Date of Birth: 1764
Date of Death: 1820
Nationality: British
Notes: British-born Latrobe was a pupil of Samuel Pepys Cockerell; he emigrated to the United States circa 1795, where he launched the Greek Revival style with his design for the Bank of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Latrobe was hired by Thomas Jefferson in 1803 to work on the designs of the U.S. Capital (his design for the house chamber was acclaimed as "the most beautiful room in America") and in 1814 he rebuilt the White House, which had been burned by the British, who occupied Washington, DC during the War of 1812. Latrobe's first important work was Hammerwood Park in Sussex, which was followed by Ashdown House, also Sussex. These two houses are Latrobe's only surviving English works. Latrobe was unique, practicing as an architect and an engineer (he also designed waterworks and canals). Michael Fazio and Patrick Snadon, writing in their 2006 book, "The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe": "it became obvious during the course of our work that Benjamin Henry Latrobe had responded quite consciously to the specifics of the American social and physical context and had, as a result, invented such a new house form for the nascent, democratic, American republic." "When his work is compared with his English and American peers, Latrobe's status as an international talent of the first order becomes clear."