Scarcely a year has elapsed between the printing of volumes one and two of New Classicists: Ken Tate Architect. In that time, the already renowned Mr. Tate has become recognized as one of the precious few: a tastemaker whose judgements and innovations are emulated worldwide. Volume one is being used as a style-source for traditionalists, and has been acquired by college libraries on all parts of the globe.
New Classicists is a series by The images Publishing Group, focusing on internationally renowned architect, whose bodies of work are propelling ancient building traditions into the future. New Classicists: Ken The Architect, Volume Two continues with more of Tate’s splendid residential projects.
Beginning in the 1970s, Tate, who despite rigorous formal training considers himself largely self-taught, has developed a broad and inclusive approach to classical and traditional design. It has been said that no prominent classicist architect of our age commands a broader stylistic range than does ken Tate. The volumes of this series devoted to his work certainly support that assertion.
This volume begins with a quintessentially French synthesis of vernacular and neoclassical elements, expressed in a lakeside urban villa. Next, we see the American Federal style, softy interpreted for an established neighborhood in the Deep South. Similar attention to setting is evidenced in Tate’s shaping of a Creole residence set within a heavily wooded in-town enclave, a Palladian villa on Ocean Drive, and a Mississippi vernacular weekend house in an area of equestrian estates. A common thread running through these five residences is the erudition of their owners. Whether in hiring the best arborists and native plant specialists, or in encouraging their interior designers to reach new heights of chic or refinement, Tate’s clients tend to be cognoscenti. The owners’ contributions as aesthetes are crucial element in elevating these residences to the realm of the sublime.
Over the last two decades, Ken Tate has successfully completed more than sixty built projects throughout the USA. His work has appeared regularly in magazines, books, television, and scholarly periodicals. More important his contributions to the classical tradition have created a watershed effect, transforming expectations for residential architecture in the Deep South, and, increasingly, worldwide. Tate’s practice is based in an Edwardian mansion, set within its own park-like city block near New Orleans, Louisiana.