The Embassy of Greece

Within its series of events on Greek Architecture

presents

“Washington, D.C. and the Legacy of Ancient Greek Architecture”

A lecture by G. Martin Moeller, Jr.

Senior Vice President and Curator, National Building Museum

and Author: The American Institute of Architects AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C., Fourth Edition

Thursday, June 7, 2007

6:30-8:30 p.m.

Embassy of Greece

2217 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.

Washington, DC 20008

Washington, like most major cities in Europe and the Americas, owes much of its architectural heritage to classical antiquity.  Just as early Greek and Latin provided the foundations for modern western languages, so, too, did the ancient Greeks and Romans establish the basis for an architectural language that continues to be influential today. 

In this lecture, the legacy of ancient Greek architecture in Washington, D.C. will be traced, including important examples of the Greek Revival style and other historic structures, as well as some strikingly modern buildings whose debt to ancient Greece may be less obvious. 

Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “design activity and political thought are indivisible.”  He believed that architecture was an important vehicle for expressing political ideals, and he worked to ensure that Washington, as the seat of the American democracy, would become a city of stately and sophisticated buildings based on classical precedents. 

Martin Moeller is the author of the fourth edition of the AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, DC, which was published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in November 2006.  A limited number of copies will be available for sale at $20.00 each (cash or check only).

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