H.H. Richardson and His Office: Selected Drawings

Many scholars consider Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) to have been America's preeminent Victorian architect. His Brookline office was in fact one of this country's first large and influential working studios, including Stanford White and Charles F. McKim among the many architects who received their first training under Richardson. This beautifully produced and skillfully organized book documents an exhibition of drawings selected from the collection of Harvard's Houghton Library. The drawings are from Richardson's Brookline office and represent the years of his mature period when he produced almost all of his major designs, to his death. These are supplemented by photographs, many contemporary with the completed projects and showing them as they were. James F. O'Gorman, the leading Richardson historian of his generation, has written an introductory essay, "The Making of a 'Richardson Building,' 1874-1886," which shows how the transformation from casual sketch to completed building took place. O'Gorman brings to life the complex interaction of design talent, social contacts, and enduring working relationships with gifted associates that were necessary to bring Richardson's architectural ideas to fruition. Originally published in 1974 by David Godine and Harvard College Library, O'Gorman's catalogue has come to be accepted as a primary source of insight and information on the design process, Richardson's genius, and the social and historical context of his professional life.