2024-11-08T12:00:48-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150122685/the-competition-to-build-the-president-s-house-judged-by-george-washington Nam Henderson 2019-02-20T01:01:00-05:00 >2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/15/15bfed4c3d7411ac1ed5e73fa72347a1.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Washington oversaw construction of the house while serving his two terms as president in New York and Philadelphia. He insisted that the President&rsquo;s House be built of stone and embellished with extensive stone ornamentation...Washington requested alterations to the original design, adding the distinctive rose and acorn carved stone embellishments and cutting the building&rsquo;s height.</p></em><br /><br /><figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/6a/6a88d3903aef4a0d291be36d85d83fd8.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1028" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/6a/6a88d3903aef4a0d291be36d85d83fd8.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=514"></a></p><figcaption>The gutted interior of the White House, May 1950Abbie Rowe - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration </figcaption></figure><p>Noel Grove, William B. Bushong and Joel D. Treese take us back to 1792, when James Hoban (born in Ireland) became the architect of the President's House. They also explore how the original design changed over the years, shaped first by feedback from the original client, later by Jefferson appointed architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. More famous and comprehensive (if only for the B&amp;W photos of a gutted interior) was of course the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Reconstruction" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Truman Reconstruction</a>.<br></p>