The Tamesis
Architecture and Design
[–>
Tuscan
‘I think of it as the linebacker of columns: broad, tough and strong,’ says Schafer, 63, the New York-based founder of the architecture firm Schafer & Company.
Invented: Etruscan era (8th-3rd century B.C.), central Italy; formalized in the 1st century B.C. in Rome; and further codified in the 16th century A.D.
Prominent examples: Andrea Palladio’s Classical villas of the Veneto (1540s-70s) in northeastern Italy; Poplar Forest (1806-26), Thomas Jefferson’s home in Forest, Va.
Doric
‘If Tuscan is the linebacker, Doric is Tom Brady.’
Invented: 7th-6th century B.C., ancient Greece.
Prominent examples: The Parthenon (447-32 B.C.) in Athens; the Temple of Hephaestus (449-15 B.C.), also in Athens.
Ionic
‘The quiet luxury of columns.’
Invented: 6th century B.C., ancient Greece.
Prominent examples: The British Museum (1759) in London; the White House (1800) in Washington.
Corinthian
‘If Ionic is the debutante, Corinthian is the supermodel with big hair.’
Invented: Late 5th-4th century B.C., ancient Greece.
Prominent examples: The New York Public Library (1911); the Palace of Fine Arts (1915) in San Francisco.
Composite
‘If Ionic and Corinthian had a baby.’
Invented: 1st century A.D., Italy.
Prominent examples: Arch of Titus (A.D. 81-82) in Rome; the Winter Palace (1762) in St. Petersburg, Russia.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
More in Architecture and Design
[-1–>[0–>See the rest of the issue
