Editing Benjamin Henry Latrobe (section)

==Architecture==

===Influences===
[[File:Latrobe-Walter-LoC-mosaic.JPG|upright|thumb|For his architectural accomplishments, Benjamin Latrobe is honored, together with [[Thomas U. Walter]], in a ceiling mosaic in the East Mosaic Corridor at the entrance to the Main Reading Room of the [[Library of Congress]].]]
While studying in Germany, Latrobe was mentored by Baron Karl von Schachmann, a classical scholar interested in art and collecting. Around 1783, Latrobe made the decision to become an architect, a decision influenced by the baron.<ref>{{harvnb|Hamlin|1955|p=15}}</ref> While Latrobe was in Germany, a new architectural movement, led by [[Carl Gotthard Langhans]] and others, was emerging with return to more [[Classical architecture|Classical]] or [[Vitruvian]] designs.<ref>{{harvnb|Hamlin|1955|p=35}}</ref>

In 1784, Latrobe set off on a [[Grand Tour]] around Europe, visiting Paris where the [[Panthéon (Paris)|Panthéon]], a church dedicated to St. [[Genevieve]], was nearing completion. The Panthéon in Paris, designed by [[Jacques Germain Soufflot]] and [[Jean-Baptiste Rondelet]], represented an early example of [[Neoclassicism]]. At that time, [[Claude Nicolas Ledoux]] was designing numerous houses in France, in Neoclassical style. Latrobe also visited [[Rome]], where he was impressed by the [[Pantheon, Rome|Roman Pantheon]] and other ancient structures with Greek influence.<ref>{{harvnb|Hamlin|1955|p=36}}</ref> Influential architects in Britain, at the time when Latrobe returned in 1784, adhered to a number of different styles. [[William Chambers (architect)|Sir William Chambers]] was at the forefront, designing in [[Palladian architecture|Palladianism]] style, while Chambers' rival, [[Robert Adam]]'s designs had Roman influence, in a style known as [[Adam style]]. Latrobe was not interested in either the Palladian nor Adam style, but Neoclassicalism also was being introduced to Great Britain at the time by [[George Dance the Younger]]. Other British architects, including [[John Soane]] and [[Henry Holland (architect)|Henry Holland]], also designed in the Neoclassical style while Latrobe was in London.<ref>{{harvnb|Hamlin|1955|pp=35–40}}</ref>

During his European tour, Latrobe gathered ideas on how American cities should be designed. He suggested [[city block]]s be laid out as thin rectangles, with the long side of the blocks oriented east–west so that as many houses as possible could face south. For a city to succeed, he thought it needed to be established only in places with good prospects for commerce and industrial growth, and with a good water supply.

Public health was another key consideration of Latrobe, who believed that the eastern shores of rivers were unhealthy, due to prevailing direction of the wind, and recommended cities be built on the western shores of rivers.<ref name="carter-p136">{{harvnb|Carter|1972|p=136}}</ref>

===Greek Revival in America===
Latrobe brought from England influences of British Neoclassicism, and was able to combine it with styles introduced by Thomas Jefferson, to devise an American Greek Revival style. [[John Summerson]] described the Bank of Pennsylvania, as an example of how Latrobe "married English Neo-Classicism to Jeffersonian Neo-Classicism [and] ... from that moment, the classical revival in America took on a national form".<ref name="crook77">{{Harvnb|Crook|1972|p=77}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Summerson|1993|pp=522–527}}</ref> The American form of Greek Revival architecture that Latrobe developed became associated with political ideals of [[democracy]]—a meaning that was less apparent in Britain.<ref name="crook77"/> The direct link between the Greek Revival architecture and American democracy has been disputed by recent scholars such as W. Barksdale Maynard, who sees the Greek Revival as an international phenomenon.<ref>W. Barksdale Maynard, "The Greek Revival: Americanness, politics, and economics," in Eggener, ''American Architectural History: A Contemporary Reader'', 2004.</ref>