Daniel D. Reiff, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of Visual Arts and New Media, is one of five speakers at a conference in honor of James Hoban, architect of the White House. The all-day conference, sponsored by the White House Historical Association, will be held on Thursday, March 13, at Decatur House on Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.
Dr Reiff's illustrated talk, "Hoban's White House and the Vernacular Tradition," will discuss the local architecture of Washington DC and Georgetown, of the period 1790-1810, as well as the origins and meaning of Hoban's two designs for the White House. Other speakers will explore the cultural and social context of Hoban's Washington, and his other architectural endeavors.
During the late 1960s Dr. Reiff did extensive survey work and research on Washington and Georgetown architecture. His book "Washington Architecture, 1791-1861: Problems in Development" was published in 1971 by the U. S. Commission of Fine Arts; it was reprinted in 1977.
Reiff's expertise included in American Architects and Their Books
Fredonia architect Enoch A. Curtis, who built extensively in Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania between 1867 and 1907, is featured in a recently published volume of “American Architects and Their Books, 1840-1915.” The chapter on Curtis, entitled, “At the Core of this Career: Enoch A. Curtis and Architectural Books,” was written by Dr. Reiff.
His illustrated essay is one of 12 in the book by noted scholars in the field of American architectural and cultural history. Dr. Reiff discusses Curtis’ use of pattern books in his designs for several building along Main Street in Fredonia, including the Putnam Brothers Store (1868-70), the Odd Fellows Building (1868-70), and the Day Building (1870).
“Although Curtis had recourse to published designs by other noted American architects,” said Dr. Reiff, “he reused these features in a personal and creative way to meet local needs, along with his own aesthetic vision.”
Oliver P. Smith, another 19th century architect who worked in Chautauqua County, published a pattern book in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1852, and is the subject of another of the study’s illustrated essays.
The book, published by the University of Massachusetts Press, is available through local bookstores.
