Charles A. Platt

Charles Adams Platt, FAIA, was an architect, painter, and etcher. He studied at the Art Students League and National Academy of Design in the late 1870s, followed by further study in Paris. His paintings were exhibited widely, including in the Paris Salon of the Societé des Artistes Français of 1885 and 1886. Platt’s work is now in the collections of the Freer and Corcoran Galleries of Art. Platt returned to the United States and opened a studio in New York in the early twentieth century, where he continued to work until his death in 1933. In Washington, D.C., Platt designed the Freer Gallery of Art, an estate for James Parmelee now known as Tregaron, an addition to the Corcoran Museum, and the McMillan Fountain (with Herbert Adams). His work includes campus and buildings for Phillips Academy as well as several projects for Vincent Astor. Platt was president of the American Academy in Rome and the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Memorial, a member of the National Academy of Design, and a member of the Cornish Art Colony, whose other members included Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Herbert Adams, and Paul Manship. Platt’s architectural record and papers are located at the Avery Library, Columbia University.