Regional Classicism: Cosmopolitan and Local in the Colonial Chesapeake with Jeffrey Klee

On Thursday, June 3, 2021 the ICAA welcomed Jeffrey E. Klee, the Vice-President and Senior Director of Architecture for the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (CAHPT) for the Continuing Education course, “Regional Classicism: Cosmopolitan and Local in the Colonial Chesapeake,” which offered an exploration of the distinctive regional idiom of classical architecture that emerged in the colonial Chesapeake, outlining its derivation from English sources and its relationship to local social life.

Scholars of classical design in the Chesapeake have tended to focus on a handful of buildings with identifiable English pattern-book sources. But a fuller picture of the region’s architecture emerges from a consideration of the ways in which a distinctively local approach to classical design developed in the eighteenth century, one that enabled people to understand that a cyma backhand on a one-room house and the full entablature at Christ Church, Lancaster County were both part of a broadly intelligible language of design.

The ICAA is now pleased to present the full lecture for online viewing.

The ICAA would like to thank our Lead Sponsor for Continuing Education courses, Uberto Construction.

The Regional Classicism series examines the many regional variants of American classical architecture. Each session looks at a distinctive approach to classical design where the development of a regional idiom is characterized by a variety of local conditions, including the use of particular sources, building materials, craftspersons, construction techniques, and in response to unique contexts and climatic factors. The series aims to inspire the design of new buildings and places that contribute to a region's unique architectural identity.

Tags: regional classicism, classicism at home