The French Blueprint Behind America’s Capital with Emmanuel Ducamp

When Pierre L’Enfant submitted his plan for the new federal capital in 1791, he drew not from the republican ideals of the young American nation but from the grandeur of Versailles, its radiating boulevards, its geometric gardens, its unmistakably monarchical scale. Art historian Emmanuel Ducamp will trace the deep and often surprising French imprint on the architecture of the American capital, from L’Enfant’s original design through the neoclassical buildings that followed, the Capitol, the White House, the Russell Senate office building, and into the 20th century, when Beaux-Arts architects trained in Paris brought French elegance to both public monuments and private estates.