Harrie T. Lindeberg And The American Country House

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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.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.