The Classical is the foundation of Western Civilization.

We study the Classics, the surviving literature of Greco-Roman Antiquity, because they address the fundamental issues of our Humanity. We return to Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil and Ovid because we continue to learn from them, because their universal themes of life and death, love and hate, peace and war, honor and truth remain relevant today. Our forbearers grappled with their humanity, as we grapple with our own.

The sole surviving text devoted to Architecture from Classical Antiquity, is Vitruvius’ De Architectura, or The Ten Books of Architecture.  Vitruvius describes the means of building in classical Rome, including a system of architectural composition and proportion derived from the Greeks.

So, what do we mean when we describe the Classical in architecture?  Sir John Summerson, describes the fundamental elements that make a building “Classical”:

First:   Symmetry, either as the large scale bilateral symmetry evidenced by the human form, or as the more subtle Vitruvian theory of the harmony of the parts and their relationship to the whole.

Second:  Hierarchy, by expressing the importance of the primary spaces in a building so that their use corresponds to its architectural form.

Third:  that the building explicitly or implicitly exhibits the proportioning system of the classical orders 

These orders, the architectural language of Greco-Roman antiquity, described by Vitruvius, reborn during the Renaissance, embellished by the Baroque, rationalized by Neoclassicism and codified during the Beaux Arts, live on, and their continued use connects us back not just to the our Classical foundations in Greece and Rome, but through the ages of Western History.

Vitruvius’ most well known claim is that “Good Building fulfills three conditions, firmitas, utilitas, and venustas.   According to the 1624 translation by Sir Henry Wooten, these are commodity, firmness and delight.  It goes without saying, that all buildings should embrace the first two criteria.  In fact, mere competence of the builder’s craft should satisfy them: a building must stand up and be useful. 

The third criterion, Beauty, is what we honor here tonight.

But are not all design awards about Beauty?  Is Beauty subjective, or is it objective? 

We live in an age of relativism.  Our current culture espouses the belief that beauty, like reality and truth, is subjective. This relativism is the legacy of Modernism.  Le Corbusier, Gropius and Meies removed beauty from the conversation about Architecture just as Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, removed beauty from the conversation in Music.

The Modern Movement explicitly is NOT about beauty. The seminal texts of Modernism, Le Corbusiers’s Toward a New Architecture, and Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, claim to describe the end of History, the end of Beauty, and the death of human-scaled classicism for the technology driven rule of the machine.

Vitruvius claims that beauty is objective, that there are strict criteria describing beauty that a building should fulfill, rooted in rhythm and proportion, and rules of composition and ornament. Modernism was relatively successful in its attempt to obliterate the Classical.  Beaux Arts training was banished from the academies, collections of classical art and casts were discarded, or worse, destroyed. Knowledge and tradition centuries in the making, was nearly lost. And yet the threads of history and tradition survived, hidden from the mainstream and ignored by the architectural press and schools. 

One curator of this tradition was Classical America, one of the parent organizations of the ICAA, which under the stewardship of Henry Hope Reed, celebrated the great buildings of the American Renaissance, and championed the few surviving classical American architects, John Barrington Bailey, Alvin Holm, John Blatteau and Allen Greenberg.

Many of us here are now in the middle years of our practice, for architecture, as we were told as students, is an “old person’s profession”.  But when we were students during the 70’s and 80’s, we had front row seats to heated conversations about the “Presence of the Past” in architecture.  Reexamination of traditional forms opened our eyes to history as a legitimate precedent for our own work.  But many of the results of the Post Modern era seemed to us glib and uninformed. We wanted deeper truths and collectively, we traveled the path toward a new authenticity.  
But our paths diverged.  The majority returned to the forms of the Modern Movement, giving rise to Neo-modernism, a historicist collage of the forms of early 20th Century Socialist worker’s housing in celebration of finance and the Information Age. The minority followed an academic disinterment of the Western Tradition. We taught one other what we had learned of the long-forgotten classical cannon: the books, the forms, the theory and the techniques discarded by previous generations. 

This younger generation of emerging classicists, coalescing during the early 90’s in the offices their Classical America forbearers embraced an activist streak.  They conceived of our other parent organization, Institute for the Study of Classical Architecture with the purpose of resurrecting not just classical forms, but the academic tradition at its heart.

So, we ask the question again, “Why Classical?”

We are faced with a myriad of possibilities in the contemporary age. Technology has given us the capability of creating unbelievable virtual worlds that defy the laws of nature. Technology has also given us the capability of creating real places that seemingly defy these very same laws. We must remember that we build not just for ourselves, but in this fragile time of diminishing resources, for many future generations as well. 

There are those who claim that traditional architecture replicates the past and that we must build in a contemporary style. In an age of unlimited possibilities, all styles are contemporary.  Any language I choose now is contemporary. Architecture and building need to be more than mere fashion if they are to be permanent.   As Stephen Semes has so eloquently put it, it is more important to build like the place we are in than like the time we are in. There is no one style unique to our time, but we can collectively understand the deep rooted truths of a place as evidenced by form, scale and materials that underscore the continued relevance of the Classical.

Given the choice between Modernism on one hand, the machine-aged architecture of constantly changing fashion enabled by technology, and Classicism on the other, the architecture of Humanism, Reason and Democracy, enabled by craft and expressing the human spirit…

We choose the Classical.

We choose the human.

Eric Daum was awarded a 2022 Bulfinch Award for Stewardship by the New England Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, at the Harvard Club in Boston, on October 29th.  Daum served as the inaugural President of the chapter from 2005-2009 and has sat on the board since 2005.

Eric Daum's lecture on Swedish architect Martin Hedmarkfor the New England Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art is available for viewing online.

On Tuesday, April 20th, Eric Inman Daum will deliver his lecture on Swedish Architect Martin Hedmark.  The talk was originally scheduled for Design Week Boston in conjunction with the Scandinavian Cultural Center in Newton for April 2020 but was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.   The talk will be given via Zoom, and a recording of the talk will be available in the future through the ICAA.  The talk is free, though registration is required. See the link below.

Martin Hedmark was a young Swedish architect who came to the United States in late 1924 to launch his career, primarily as an ecclesiastical architect for Swedish congregations and cultural institutions in America. His first commission was for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Providence. This unique building is an expression of two distinct early 20th Century Nordic architectural styles, the first, National Romantism was being supplanted by the second, Nordic Classicism, or Swedish Grace, around the time that Hedmark emigrated to the U.S. The lecture  will explore in depth Hedmark’s designs for Gloria Dei and touch upon other projects in New York, Worcester, Philadelphia and suburban New Jersey.

Eric Inman Daum served as a juror for the Palladio Awards in 2021.  The Palladio Awards, held annually, recognize outstanding work in traditional design in commercial, institutional,  public, and residential architecture categories. "All winners enhance the beauty and humane qualities of the built environment through creative interpretation and adaptation of design principles developed through thousands of years of architectural tradition."

The jury, including Barbara Eberlein and David Andreozzi, met virtually on March 25th to select the outstanding projects in the the many residential categories.  This marked Mr. Daum's third appearence as a Palladio Awards juror, having previously served in 2015 and 2019.

The upcoming news alluded to in an earlier post is that Eric Daum has joined the award-winning firm of Carpenter & MacNeille.  Eric will serve in the role of Design Director of C&M's Wellesley office and is delighted to have this opportunity to join a number of old colleagues in a new venture.  The Office of Eric Inman Daum Architect will continue to maintain a small presence in Andover in order to wrap up outstanding projects and continue research and writing on the career of Martin Hedmark..

Carpenter & MacNeille

Eric Inman Daum's Private Chapel received a 2020 Tucker Design Award from the Natural Stone Institute during an online ceremony on August 18, 2020.  The project was nominated by NSI member Kenneth Castellucci and Associates and also recognized the the contribution of fellow NSI member Coldspring.

Tucker Design Awards

Tucker Design Award Video Clip

Beginning with Governor Baker's Stay at Home Order in March in reaction to the Covid-19 crisis, Eric relocated his office to his home. In the interim, the lovely Georgian Revival building in Shawsheen Village where the office has been located has been sold and will be converted into apartments.  As of mid-June 2020, the office of Eric Inman Daum Architect, LLC has been moved to a new space in Downtown Andover at 11 Main Street.  Begininng July 6th, there will be more news.  Stay tuned...

Eric Daum was scheduled to speak at the Scandinavian Cultural Center in Newton, Massachusetts on April 2nd about the American work of Swedish Architect Martin Hedmark.  Hedmark came to the United States in late 1924 and his first American project was the completion of the design for Gloria Dei Evangelical Lutheran Church in Providence, Rhode Island.  This building displays many direct quotes from then contemporary National Romantic and Nordic Classical buildings in Sweden and the other Nordic nations.  In late February, Eric was able to visit Hedmark's projects in New York City, Northern New Jersey, and Philadelphia.  The lecture will be rescheduled for a time when it is safe to gather again.   In the meantime, please be safe and isolate, and enjoy the images below.

My wife and I took a trip to Berlin and Vienna in November and Architectural Critic David Brussat kindly posted my thoughts about our trip on his Blog, Architecture Here and There.

Daum: Four Days in Berlin