America is a country fascinated with the new. And so the fact that the gemlike, century-old Trinity Church in Boston regularly appears on every list of the greatest buildings in the country seems to suggest how marvelous a structure it is - and what a gifted genius its creator must be. Indeed along with Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and Louie Kahn, Richardson, the earliest of these, was one of America's most gifted architects. He practiced for only a few decades until his death in 1886 at the early age of 48. But during those years he quickly rose to dominate the profession, winning virtually every major commission he sought through the force of both talent and personality and remaking the face of American architecture in the process.
