2010 Bulfinch Awards

Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, New England Chapter—State House, Boston (November 1–5, 2010)

By Frank Shirley AIA

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The 2010 Bulfinch Awards are the ICA&CA’s first attempt to celebrate the classical tradition in architecture. Sixteen projects, mainly residential, were recognized. Big carried the day, with residences ranging from 5,500 to 30,000 square feet. The behemoths marched over their sites with an “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” air.

Still, there were gems. Ivan Bereznicki’s orangerie-like “Pavilion” house is a disciplined exercise in classicism. The “Champlain’s Bluff” house by Polhemus Savery DaSilva presents a human scale to arriving guests. The S/L/A/M Collaborative’s Church of the Sacred Heart introduces new ideas of ecclesiastical architecture with a traditional vocabulary. And Keith LeBlanc’s landscape for the Lowder Brook house is a marvel of refinement.

The Bulfinch Awards program deserves applause for promoting historical precedent in architecture. But for the standing ovation that surely awaits, it must recognize more projects that embrace proper scale, siting, and the use of regional materials.

Frank Shirley AIA is an architect in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the author of New Rooms for Old Houses: Beautiful Additions for the Traditional Home (Taunton Press, 2007).

Above: Greek Revival residence by Dell Mitchell Architects. Photo © 2008 Richard Mandelkorn.