April 27: RIP HHR

On this day in 1886, Henry Hobson Richardson died.

Richardson is architecture’s James Dean–if we substitute buildings for movies, rotund waistcoats for slinky Levi’s, bushy beardy cheer for devil-may-care handsomeness, 48 years of life as an architect for 24 years of life as an actor, and dying of kidney disease for a fatal car crash.

Oh, we can go on and on for this great architect.  Trinity Church is Richardson’s East of Eden, the Marshall Field Wholesale Store his Rebel Without A Cause, and Allegheny County Courthouse is, of course, Giant.  Even if the comparisons wear thin, we should all agree that both died too young, with so much left to do.

Read more about HHR–and what we’d serve him for dinner–at the Matters of Taste site

Image: portrait of Richardson by by Sir Hubert von Herkomer, 1886 (from this source)