Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895) was one of the Fathers of American Architecture. He was one of the founders of the American Institute of Architects and became its President in 1888. His work is in the European style and some was derived from the Beaux-Arts, which is considered to be the style used to turn Paris into the stunning metropolis it is. In America he became part of the City Beautiful Movement.

He designed New York's Tribune Building , one of the earliest with an elevator, in 1873. Other buildings of note that Hunt designed include the Theological Library and Marquand Chapel in Princeton, the Scroll and Key building at Yale, and the Fogg Museum of Art in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Until the Lenox Library, none of Hunt's American works were in the Beaux-Arts style with which he is associated. Late in his life he became involved in the Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, at which his Administration Building received the gold medal from the Institute of British Architects.

Hunt often employed sculptor Karl Bitter to enrich his designs.

Today, Hunt's handiwork can be seen on the Pedestal of the Statue of Liberty and on the facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Residential Works

— mostly for Robber Barons

• William K Vanderbilt House, Fifth Avenue, NYC, 1878-1882
• Henry Marquand House, NYC, 1881-84
• James Pinchot House, "Grey Towers," Milford, Pennsylvania 1884-86
• William Borden House, Chicago, Illinois, 1884-89
• Ogden Mills House, Fifth Avenue, NYC, 1885-87
• Archibald Rogers House, Hyde Park New York, 1886-89
• William K Vanderbilt House, "Marble House," Newport, Rhode Island, 1888-92
• Ogden Goelet House, Newport, Rhode Island, 1888-93
• Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont House, "Belcourt Castle", Newport Rhode Island, 1891
• Elbridge Gerry House, NYC, 1891-94 Newport, Rhode Island,
• John Jacob Astor IV House, Fifth Avenue, NYC, 1891-95
• Dorsheimer-Busk House, Newport, Rhode Island, 1890-93
• George Washngton Vanderbilt House, ‘Biltmore" Ashville North Carolina, 1890-
• Cornelius Vanderbilt II house, "the Breakers", Newport, Rhode Island, 1892-95

Hunt frequently employed Karl Bitter to produce architectural sculpture and Frederick Law Olmsted to be the landscape architect on these commissions.

Many of Hunt's New York houses have since been destroyed.

References:

• Stein, Susan Editor, The Architecture of Richard Morris Hunt , University of Chicago Press, 1986
• Kvaran. Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture of America