Features
The 25 – Edith Platten
As the education director of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Edith Platten plays a key role in cultivating and nurturing future practitioners who can make a positive impact on the built environment, particularly on historic preservation and contemporary projects that employ the language of Classical and traditional architecture.
Since she took on the role in 2015, the institute has reached more than 6,000 students, emerging professionals, and established professionals through a variety of programs ranging from four-week summer programs to single-day drawing sessions open to those interested in learning more about traditional design.
Her critical work takes place during a time when there’s a growing movement of Classical and traditional architectural design in higher education.
“As the timeless and human-scaled methods and principles are inherently attractive to students and the market alike, the smarter schools are pivoting to creating more space in their faculties and curriculum for traditional architecture,” she says. “At the same time, coming out of the pandemic, there seems to be a somewhat unexpected reaction away from the placeless, soul-less architecture of the latter half of the 20th century, and traditional architecture and the historic city have yet again proven to be the most durable, well-loved, and desired.”
Platten’s work—from telling the story of the 1894 World’s Fair in Chicago to sixth-graders to guiding university students through a design studio in New York City to holding architectural sketching sessions with students in Piazza Navona in Rome—will continue to make an impact for decades to come.
