Stanford White’s surfaces

Michael Lewis | The New Criterion | 1st December 2020

Lovely appreciation of Stanford White, the American architect. High Victorian buildings of the 1860s – 70s emphasised their structural components. White, in contrast, bestowed on his buildings an “elegant repose”. Visible structural elements were merely “playful garnishes”. White’s buildings were “nothing more than an assembly of surfaces, waiting to be gorgeously painted … the most beautiful architectural surfaces that America has created.”