Contemporary Classical Architecture Redefined

For award-winning classical architect Gil Schafer, finding ways to engage with the outdoors and make connections to landscape is essential to his practice, particularly following a global pandemic that restrained freedom and made people more dependent on technology.

Schafer explains his approach in the opening of his latest book, Home at Last: Enduring Design for the New American House (Rizzoli, 2024), where he presents natural scenery as a key theme of his work designing “homes that benefit from a sense of place, that explode the boundaries between inside and outside, and that form natural enclaves of privacy and peace.”

Widely regarded as one of America’s foremost authorities on contemporary classical architecture, Schafer’s elegant creations often grace the pages of leading publications like Architectural Digest. As the grandson—and great-great-grandson—of architects, Schafer has the art of crafting beautiful buildings in his blood.
Following the precedent set in his previous bestsellers, The Great American House (2012) and A Place to Call Home (2017), his latest book Home at Last is the final installment of his trilogy with Rizzoli publishing house, which charts a string of standout projects over 20-plus years.

Alongside resplendent imagery of American residences, the book’s chapters brim with insightful meditations on Schafer’s journey as an architect.

A turn of the pages takes the reader on an inspiring architectural odyssey across the United States, from the windswept Rhode Island shores to the tropics of southern Florida. Yet it’s deep within the farm country of rural New York that one home proves to be particularly special.

Pastoral promise

In the chapter “English Speaking,” Schafer tells the tale of an “empty nester” couple who came to him with dreams of building a home in the heart of the Hudson Valley. The couple had lived around the world for many years, their most recent home being in Great Britain where they had built “a nest of happy memories and associations that they hoped to recreate in some way in their new setting,” as Schafer writes.

This pastoral plot in the Hudson Valley covered some 60 acres, shaped by hedgerows, meadows, and stone walls—presenting the very picture of British countryside. Schafer’s task was to fashion a retreat infused with the same English aesthetic that his clients loved while also respecting the American setting.

“Rather than simply landing an English house in Dutchess County—like Dorothy’s Kansas house in Oz—I wanted to knit together the aesthetic compatibilities between upstate New York and its British counterparts,” Schafer says.