-- A unique combination of history and architecture.-- Features the little-explored genius of the first President.In George Washington, Architect. Allan Greenberg explores the first President's innovations as a designer of buildings and landscapes.He was an exemplary form-giver whose best work was conducted in his own back yards: Mount Vernon and Washington D.C. The first part of this volume reveals how Washington not only redesigned the exterior and interior of his Mount Vernon mansion, but also designed the farm buildings and sculpted the terrain into one of the most beautiful American gardens. Even as he led the Continental Army, he directed the day-to-day management of his estate. His designs revealed a brilliant gift for efficiency and harmony. The second part concerns a broader arena for experimentation: the new capital of the United States itself. Designed in 1791 by Washington's handpicked choice, Peter Charles L'Enfant, Washington, D.C. symbolically expresses the principles of the first,democratic federal republic in history. Breaking with European design precedents to suggest a break with autocratic European systems of government, the new capital, Greenberg argues, was the material form democracy assumed: it was Washington's vision cast in stone.George Washington, Architect explores the construction of a nation, a city, a house and a farm as a unified activity directed by a single and singular - genius.