Complete About — McCrery Architects

James C. McCrery, II _{AIA., NCARB}

James McCrery is the founding principal of McCrery Architects, PLLC, a firm committed to the design of churches, civic and university buildings, and unique commissions for clients desiring rich, legible meaning incorporated into their buildings. He is an internationally recognized leader in classical architectural design and construction. His built works and contributions throughout the United States have received many awards and have been favorably reviewed in The New York Times, City Journal, The Washington Business Journal, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, Period Homes, The New York Post, Country Life (U.K.), The Washington Post, Traditional Building, The Washington Times, New York Daily News, The Classicist, and the National Review.

McCrery is the design architect of the recently completed Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, Tennessee, The Saint Mary Help of Christians Church in Aiken South Carolina, and the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at the St. John Newman Center – University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Nebraska. He is the architect of the Book and Gift Store in the United States Supreme Court Building, and he designed the pedestal for the statue of President and Governor Ronald Wilson Reagan that stands in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol.

James C. McCrery, II is a member of the faculty of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC where he is the founding Director of the Concentration in Classical Architecture and Urbanism. He is particularly pleased to be an Inaugural Fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. McCrery is a life member and an executive board member of the Supreme Court Historical Society; a founding member of the National Civic Art Society; a National Design Peer of the U.S. General Services Administration, and in December 2019 was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to the United States Commission of Fine Arts.

Philosophy

The Principle of Traditional Architecture

The proper practice of Traditional Architecture embraces the best of all ages and styles in a timeless, unbroken chain of lasting beauty and utility. Tradition is necessarily modern and innovative. Only when grounded in historic precedent can architecture intelligently propose and project the future.

What are we striving to do?

We are striving to exercise our talents to achieve works of excellence that fully participate in the ongoing development of Tradition. This embrace of history inspires our work, and we labor in the vineyard with Iktinos, Kallikrates, Vitruvius, Suger, Brunelleschi, Alberti, Michelangelo, Bramante, Borromini, Bernini, Palladio, Jefferson, Latrobe, Bacon, Richardson, Sullivan, Lutyens, McKim, Cram, and Greenberg.

How do we work with clients?

McCrery Architects wants clients that desire to be intimately involved in their projects. Excellent architecture embraces the client’s vision and delivers it much farther into the realms of beauty and goodness. Together client and architect develop such a familiarity with the design that in the end, the client’s only surprise is how beautiful the entire result is.

How do we think about materials and construction?

They don’t build them like they used to. In fact, we build them better. Our approach to Tradition in construction is identical to our approach to Tradition in architecture: There is much to be retained from four millennia of building, and much to be taken from contemporary building technologies. Being good Traditionalists, we embrace them all.

How do we work with builders?

McCrery Architects advocates a truly collaborative approach to design and construction. Our office’s policy is that each of our buildings is built twice: first in our office in drawing form and then on site. Contractor and Architect are mutually involved in both efforts. During design and construction, our watchwords are “Get it Right”. This ensures a readily buildable design and directs the client’s resources toward a truly excellent result.

Why should clients commission excellent buildings?

“We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us.”
— Sir Winston Churchill’s remarks made in commissioning the reconstruction of the Houses of Parliament destroyed in World War II.

This oft-repeated aphorism deserves careful consideration, for unlike all the other arts, architecture is unavoidable. Good buildings make for good settings, good settings foster good thoughts and works, good thoughts and works accumulate to a better-formed society. This is why excellent architecture is critical; it is why McCrery Architects strives for excellence; and why clients should aspire to excellence when commissioning their buildings from the outset.

Services

McCrery Architects, LLC provides its clients with architectural services that contribute to the centuries-long unfolding of artistic and architectural excellence.

The firm’s work ranges in scale from the statue pedestal for President Reagan now standing in the rotunda of the United States Capitol to the master plan of more than 500,000 square feet of mixed use development in the heart of Washington, DC. There is no project too large or too small for McCrery Architects.

The firm’s design style is not narrowly defined except to say that the firm is committed to Tradition and Excellence. McCrery Architects has worked in the Gothic, Neo-Classical, Beaux Arts, Early Christian, Baroque, Shingle, and many other styles. The approach to each style is to truly understand the style’s history and uses so that the style may be properly put to contemporary use.