When entering a building or a room, one naturally looks around. Yet Rafael Guastavino’s engineering and architectural artistry immediately draws the eyes upward. For a century and longer, the juxtaposition of tiles arranged in domes and arches have awed countless people. In fact, the Spanish immigrant’s indelible mark graces numerous iconic American structures, including New…

If you had traveled with the Marquis de Lafayette to the Piedmont region of Virginia in 1824, you would have been amazed to come upon a beautifully proportioned village being built in the finest tradition of Renaissance planning. Ten pavilions, connected by colonnades extending from a great building resembling the Roman Pantheon, rose impressively above…

In 1784 Thomas Jefferson found himself in France as our first ambassador. While he was there he fell in love. Arrested by its striking classical beauty, the patriot became smitten with a small Roman temple in Nîmes known as the Maison Carrée (square house). Describing it as “the most perfect model existing of what might…

A column capital’s intricate decorative motifs, an arched window’s perfect proportions, a majestic Greek statue beneath a frieze—you’ll notice these fine architectural details in New York City if you take a moment to look up at some of the buildings, those landmarks that have been preserved over the course of the city’s history. Italian architect…