Who was Henry Hobson Richardson?
Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA, was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one of "the recognised trinity of American architecture".
Life and work
Henry Richardson was born at the Priestley Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and spent some of his childhood in New Orleans, where his family lived on Julia Row in a red brick house designed by the architect Alexander T. Wood. He studied at Harvard College and Tulane University, where he was initially interested in civil engineering, but shifted to architecture.
Richardson died in 1886 at age 47 of Bright's disease, and was buried in Walnut Hills Cemetery, Brookline, Massachusetts.
The only example of Richardsons work in Europe was the exterior design of a Romanesque Revival-style house and studio of the Bavarian-born British artist Hubert von Herkomer, in Melbourne Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire (Lululaund). It was designed from a sketch by Richardson about 1886 and completed by 1894. The house was demolished in 1939. This design was an influence on the work of English architect Charles Harrison Townsend.