonial architecture. In the north European countries the portico had become a mere symbol, often closed, or merely hinted at in the design by pilasters, and sometimes in very late examples of English Palladianism adapted to become a porte-cochere; in America, the Palladian portico regained its full glory.

One house which clearly shows this Palladian-Gibbs influence is Mount Airy, in Richmond County, Virginia, built in 1758–62.

At Westover the north and south entrances, made of imported Portland stone, were patterned after a plate in William Salmon's Palladio Londinensis (1734)."

The distinctive feature of Drayton Hall, its two-storey portico, was derived directly from Palladio.

Thomas Jefferson must have gained particular pleasure as the second occupant of the White House in Washington, which was doubtless inspired by Irish Palladianism. Both Castle Coole and Richard Cassel's Leinster House in Dublin claim to have inspired the architect James Hoban, who designed the executive mansion, built between 1792 and 1800. Hoban, born in Callan, County Kilkenny, in 1762, studied architecture in Dublin, where Leinster House (built circa 1747) was one of the finest buildings at the time. The Palladianism of the White House is interesting as it is almost an early form of neoclassicism, especially the South facade, which closely resembles James Wyatt's design for Castle Coole of 1790, also in Ireland. Ironically, the North facade lacks one of the floors from Leinster House, while the Southern facade is given one floor more than Castle Coole, and has an external staircase more in the Palladian manner. Castle Coole is, in the words of the architectural commentator Gervase Jackson-Stops, "A culmination of the Palladian traditions, yet strictly neoclassical in its chaste ornament and noble austerity." The same can be said of many houses in the American Palladian style.

One of the adaptations made to Palladianism in America was that the piano nobile now tended to be placed on the ground floor, rather than above a service floor, as was the tradition in Europe. This service floor, if it existed at all, was now a discreet semi-basement. This negated the need for an ornate external staircase leading to the main entrance as in the more original Palladian designs. This would also be a feature of the neoclassical style that followed Palladianism.

The only two houses in the United States—from the English colonial period (1607–1776)—that can be definitively attributed to designs from the Four Books of Architecture are architect William Buckland's Hammond-Harwood House (1774) in Annapolis, Maryland, and Thomas Jefferson's first Monticello. The design source for the Hammond-Harwood House is Villa Pisani at Montagnana (Book II, Chapter XIV), and for the first Monticello (1770) the design source is Villa Cornaro at Piombino Dese (Book II, Chapter XIV). Thomas Jefferson later covered this facade with later additions so that the Hammond-Harwood House remains the only pure and pristine example of direct modeling in America today.

Because of its later development, Palladian architecture in Canada is rare. One notable example is the Nova Scotia Legislature building, completed in 1819.

The Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., a non-profit membership organization, was founded in 1979 to research and promote understanding of Palladio’s influence in the United States.

Read more about this topic:  Palladian Architecture, Neo-Palladian

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