Practice Of Architecture: The Builder's Guide

About this book

Asher Benjamin (1773-1845) published the first American builders guide and his architectural books played an invaluable role in disseminating the new language of the Greek Revival. When originally published they were remarkably popular and were among the most influential of all Greek Revival handbooks. Throughout the American South Midwest and New England one still comes across houses built in the 1830s 1840s and 1850s patterned directly after Benjamins designs.The two books incorporated here Practice of Architecture (1833) and The Builders Guide (1839) are his most accomplished Grecian pattern books. With the growing number of contemporary architects who are designing buildings based on the forms on nineteenth century Grecian architecture Benjamins books should prove an invaluable resource for all lovers of the Greek Revival - builders owners preservationists historians and architects alike. Thomas Gordon Smith is chairman of the school of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame. His books include Classical Architecture: Rule and Invention and a newly illustrated edition of Vitruviuss Ten Books on Architecture/