Blogs & Editorials

We're back at it, planning this year's Traditional Building Conference Series, hoping you will join us. Our first event in the Series takes place May 10-11, 2023 in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Concrete is the most widely used building product in the world. Given the scale of this industry, it is not surprising that the APT Building Technology Heritage Library (BTHL) contains many listings for concrete products, construction techniques, equipment and designs.

Histories of architecture present past buildings as deficient preludes to Modernism’s successes. This misstates the buildings’ most important role, which is to become architecture offering the beautiful as the counterpart to its service to the common good, roles that only traditional buildings can fulfill.

The National Association of Realtors' “2022 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers” provides interesting insight about the people most likely to remodel their homes. Like much of the research we read, our observations are validated.

The fireplace has a unique place in design history, an obsolete technology that has an enduring grasp on our warmth, comfort and well-being.

Get Out There and Look at Some Buildings!

A building is more than a mere functional apparatus. Its form points to its role in the civil life, and when it belongs to the traditions that guide the pursuit of the common good it facilitatesthe individual’s pursuit of happiness.

AIA and NAHB Forecast Remodeling Market Buoyancy.

It’s all about the roof. The APT Building Technology Heritage Library contains more than 600 documents under the subject of roofing, which also includes accessories such as gutters, downspouts and flashing.

On the north shore of Martha’s Vineyard, a Massachusetts island founded in the 1600s, where the Roaring Brook meets the Vineyard Sound, there are the remains of a historic brickyard.

Modernism has excluded traditional and classical architecture from it role of offering beauty to serve and express our civil order’s quest to guarantee liberty and justice to all. How might we restore it to that role?

Experiencing a Historic House and Garden in the 21st Century

A view of classical architecture, from the perspective of the commercial fabricator rather than the architectural designer.

Walk down almost any street in the “Windy City” and you’ll see why Chicago has an architectural legacy as proud as any city in America, a fitting location for this year’s annual American Institute of Architects annual convention.

Should We Count on It?

A rare glimpse inside the newly renovated Mormon Temple in Washington, DC.

The most prominent use of architectural terra cotta was that of a decorative cladding system, particularly for urban commercial buildings.

While we frequently consider what comes under the definition of classicism, few have crystallized what it means.

The current history of architecture undermines architecture’s essential role in serving the common good and offering beauty. Here I will discuss this history’s deficiencies, and in my next opinion piece I will offer an alternative to it.

Does preservation architecture and traditional building design attract a disproportionate number of female professionals?

Stone is one of the world’s most common and durable building material.

Ninety years ago European Modernism was introduced to America by a landmark exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. It challenged traditional architecture and soon replaced it with Modernism, an architecture that betrays architecture’s responsibility to contribute to the common good.

Palladio Thought of It First