Image from the debut episode of the new ICAA series, In the Making, featuring Michael Imber | | |
January 29, 2026
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 Flower Construction.
| | ARTICLES & VIDEOS: NEW THIS ISSUE | | |
In the Making spotlights the architects, designers, and artisans using historical precedent to address contemporary challenges. Each episode is a deep dive into a select project, revealing the unique history, environment, and human ingenuity that shaped the design process.
In the first episode, architect Michael Imber raises the curtain on his firm’s newly built project, a stone ranch house in West Texas. The design draws inspiration from the state’s rich history of the ranch house archetype, and combines influences from Mission-style colonial edifices, U.S. Cavalry frontier forts, and public parks constructed by the Works Progress Administration in the twentieth century. Michael leads viewers on a tour of the stunning result: a house hewn from local Texas stone and oak beams, like a fortress that commands a view of the formidable prairie landscape, but also offering its inhabitants a comforting place of respite.
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Each year, professionals, students, and enthusiasts of traditional design come together for the Intensive in Classical Architecture, an eight-day immersion in the ICAA’s classical design curriculum. The most recent session of the ICAA’s longest-running program took place January 10 – 17 and was hosted in the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen’s library—a larger space than the ICAA’s classroom—to meet the high level of interest in the program.
This year’s Intensive had a cohort of 30 participants, representing 14 states and Canada, and included professional architects, interior designers, and builders; an architecture professor; students in architecture, interior design, and urban planning; and non-professional enthusiasts, including a neurologist. You can hear from the participants in a new video from the ICAA, as well as in excerpts from reels posted to the ICAA's Instagram account during the course of the program.
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The 2026 New York Intensive in Classical Architecture is made possible with the generous support of the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation.
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In this feature from 2020, architects Michael Imber and Tom Kligerman recount a recent journey to India with the Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation, where they had the opportunity to explore centuries of architectural exchange and influence, and to observe, photograph, and paint a number of remarkable sites.
In this video, learn about what surprised them about this visit, and what inspiration they each bring to their own practices.
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| | ARTICLES & VIDEOS: PREVIOUS ISSUE | | |
The Architecture of Place: In Conversation with... is series of interviews between design practitioners, scholars, and educators. The latest iteration of the series, from December 2025, features conversations with three designers and place-makers from different backgrounds and points of view: Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, Felicity Cain, and Soraya Hosni.
From the winter 2025-2026 Architecture of Place series, Soraya Hosni's interview with Manvendra Singh Shekhawat is now available to watch in full.
Manvendra is a systems thinker and regenerative developer reimagining growth at the intersection of culture, ecology, and economy. He leads Dhun, a 500-acre regenerative town project in Jaipur; the Suryagarh Collection, which transforms historic forts into boutique hotels and cultural districts; and The I Love Foundation, dedicated to strengthening civic capacity and cultural preservation.
His work fuses ancestral knowledge with modern tools to prototype scalable models of regenerative development for the Global South. Recognized by The King’s Foundation (HM King Charles III) and the Qatar Foundation, he is a fellow of the Aspen Institute, the Unreasonable Group, Summit Impact, INK and the Frontier Technology Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Manvendra also writes poetry, makes short films, and explores how imagination can transform scarcity into abundance.
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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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Ben Pentreath, past McKim Lecturer and contributor to the ICAA, was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King's 2026 New Year Honours. King Charles III gave Ben the award for his significant contributions to design, recognizing his influential work in classical architecture and interior design, exemplified in projects like Poundbury, Tornagrain and his many residential projects.
Speaking about the honor, Ben said, "It was a real surprise to receive a letter back in December that I had been awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours List – but it’s been a wonderful start to the year. I think that the impact and importance of architecture and design can, in general, be overlooked – and the world of traditional and classical architecture even more so – so it was thrilling to see our world recognised in this way."
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