The Ingenious Architects Whose Designs Inspired the Blueprint for Washington, D.C.

How a group of architects’ classical designs became the blueprint for Washington, D.C.

The east entrance to the Senate wing of the Capitol building features modified Corinthian columns and a carved pediment detailing the “Progress of Civilization.” The pediment was designed by Thomas Crawford and erected in 1863. Rudy Sulgan/The Image Bank/Getty Images

“The Capitol ought to be upon a scale far superior to anything in this Country.” —George Washington to Thomas Jefferson in 1792

James Hoban was born in 1762, in Callan, Ireland. As a boy, he was an apprentice to a carpenter and a wheelwright. He later trained in the neoclassical style of architecture at the Dublin Society School. Just after the Revolutionary War, Hoban immigrated to South Carolina. There, he designed the old state Capitol building in Columbia. At the suggestion of George Washington, Hoban entered the competition for the design of the President’s House in 1792. Not only did he win the design competition, but he received the commission to build the house as well.