March 21, 2019 - March 24, 2019
Founded in 1733, Savannah was Georgia’s first city, where wealth would be achieved as an internationally known port for cotton commerce. Named after the river on which it was established, the city took on a distinctive architectural character that represented the Scots and English who settled along the Georgia coast. Charleston, some 100 hundred miles to the north, initially reflected a more Caribbean flavor due to the influx of settlers from Barbados and Jamaica.
From the beginning, the towns of Georgia were carefully planned. But none had Savannah’s precise geometric regularity of squares and building lots laid out by the city’s founder James Oglethorpe. As the city expanded, city planners continued to add squares so that by 1800 there was a total of twenty-four surrounded by well-placed town lots. It is considered the most original and brilliant urban plan of 18th-century America and remains in place to this day even with the further growth of the city over time.
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art invites you to join this excursion of some the finest homes, gardens and other sites of this extraordinary, sensitively preserved city – thanks to the strength-of-purpose of such organizations as the Historic Savannah Foundation and the designated Savannah Historic District. Also, the Savannah College of Art and Design, an Arthur Ross Award winner, has left an undeniable architectural footprint on the city. During the tour, architects, interior designers and historians, as well as other experts and specialists will cover a wide range of the city’s unique architecture and decorative arts.
