Architects and Builders

Abstract

One day in the late spring of 1857 the architect Thomas Wharton found himself in conversation with a New Orleans businessman who had just contracted with a local builder to design and construct a major office building for him. Upon being told that no architect was to be involved in the project, Wharton was indignant. “I made some very plain comments on that system…,” he noted in his diary.¹ But the client was unmoved.