DA GUMMINT!

If you haven’t been able to guess, I’m a sucker for Thomas Jefferson’s thoughts on Architecture. I’m not embarrassed that on my bookshelf, somewhere between Simon Schama’s The Power of Art and Kate Nesbit’s Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, you will find two books on Monticello, one on Federal Architecture and a framed portrait of Tommy Boy himself. Though to be fair, I also have portraits of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and John Adams (the last one being a gift from a Red-headed Juvenal scholar).

Thomas Jefferson was not the first Architect of the United States, I’m sorry, he just wasn’t. What he was, however, was the first Architectural Theorist.

My absolute favorite Jefferson/Architecture moment is when he sends a letter to James Madison from his travels abroad. In this letter he goes on and on about the Maison Carree at Nimes (an ancient Roman Temple, located in Southern France). Jefferson called it a “most beautiful and precious morsel of architecture left us by antiquity.” He later goes on to say that this Temple should be the basis of the Virginia State Capital Building. The French Architect who Jefferson had been touring with then tried to point out that Jefferson had misunderstood the entire point of the structure and that it would be foolish and impractical to base a public building off of completely irrelevant design principles. Jefferson, in true American fashion, responds with a “Well, Imma do it anyway.”* Then he did. Classic.

Why bring this up? Because the Thomas Jefferson awards have been distributed for 2010.

The Thomas Jefferson award is for, as the AIA put it, “Architects…that have all had a vital and positive influence on architecture’s interaction with the public at large.” One of the winners is Les Shepard, Chief Architect of the General Services Administration. The other two winners being: Curtis Fentress of Fentress Architects and Ken Greenburg of Greenburg Consultants.

While all of these little Urban Archievers (and proud we are all of them) are gifted in the world of initial design, it’s important to note that the bread and butter of Public Architecture is the buildings’ ability to outlast. Public Architecture is a blend of grand, immortal and moralizing ideas which become tangible through aesthetics. However, they are simultaneously a reflection of the times in which they were built. This principle is true of all Architecture, but it carries with it a special kind of poignancy when it comes to Public Architecture as it doesn’t belong to any one client.

Public Architecture does not say “This is who I am and what I want, me, me, me” as a private residence might (I’m looking at you Farnsworth House), rather it says “This is who we are, as a nation, at this place in the life of our Country.” Like a tattoo from a summer which seemed like “an awesome idea” at the time. This group nostalgia and identity is the most beautiful and most difficult part of Public Architecture.

* totally a real quote, like, for real.