Thomas Jefferson, Architect

Thomas Jefferson, Architect
Author: Mabel O. Wilson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2019-10-22
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 030024620X

A compelling reassessment of Thomas Jefferson's architecture that scrutinizes the complex, and sometimes contradictory, meanings of his iconic work Renowned as a politician and statesman, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was also one of the premier architects of the early United States. Adept at reworking Renaissance--particularly Palladian--and Enlightenment ideals to the needs of the new republic, Jefferson completed visionary building projects such as his two homes, Monticello and Poplar Forest; the Capitol building in Richmond; and the University of Virginia campus. Featuring a wealth of archival images, including models, paintings, drawings, and prints, this volume presents compelling essays that engage broad themes of history, ethics, philosophy, classicism, neoclassicism, and social sciences while investigating various aspects of Jefferson's works, design principles, and complex character. In addition to a thorough introduction to Jefferson's career as an architect, the book provides insight into his sources of inspiration and a nuanced take on the contradictions between his ideas about liberty and his embrace of slavery, most poignantly reflected in his plan for the academical village at the University of Virginia, which was carefully designed to keep enslaved workers both invisible and accessible. Thomas Jefferson, Architect offers fresh perspectives on Jefferson's architectural legacy, which has shaped the political and social landscape of the nation and influenced countless American architects since his time.

Thomas Jefferson: Architect

Thomas Jefferson: Architect
Author: Hugh Howard
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-03-30
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 078933979X

This is the first volume to include all of the existing work by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and the father of American architecture. Along with his numerous political achievements, Thomas Jefferson was also the first great architect of the United States. The Jeffersonian Classical style has been so influential that along with Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson, Jefferson is one of the three most recognized architects in American History.

Thomas Jefferson: Architect

Thomas Jefferson: Architect
Author: Chuck Wills
Publisher: Running Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780762434381

Though Thomas Jefferson is thought of first and foremost as one of America's founding fathers, his contributions in the realm of architecture, design, and innovation were no less revolutionary. The third president created an American ideal in architecture that can be seen in numerous structures that define the landscape of his resident state of Virginia, and comprise what has come to be regarded as classic American colonial design. Combining beautiful images, informative, accessible text, and removable memorabilia, this book celebrates the design of Jefferson's four most notable structures: the University of Virginia, his Monticello home, the Poplar Forest retreat, and the Virginia State Capitol. Monticello is the only home in the United States designated as a World Heritage Site. This Charlottesville, Virginia residence is featured on the reverse side of the nickel, and brings more than 450,000 visitors to its halls each year. However, guests are only allowed viewing on the ground floor and in the cellar; Thomas Jefferson: Architect will be one of the few places to reveal the second and third floors. Thomas Jefferson has never ceased to intrigue both the scholar and the casual history reader. New works about his life, his politics, and his writings continue to be published each year. As historical narratives dominate the nonfiction landscape, Jefferson remains a central figure in American history, and this unique volume adds a new facet to this fascinating man.

Thomas Jefferson at Monticello

Thomas Jefferson at Monticello
Author: Leslie Greene Bowman
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2021-09-28
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0847865223

This visually stunning volume explores Monticello, both house and plantation, with texts that present a current assessment of Jefferson’s cultural contributions to his noteworthy home and the fledgling country. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States, designed his Virginia residence with innovations that were progressive, even unprecedented, in the new world. Six acclaimed arts and cultural luminaries pay homage to Jefferson, citing his work at Monticello as testament to his genius in art, culture, and science, from his adaptation of Palladian architecture, his sweeping vision for landscape design, his experimental gardens, and his passion for French wine and cuisine to his eclectic mix of European and American art and artifacts and the creation of the country’s seminal library. Each writer considers the important role, and the painful reality, of Jefferson’s enslaved workforce, which made his lifestyle and plantation possible. This book, illustrated with superb photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna, is a necessary addition to the libraries of those who love historical architecture and landscape design, art and cultural history, and the lives of prominent Americans.

Jefferson

Jefferson
Author: John B. Boles
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2017-04-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0465094694

From an eminent scholar of the American South, the first full-scale biography of Thomas Jefferson since 1970 Not since Merrill Peterson's Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation has a scholar attempted to write a comprehensive biography of the most complex Founding Father. In Jefferson, John B. Boles plumbs every facet of Thomas Jefferson's life, all while situating him amid the sweeping upheaval of his times. We meet Jefferson the politician and political thinker -- as well as Jefferson the architect, scientist, bibliophile, paleontologist, musician, and gourmet. We witness him drafting of the Declaration of Independence, negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, and inventing a politics that emphasized the states over the federal government -- a political philosophy that shapes our national life to this day. Boles offers new insight into Jefferson's actions and thinking on race. His Jefferson is not a hypocrite, but a tragic figure -- a man who could not hold simultaneously to his views on abolition, democracy, and patriarchal responsibility. Yet despite his flaws, Jefferson's ideas would outlive him and make him into nothing less than the architect of American liberty.

Thomas Jefferson, Landscape Architect

Thomas Jefferson, Landscape Architect
Author: Frederick Doveton Nichols
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1978
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780813908991

Collaboration with the greatest botanists of his time, an instinctive humanitarianism, and a natural ingenuity in landscape design combined to make Thomas Jefferson a pioneer in American landscape architecture. Frederick D. Nichols and Ralph E. Griswold, in this close study of Jefferson's many notes, letters, and sketches, present a clear and detailed interpretation of his extraordinary accomplishments in the field. Thomas Jefferson, Landscape Architect investigates the many influences on--and of--the Jeffersonian legacy in architecture. Jefferson's personality, friendships, and convictions, complemented by his extensive reading and travels, clearly influenced his architectural work. His fresh approach to incorporating foreign elements into domestic designs, his revolutionary approach to relating the house to the surrounding land, and his profound influences on the architectural character of the District of Columbia are just a few of Jefferson's contributions to the American landscape. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century maps, plans, and drawings, as well as pictures of the species of trees that Jefferson used for his designs, generously illustrate the engaging narrative in Thomas Jefferson, Landscape Architect.

The Architectural Ideology of Thomas Jefferson

The Architectural Ideology of Thomas Jefferson
Author: Ralph G. Giordano
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-08-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780786470174

In contrast to his enormous political influence, Thomas Jefferson's vast cultural contributions, especially in the realm of American architecture, remain relatively unknown to mainstream Americans. Among architectural professionals, however, Jefferson is immediately recognized as one of the most influential architects of all time. Although he was considered a "gentleman architect," Jefferson honed his skills as well as any professional. His three most notable visionary works at the Virginia State Capitol, the educational complex at the University of Virginia, and his own home at Monticello remain monumental in the field of American architecture and society. This volume reveals how Jefferson's politics and architecture coexisted and explains how he marked his political maturation through corresponding architectural monuments that reflected his ideals. Consequently, Jefferson provided America with a combined architectural and political ideology with the intention of safeguarding the future of liberty and democracy in America.

Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village

Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village
Author: Richard Guy Wilson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2009
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

Thomas Jefferson's design for the University of Virginia is widely hailed as a masterpiece. It is his greatest architectural accomplishment, the summation of his quest for intellectual freedom. The story of the University encompasses the political and architectural worlds, as Jeffeson struggled against great opposition to establish a new type of educational institution. Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village offers a comprehensive look at Jefferson's design for the University, at how it came into being, at the different perecptions of its successes and failures, and at the alterations that have taken place down through the years. The revised edition incorporates research that has been ongoing since the book first appeared in 1993, and includes a preface by Richard Guy Wilson, essays on architecture and education and the Lawn, additional architectural drawings and historic photographs, a foreword by President John T. Casteen III, and numerous color illustrations.

Gibbs' Book of Architecture

Gibbs' Book of Architecture
Author: James Gibbs
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2013-05-23
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0486142345

Gibbs's legendary 1728 folio includes perspectives and blueprints for such magnificent commissions as London's St. Martin in the Fields; the Senate House of the University of Cambridge; plus fine drawings of marble cisterns, iron gates, funeral monuments, and more.

The Architecture of Jefferson Country

The Architecture of Jefferson Country
Author: K. Edward Lay
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2000
Genre: Albemarle County (Va.)
ISBN: 0813918855

"But what is less well known are the many important examples of other architectural idioms built in this Piedmont Virginia county, many by nationally renowned architects.".