Las Catalinas, Costa Rica, where Architecture of Place participant Sara Bega served as Town Architect. | | |
July 9, 2025
The ICAA is a nonprofit educational organization committed to promoting and preserving the practice, understanding, and appreciation of traditional design.
This edition of World of Classicism is sponsored by Haddonstone.
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ARTICLES & VIDEOS: NEW THIS ISSUE
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The Architecture of Place: In Conversation with... is a series of interviews between design practitioners, scholars, and educators. The latest iteration of the series, from February 2025, features conversations with artist Minty Sainsbury, architect and artist Safoura Zahedi, and architect and educator Sara Bega.
In this installment of the winter 2024-2025 Architecture of Place series, American architect, urbanist, and educator Sara Bega discusses her career and the role of place-making in her architectural practice with architect and artist Safoura Zahedi.
Sara Bega’s work is dedicated to the creation of enduring built environments that celebrate valued traditions and cultures. Bega is former Town Architect of Las Catalinas, a hilltown on Costa Rica’s Guanacaste coast. For over a decade she led architectural and urban design efforts, developing strategies for car-free urbanism filled with vernacular architecture. Throughout her tenure, Bega’s design work focused on fabric buildings, public spaces, and micro-phased neighborhood plans. Las Catalinas received a CNU Charter Award (2022) and Urban Guild Design Excellence Awards (2020).
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Presented as part of The Richard H. Driehaus Curricula for the Built Environment at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA is very grateful to The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation for its generous support of this program.
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On April 15, 2025, the ICAA was pleased to welcome Robert Balentine, founder of Southern Highlands Reserve, for a talk about the high-elevation native plant arboretum and research center in western North Carolina. In his presentation, Robert tells the story of how this mountain oasis came to be, through his vision, with his wife, Betty, to preserve the incredible biodiversity of 120 acres destined for residential development.
Robert Balentine is an inveterate, dirt-under-the-fingernails gardener with a rosarian as his father and a Garden Club of America horticulture judge as his mother. His love of the natural world developed at an early age—years spent hiking and camping as an Eagle Scout made him especially keen about the flora and fauna of the Southern Appalachian highlands. In 2002, Robert and his wife, Betty, founded the Southern Highlands Reserve, a nationally recognized native plant arboretum and research center in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina.
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Brought to you by the Bunny Mellon Curricula at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA is very grateful to the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation for its generous support of this program, along with the Bunny Mellon Curricula Sponsors:
Lead Sponsor: Hollander Design Landscape Architects
Continuing Education and Public Programs Sponsor: Charlotte Moss
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For nearly three centuries, Savannah, Georgia has been admired for its ideal town plan and its exceptional architecture. Savannah’s plan is extraordinary for many reasons, but principally for how it has adapted to changing circumstances while maintaining its essential ideality. Savannah’s architecture is, in many ways, a product of the town plan as it too has adapted over time. This seminar explores the evolving dialogue between urbanism and architecture that continues to make Savannah a rewarding case study for architects and urbanists today.
Watch this two-part series, hosted by David Gobel, Professor of Architectural History at the Savannah College of Art and Design, which thoroughly explores the history and legacy of Savannah's urban development.
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| | ARTICLES & VIDEOS: PREVIOUS ISSUE | | |
At the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), we are saddened by the news of the sudden passing of Léon Krier, an extraordinary architect, urban planner, and theorist whose work expressed his conviction that the language of classical and traditional architecture and design held the answers to creating towns, cities, and communities that were enduring, sustainable, and beautiful. The ICAA was honored to recognize his extraordinary career achievements, bestowing on him the Arthur Ross Award in 2015. In 2003, he was the first laureate of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize in Architecture, awarded by the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture.
ICAA Board Chair Melissa DelVecchio, architectural historian and journalist Clive Aslet, and architect and urban planner Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk offer their rememberances of Léon Krier's transformative career.
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In this installment of the winter 2024-2025 Architecture of Place series, Canadian architect, artist, and educator Safoura Zahedi discusses her career and the role of architecture and sense of place in her practice with artist Minty Sainsbury.
Safoura Zahedi is an architect, artist, and educator based in Toronto, Canada. Her interdisciplinary creative practice combines art and architecture, craft and technology, spirituality and materiality, with a focus on using geometry as a spiritual design tool to create spatial experiences that expand perspectives and inspire connection.
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Presented as part of The Richard H. Driehaus Curricula for the Built Environment at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA is very grateful to The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation for its generous support of this program.
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The Preservation Society of Newport County has opened a new special exhibition, Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light, on display at the Rosecliff Mansion from May 30 - November 2, 2025. The exhibit, curated by Leslie B. Jones, explores the life and work of the prolific Gilded Age architect, whose work in New York, Rhode Island, and across the country significantly influenced American architecture. The ICAA is pleased to loan three objects from our Cast Collection to the Preservation Society as part of this exhibit, showcasing the importance of plaster casts as a tool of study for architects and artists in the 19th century as well as emphasizing the relationship between Hunt and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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DUE TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP?
If your membership is due for renewal, or if you would like to join and support the ICAA, you can do so on our website.
By renewing today, you will remain connected to the ICAA’s diverse programming, publications, and community, while also supporting our educational programs and courses, lectures, workshops, scholarships, and more.
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An Evening with Marie Flanigan
July 31, 2025
Rocky Mountain Chapter
Join the ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter for an evening with Marie Flanigan, author of The Perfect Room: Timeless Designs for Intentional Living by Marie Flanigan—an exquisite exploration into the artistry of interior design.
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| | | FEATURED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM | | |
SEPTEMBER 25 -
SEPTEMBER 28
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JANUARY 4 -
JANUARY 15
2026
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