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Faculty Colloquium: Henry Hobson Richardson: Drawings from the Collection of Houghton Library, Harvard University

Faculty Colloquium: Henry Hobson Richardson: Drawings from the Collection of Houghton Library, Harvard University In-Person

Please Join the Frances Loeb Library for this Faculty Colloquium:

Henry Hobson Richardson: Drawings from the Collection of Houghton Library, Harvard University

Jay Wickersham, Jenny French, Chris Milford, and Hope Mayo in conversation

Henry Hobson Richardson: Drawings from the Collection of Houghton Library, Harvard University (Monacelli Press / Phaidon), by Jay Wickersham, Chris Milford, and Hope Mayo, is the first in-depth publication of drawings by H. H. Richardson, the greatest American architect of the nineteenth century. The trove of over 4,000 drawings, preserved since Richardson’s death, have been largely unpublished until now. The book presents full-color reproductions of 450 sketches and renderings by the architect and his studio assistants, who included Charles McKim, Stanford White, and H. Langford Warren, founder of the Harvard architecture program. 

The book includes more than 50 projects, including such masterpieces as Boston’s Trinity Church; Sever and Austin Halls at Harvard; the Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail in Pittsburgh; and the Marshall Field Store and Glessner House in Chicago. An essay by James F. O’Gorman, the leading scholar of Richardson, surveys his life and career; essays by the authors discuss the organization of Richardson’s studio, his development of a wide client network, and the history of the Harvard archive.

The authors will present their methods in researching the Richardson archive at Harvard, how the book was constructed, and what it reveals about the collaborative design method in Richardson’s studio. Martin Filler, writing in the New York Review of Books, called this “An instructive, handsomely produced volume. Aided by a wide range of beautifully reproduced renderings, from Richardson’s lightning-bolt conceptual sketches to seductive presentation drawings by his talented assistants, we are led, project by project and step by step, through the prolific master’s output.” For more background on the book, see Krista Sykes’s interview with Jay Wickersham in the GDS News.

Jay Wickersham, an architect and lawyer, taught for fifteen years at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he was an associate professor of architecture in practice. Wickersham is a founding partner in the law firm Noble, Wickersham & Heart, which represents architects around the country and globally, including Robert A. M. Stern Architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and MASS Design Group. He received a B.A. from Yale, an M.Arch. from the Harvard GSD, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Chris Milford is a partner in the architectural firm of Milford & Ford Associates, specializing in historic preservation and restoration. He and Wickersham spearheaded civic efforts to save and reuse the Ames Shovel Works buildings, a nineteenth-century industrial complex in North Easton, MA adjacent to five Richardson buildings. Milford holds a B.Arch. and an M.Arch. from Cornell University.

Hope Mayo, a renowned expert in rare books, drawings, prints, and manuscripts, was the former Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts (retired) at Houghton Library, where she oversaw the Richardson drawings collection. She earned a Ph.D. in Medieval History from Harvard University and a Master’s degree in Library Science from the University of Chicago and studied paleography at the University of Munich.

Date:
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Time:
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Time Zone:
Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
Location:
Loeb Library Lobby, Upper Level
Categories:
  Faculty Colloquium  

Event Organizer

Claudia Lewis

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