Friday, March 15, 2013

5 Ws of... Kykuit

 

What: Kyukit, home to America’s Rockefeller family.


Who: Delano & Aldrich designed and built the home as a country retreat for John D. Rockefeller Sr.; landscape architect William Wiles Bosworth created the gardens; and Ogden Codman designed the interiors.


Where: Pocantico Hills, New York


When: Completed 1913


Why: A study in symmetry with its tall, elaborately carved façade, Kykuit, like many American Beaux-Arts buildings, draws architectural inspiration from several European sources, including the Italian Renaissance and the French Norman house.  It is situated to overlook magnificent gardens with fountains and stone terraces, as well as to enjoy the panorama of the Hudson River beyond.  The gardens and the interiors were influenced by Edith Wharton’s book, Italian Villas and their Gardens, of 1904.  The house today provides a showcase for the Rockefeller collections of ceramics, furniture, paintings and sculpture. 
For more information, please visit www.hudsonvalley.org
Info courtesy “The House Book” (Phaidon).  Images via Google.