The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe by Michael W. Fazio, Patrick A. Snadon

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Book Reviews Michael W. Fazio and Patrick A. Snadon. The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Baltimore:TheJohns Hopkins University Press, 2006, 816 pp., 349 black-and-white photographs, 22 color plates, 241 line drawings, hardcover, $75.00, ISBN 0-8018-8104-8. B y analyzing extant building fabric, surviving drawings, primary texts, and historic photographs, Michael W. Fazio and Patrick A. Snadon address a fundamental need in architectural history: the creation of a canon of Benjamin Henry Latrobe's domestic designs. Most ofLatrobe's houses are lost, and his drawings often represent designs only partially adopted by clients. By interpreting the evidence, the authors establish an authoritative list of Latrobe's domestic work and provide insight into the design theory of this important American architect. The structure of this volume is only partially chronological. The text begins with a brief but intriguing biography of Latrobe, which is followed by detailed discussions of the designs of individual houses organized according to the location of Latrobe's practice. The epilogue recounts the disheartening preservation history of these buildings, which the authors attribute both to his unconventional designs and to urban growth. The book ends with a catalogue of the architect's domestic projects. Into this general scheme, the authors interject analytical chapters summarizing Latrobe's design theories and an overview of his career. Because these summary chapters are more narrative in style, they can be read independently. Illustrations comprise one of the book's most attractive features. Latrobe's drawings are juxtaposed with contemporary plans and historical photographs so that readers can readily follow the authors' line of reasoning. The book's reconstructed drawings represent an especially useful contribution to Latrobe scholarship. Overall, the book's organization suggests multiple audiences: specialized academic audiences can focus on specific design conditions and solutions, while a broader readership can find a more general account of Latrobe's place in English and American architectural history. Fazio and Snadon bring expertise in both design and architectural history to this work. Fazio, a professor emeritus at the School ofArchitecture at Mississippi State University, is a practicing preservation architect and a published authority on Latrobe. Snadon teaches interior design as an associate professor at the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. Both authors earned Ph.D.'s in architectural history from Cornell University. As Latrobe might have preferred, the authors emphasize aesthetic inspiration as the most important part of the architectural process. Large portions of the voluminous text describe in detail the stylistic character and origins of the plans and elevations of Latrobe's elegant habitations. However, Fazio and Snadon also approach their subject from a less traditional perspective. They explain how Latrobe's designs responded to the economic status of individual clients and where he preferred to locate spaces inhabited by 70 ARRIS Volume Eighteen BOOK REVIEWS servants. Acknowledging Latrobe's reputation as an engineer, the authors deftly describe how he brought his innovative skills to architectural systems, such as suspended ceilings and sliding doors. The authors stress several themes in Latrobe's professional development. In addition to his consummate skill in creating picturesque interiors, Latrobe is portrayed as adept at articulating an architectural theory rooted in Enlightenment rationality, even though he was forced to compromise those ideals because ofa conservative clientele. According to the authors, Latrobe accommodated regional traditions, such as the emphasis in Virginia on dining as a theater for social hierarchy, but rejected others, such as the widespread, but not universal, preference for the central passage plan. Contrary to our present understanding of the architect's motivation, the authors argue successfully that while catering to many of his clients' social ambitions and often disparaging their lack of design sophistication, Latrobe shared their compulsion to achieve distinction through the use of accumulated wealth. Fazio and Snadon's book does not aim to replace Talbot Hamlin's outdated but wonderfully readable biography, Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1955). Likewise, it does not supplant Jeffrey A. Cohen and Charles E. Brownell's The Architectural Drawings ofBenjamin Henry Latrobe (1994), because it does not address Latrobe's civic architecture. Yet, because of its exhaustive analysis of both extant and lost domestic buildings attributed to...