Richard Morris Hunt (MIT Press)

The definitive biography of the man who established architecture as a profession in the United States.

Richard Morris Hunt is the definitive biography of the man who was widely regarded by his contemporaries as the dean of American architects and who was a seminal figure in establishing architecture as a profession in the United States. Covering all of Hunt's major commissions -- including his famous fifth Avenue mansions and Newport "cottages" -- the book provides a fresh look at the artistic achievements of America's Gilded Age. Paul Baker's reassessment of Hunt's works naturally covers his most famous buildings, such as The Breakers and Marble House in Newport, Biltmore House in North Carolina, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the base for the Statue of Liberty. But it also reveals Hunt's designs for houses on a more intimate scale, public buildings and monuments, and commercial structures.