Featured today on Common \ Edge, a not-for-profit website dedicated to reconnecting architecture and design to the public, is Christine Huckins Franck’s essay in opposition to the recently signed executive order on federal architecture. Read more here or below.
Tag Archives: Classical Architecture
On Columns, Classicism, and Creativity
[This essay was originally published in Traditional Building, September 2019]
How should our buildings look today?
Why do we choose to make our buildings look one way and not another? How should our buildings look? Two different but related questions, the answers to which are many and difficult to tease apart, for architecture operates on many levels.
Today, many who regard themselves as classicists all too often answer “how should our buildings look” with a resounding: classically correct! This is understandable as 21st century classicism is still operating in recovery mode. The lacuna of what we simplistically call modernism nearly broke the chain of tradition preceding it. In this regard, we are not unlike our Renaissance predecessors.
Continue readingThe Architecture of Urbanism: Windows
I enjoyed presenting this brief lecture at the 24th Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) on the panel discussion “Architecture of Urbanism,” along with panelists Vinayak Bharne, Gary Brewer, Ellen Dunham-Jones, John Massengale, Steve Mouzon, Stefanos Polyzoides, Dan Solomon, Paddy Steinschneider, Galina Tachieva, and Samir Younés.
The panelists examined the specific means by which architecture, one building at a time, forms the urbanism of a place. The issue of the role of architecture and architectural style and character has been a long-running debate in the CNU.
The Congress for the New Urbanism is an international nonprofit organization working to build vibrant communities where people have diverse choices for how they live, work, and get around. For more information see www.cnu.org.
The ICAA: Its History, Mission, Vision, and Values
Recorded in Savannah, Georgia, this brief lecture, delivered to trustees of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, presents the history of the development of the ICAA over the years and its place in the larger context of architecture, urban design, landscape, decoration, construction, and the arts today.
N.B., as history is only as good as the historian, corrections and additions to this story are welcome by the author.
Place Matters: Tradition and the American West
“If you don’t know where you are, you can’t know who you are.” Wendell Berry
Christine G. H. Franck’s Lecture “Place Matters: Tradition and the American West” is now available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYhi3afgwG0.
Franck delivered this invited lecture in Madrid at the International Architecture and Humanism Seminar organized by the Rafael Manzano Martos Prize and the School of Architecture of the University of Notre Dame in collaboration with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio and supported by INTBAU Spain and the Centro de Investigación de la Arquitectura Tradicional ( CIAT ) and held at the Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid in October 2015.

Christine Huckins Franck’s Work Exhibited in London at the Royal Institute of British Architects
DENVER, Colorado (September 10, 2015) – Christine Huckins Franck, Director of the Center for Advanced Research in Traditional Architecture (CARTA) at the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning, is featured in a major international exhibit at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London. Continue reading
Listen in now to my podcast for the Art of Construction!
I enjoyed visiting with the team at Mountain View Windows and Doors to tape a podcast for their Art of Construction show! Click the image below to listen, or here: http://www.mtnview.us/#!show-25-with-christine-franck/c2432 -Thanks for the fun show, guys!
Christine
On this episode of THE ART OF CONSTRUCTION, we talk with Christine G. H. Franck, a designer, author and educator. She is also the director of the Center for Advanced Research in Traditional Architecture (CARTA) at the College of Architecture and Planning CU Denver. Her architectural focus provides a full range of services that are essential to holistic practice dedicated to improving the built environment. Join us and learn how Classical Architecture can help grow your business.
Declarations, Charters and Manifestos of Modern Classical and Traditional Architecture
Here below are links to different declarations, charters, manifestos and short treatises about modern classical and traditional architecture. Please advise me of others and I will add them to this list.
2013, A Treatise on Modern Architecture by George Saumarez Smith, RIBA: http://astore.amazon.com/christinefran-20/detail/1905622503
2010, What Makes a Building Classical by Dino Marcantonio: http://blog.marcantonioarchitects.com/what-makes-a-building-classical/
New Initiative on Traditional Architecture Offered at University of Colorado Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning
Christine G. H. Franck is appointed the first Director of Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives

Christine G. H. Franck
Denver (Sept. 26, 2013) – The University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning is proud to announce the college’s first-ever director of Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives. Award-winning designer, author and educator Christine G. H. Franck has been appointed the first Director.
Dean Mark Gelernter says “this new position will help pull together a number of programs and initiatives in our college around the theme of Enduring Places. This means designing buildings and places that can last longer by adapting to changes over time, rather than wastefully replacing them when functions or tastes change.” Enduring Places partners sustainability with historic preservation, and focuses renewed attention on how buildings in the past adapted more gracefully to change than many of our more recent buildings. This initiative will help today’s practitioners learn important lessons from our traditional settlement patterns, design languages and building practices. Continue reading
The Classicist’s Library: Recommended Readings in Architecture, Urbanism and Art

I am often asked which books should be read to learn about the history and practice of classical architecture. In an attempt to answer that question, I offer this list of essential books. Without doubt it is incomplete, as all pursuits of knowledge will always be. And it certainly reflects my own interests, as it is weighted to American architecture. Nonetheless, I hope you find it useful and please advise me of any errors or omissions.
Continue reading