The Principle of Traditional Architecture

The proper practice of Traditional Architecture embraces the best of all ages and styles in a timeless, unbroken chain of lasting beauty and utility. Tradition is necessarily modern and innovative. Only when grounded in historic precedent can architecture intelligently propose and project the future.

What are we striving to do?

We are striving to exercise our talents to achieve works of excellence that fully participate in the ongoing development of Tradition. This embrace of history inspires our work, and we labor in the vineyard with Iktinos, Kallikrates, Vitruvius, Suger, Brunelleschi, Alberti, Michelangelo, Bramante, Borromini, Bernini, Palladio, Jefferson, Latrobe, Bacon, Richardson, Sullivan, Lutyens, McKim, Cram, and Greenberg.

How do we work with clients?

McCrery Architects want clients who desire to be intimately involved in their projects. Excellent architecture embraces the client’s vision and delivers it much further into the realms of beauty and goodness. Together client and architect develop such a familiarity with the design that in the end, the client’s only surprise is how beautiful the result is.

How do we think about materials and construction?

They don’t build them like they used to. In fact, we build them better. Our approach to Tradition in construction is identical to our approach to Tradition in architecture: there is much to be retained from four millennia of building, and much to be taken from contemporary building technologies. Being good Traditionalists, we embrace them all.

How do we work with builders?

McCrery Architects advocates a truly collaborative approach to design and construction. Our office’s policy is that each of our buildings is built twice: first in our office in drawing form and then on site. Contractor and architect are mutually involved in both efforts. During design and construction, our watchwords are “Get it Right”. This ensures a readily buildable design and directs the client’s resources toward a truly excellent result.

Why should clients commission excellent buildings?

“We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us.”
— Sir Winston Churchill’s remarks made in commissioning the reconstruction of the Houses of Parliament destroyed in World War II.

This oft-repeated aphorism deserves careful consideration, for unlike all the other arts, architecture is unavoidable. Good buildings make for good settings, good settings foster good thoughts and works, good thoughts and works accumulate to a better-formed society. This is why excellent architecture is critical. It is why McCrery Architects strive for excellence, and why clients should aspire to excellence when commissioning their buildings from the outset.