Harrie T. Lindeberg And The American Country House

Description

First monograph on a leading architect of the American Country House Era who synthesized Scandinavian, European, and American traditions. Trained at McKim, Mead & White, Harrie T. Lindeberg moved away from the formal classicism of his mentors to develop a picturesque form that is a unique contribution to the image of the American country house. Born of Swedish parents, Lindeberg incorporated the high roofs and simple lines of Scandinavian design into a vocabulary that also included sources ranging from French, English, and Georgian to American Colonial. Critics saw Lindeberg's approach, novel for its fresh and idiosyncratic interpretation of the past, as essentially American because it acknowledged its own time and place first and foremost. His houses convey a quiet dignity, with a new emphasis on comfort and convenience and a deep commitment to the natural surroundings. Today, a remarkable number of Lindeberg's houses stand as they were originally built. Many continue to be private homes, cherished and maintained by their owners for what they are- comfortable houses with a domestic spirit but at the same time works of art that reveal Lindeberg's beautifully executed pursuit of unity of his designs.

Peter Pennoyer is the founding partner of Peter Pennoyer Architects, a New York firm with an extensive portfolio of residential and institutional projects in a traditional vocabulary. An AD100 designer, his work is published regularly in Architectural Digest and Traditional Building. A committed classicist, he is a past president of the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art. His previous books, with co-author Anne Walker, are monographs on Delano & Aldrich, Warren & Wetmore, Grosvenor Atterbury, and Cross & Cross. Most recently, he and his wife, interior designer Katie Ridder, published A House in the Country, a highly successful monograph on the house and garden they built for themselves in Dutchess County. Anne Walker is an architectural historian with Peter Pennoyer Architects. She is the author of the firm's monograph.

Pennoyer and Walker's book, with sumptuous photography by Jonathan Wallen, is their fifth exploration of early 20th-century architecture by eminent New York practitioners. If you've only seen Lindeberg's houses in the monochromatic photos of previous monographs published in 1912 and 1940, viewing them in color - not just as architectural artifacts but as intricately detailed, richly textured settings in lush green landscapes - comes as a splendid surprise.... Handsomely rendered plans supplement the carefully curated images, and scholarly chapters about client, site, program, and design take this book far beyond the coffee table genre.... His synthesis of rational but gracious planning with simple yet picturesque form-making should be an inspiration to any architect - regardless of stylistic inclination - who seeks to learn lessons from history and apply them to new work that is both subtly original and enduringly beautiful. - Architectural Record Certainly, no one is better qualified to write about historic country houses than architect Peter Pennoyer, a prodigious designer of homes inspired by these stately residences and a master restorer of many original examples.... Now, with his frequent writing collaborator, the architectural historian Anne Walker, he has come out with Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House (Monacelli Press). No less a pooh-bah than Robert A.M. Stern says in his introduction that Lindeberg (1879-1959) 'brilliantly synthesized' previous architectural traditions. - 1st Dibs Lindeberg's cult following might widen in the very near future, due to Peter Pennoyer and Anne Walker, two terrific Manhattan architects whose scholarship has laden bookshelves with monographs that are as eloquent, sophisticated, and witty as their building projects. Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House is the latest production for the industrious pair, principal and architectural historian, respectively, at Peter Pennoyer Architects in Manhattan. What they rightly emphasize is the seductive, easygoing charm of Lindeberg's projects. - Architectural Digest In the new book Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House, architect Peter Pennoyer and historian Anne Walker reflect on what makes the homes created by the under-recognized Lindeberg such marvels even today. New as well as historic photography, floor plans, and sketches of 20 of the architect's projects compromise the new tome, which picks up where Lindeberg's out-of-print monograph from the 1940s left off. The enthusiasm and appreciation Pennoyer and Walker have for his work leap off the pages, which are brimming with interesting facts and keen observations on the signatures of his varying style. - Galerie Peter Pennoyer, one of the most prominent classical architects working today, and writer Anne Walker have rediscovered an architect whose simple, symmetrical, yet richly detailed houses delighted great American families in the 1910s, '20s, and '30s. Their new book, Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House, presents 20 projects, many still standing, that convey a sense of gracious ease and restrained elegance that seems more appealing than ever.... Lindeberg embraced charm and whimsy, building in brick and stone, using shingles to mimic thatched roofs, incorporating elements and forms of English cottages (turrets, towers, and dovecotes), and setting his houses within rooms created by terraces, walls, and hedges. It is that combination of rigor with an almost story-book appeal that makes his houses so compelling. - Dering Hall It's the perfect coffee table book and conversation piece. - Long Island Weekly A handsome book, with beautiful photography and a persuasive, accessibly informative introduction, the book should prompt lovers of the elegantly simple, subtly innovative, and historically charming to set out on a spring morning to see for themselves (landscapes permitting) these four stunning signature residences. Readers can then appreciate why the authors revisited Lindeberg's achievements and made a strong case for his legacy. - The Independent