Villa Turicum: "House of Harold F. McCormick, Esq. at Lake Forest, IL"

              THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

MARCH, 1912

VOLUME XXXI  NUMBER III

THE RENAISSANCE VILLA OF ITALY DEVELOPED INTO A COMPLETE RESIDENTIAL TYPE FOR USE IN AMERICA

THE HOUSE OF HAROLD F. MCCORMICK, ESQ.
AT LAKE FOREST, ILL.
CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIA BUCKLY

THE VILLAS AND GARDENS of Italy have excited the admiration of the world for centuries.  These villas were country homes, intended for the occasional occupancy of their owners, who, history tells us, were men of large means, of big ideas, of education and culture.  They were the expression of social conditions of the age in which they were developed.  The owners of these villas brought with them to the country all the civilization of the city together with that desire for artistic attainment which their culture demanded.

As a consequence we find that the Italian villa included not only the casino or dwelling place and the other necessary buildings, but the park with its gardens, terraces, fountains and pavilions as well.  These parts were arranged to give the fullest opportunity for the enjoyment of the various pleasures of country life and to reveal at every turn the beauty of the landscape.

The Italian villa of the Renaissance has come to have a peculiar value as an architectural type under contemporary American conditions.  We find to-day a large number of our countrymen who in many respects can be favorably compared to the owners of the past.  Conditions seem to be repeating themselves in the desire of our more fortunate citizens for life in the country.  It is a characteristic of Americans to know what will best meet their requirements.  We seem to show a power to assimilate ideals, traditions and forms which are not native to the soil.  It can not be said, however, that in the act, we lose any measure of originality.  It is that freshness, life and color imparted by the sympathetic use of historic models which is giving propriety to our designs.