FEDERAL ARCHITECTURE NEVER GOES OUT OF STYLE

KNOWN AS REGENCY IN THE U.K., THIS CLASSIC STYLE EMPHASIZES THE ART OF UNDERSTATEMENT

Timeless, versatile, and possessed of an austere elegance, Federal architecture is America’s national style.

From the White House to George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello to the classical government buildings and domed statehouses throughout the country, Federal architecture, which arose in the 1780s around the time the American Revolution ended, has never gone out of style.

Also called Adamesque or Regency architecture, it was the prime style in the newly liberated colonies until about 1830. Based on the works of Andrea Palladio, the groundbreaking Italian Renaissance architect who espoused the principles of Roman and Greek architecture, it remained in vogue in Britain during the same time period.

Characterized by plain surfaces and sublime symmetry, Federal-style buildings typically are square or rectangular in shape and feature large Palladian or Serliana windows. Two to three stories high and two rooms deep, with the exterior decoration concentrated around the front entrance, the style emphasizes the art of the understated.

In addition to geometrical decorations, such as fan, circular and elliptical motifs, Federal-style houses sometimes feature dormers, gables, cupolas, and multiple chimneys.

The building materials—clapboard, stone, cedar shingles, or brick—vary by geographical location.

“There are lots of ways to interpolate the style,” says architect Patrick Ahearn, whose eponymous firm, based in Boston, has built several Federal residences. “Although it started in New England, as the country grew, the style was transplanted to new places and carried across the country.”

A Regency-style house in the U.K.’s Hampshire, designed by ADAM Architecture.

ADAM Architecture/Photograph by Paul Highnam

Steve Klein, a certified residential specialist with Bluegrass Sotheby’s International Realty, says the Federal style fits in perfectly with the traditional designs of housing in Lexington and Central Kentucky. “The symmetry and predominant use of brick are a standard across the market,” he says. “The longevity of the design also keeps them in favor to buyers.”

Ahearn notes that as time went on, the style morphed and began incorporating elements from other, newer styles, creating hybrids.

“Today, it appeals to a wide audience,” he says. “We don’t, of course, build houses to be museums. We use the Federal style on the exterior and organize rooms around a spine, either from front to back or from left to right, to create an overall conservative theme. But we include indoor and outdoor spaces and porches and pergolas to fit a contemporary lifestyle.”

Stephen Chrisman, a partner with New York–based Ferguson & Shamamian Architects, says clients choose to build traditional new houses in the Federal style when it fits in with the community’s existing architecture.

Although the layout—a center hall with rooms that open

A living room with custom wood fireplace in a Federal-style house designed by Ferguson & Shamamian Architects, shown above; a new Federal-style house by Ferguson & Shamamian Architects, shown below.

A functional pantry/bar room in a Federal-style house designed by Ferguson & Shamamian Architects, shown at left. A red-brick Federal-style home in Lexington, Ky., shown below, is more than 8,000 square feet.

$1,875,000

Property ID: WWZL4F | sothebysrealty.com Bluegrass Sotheby’s International Realty

And, he adds, the elegant, ample rooms and high ceilings remain desirable features nearly 250 years later.

“We try to make the ceiling heights and well-proportioned rooms as generous as possible, and we often put a kitchen and family room in the best position in the house, whereas earlier houses would have put the drawing room and dining room in the best position,” he says. “And our houses incorporate the latest technology, much of which these days is wireless and invisible so that it does not detract from the architecture.”

Saumarez Smith, who built a compact villa in the Regency style in rural New Hampshire, which the owners furnished with antique and Mid-Century Modern furniture and decorated with bold color on the walls, says the style is particularly appropriate for residences in the countryside: “The architects of the Regency period understood that the soft colors of natural stone and lime render tended to work better in natural surroundings than visually harsher materials like red brick.”

on each side of it—and architectural character aren’t modified, the functions of the rooms are altered in order to accommodate the needs of 21st-century residents.

“When the style was introduced, kitchens were small and closed off at the back of the house or in the basement,” he says. “People today want a more open plan that sites the kitchen close to the family room and dining room.”

He adds that wings, either on the back or on each side of the residence, are sometimes added to house these rooms, making the house look as though it evolved over time.

For a client in Greenwich, Connecticut’s chic Belle Haven neighborhood, Ferguson & Shamamian designed a white clapboard Federal-style house that’s a symphony in symmetry.

Its simple facade is defined by a gabled main block, a projecting center bay window, wood quoins on the corners that emulate stone, a cupola, end chimneys with see-through arches, and a widow’s walk that has a Chippendalestyle railing. There also is a wing on each side and a long projecting one on the back that houses the kitchen and family room, which open to a terrace and garden. “From the street, it looks like an old house,” he says, “because it fits so well into the neighborhood.”

The Federal style is equally at home in the U.K., where it reigns as Regency.

George Saumarez Smith, director of ADAM Architecture, based in Hampshire, England, says the style is eminently adaptable because “many of its themes, such as bringing plenty of natural light into rooms, forming a strong connection with gardens and landscapes, and the strong use of color, seem to have a resonance with the modern world.”