Hunt, Richard Morris, 1828–95, American architect, b. Brattleboro, Vt., studied in Geneva, Switzerland, and at the École des Beaux-Arts; brother of William Morris Hunt. He was a leading practitioner of 19th-century eclecticism. Hunt worked under T. U. Walter on the extensions of the Capitol at Washington, D.C. In New York City he founded the first American studio for training young architects, and he was one of the organizers of the American Institute of Architects, of which he became president in 1888. Most of his work was closely imitative of historic styles. It included the Lenox Library, New York City (later torn down); the first building for the Fogg Museum of Art, Cambridge, Mass.; the U.S. naval observatory at Washington, D.C.; the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor; and numerous magnificent residences, such as those of the Vanderbilts in New York City and Newport, R.I., and the Biltmore House in Asheville, N.C. His Tribune Building in New York was one of the first elevator buildings.

Bibliography

See biography by P. R. Baker (1980).

Hunt, Richard Morris

(born Oct. 31, 1827, Brattleboro, Vt., U.S.—died July 31, 1895, Rewport, R.I.) U.S. architect. He studied in Europe from 1843 to 1854, becoming the first U.S. architecture student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He returned to the U.S. to establish the Beaux-Arts style there. His work was eclectic, ranging from ornate early French Renaissance to monumental Classicism to a picturesque villa style. He worked on the extension of the U.S. Capitol and designed the Tribune building in New York City (1873; since destroyed) and the facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1900–02), also in New York. Among the mansions he designed for the new commercial aristocracy is the Breakers in Newport, R.I. (1892–95), which was created in an opulent Renaissance style for the Vanderbilts. Hunt was a founder of the American Institute of Architects.

Hunt, Richard Morris (1827–95) architect; born in Brattleboro, Vt. The first American admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1846), he worked with Hector Martin Lefuel on the Pavillion de la Bibliothèque of the Louvre (1854–55). He opened a practice (1855) and an atelier in New York, training among others Frank Furness and George B. Post. An eclectic stylist, Hunt designed numerous houses and university and public buildings in New York, including the Presbyterian Hospital (1872), the Tribune Building (1873), and Lenox Library (1877). After the 1880s he designed luxurious mansions by which he is best remembered, among them Marble House (1892) and The Breakers (1895), Newport, R.I., and the 225-room Biltmore House Asheville, N.C. (1895), the last of several Vanderbilt family commissions. A founder and third president of the American Institute of Architects (1888–91), Hunt is called the "dean of American architecture" for advancing the education and professional standards of architects.