Past Events
Make a Year End 2025 Gift to ICAA, NC!
December Appeal at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, North Carolina
Support us before the year end!
Giving Tuesday is over but you can still support the work of our North Carolina Chapter!
This year, we invite you to join the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, North Carolina Chapter (ICAA-NC) in celebrating the preservation and advancement of classical design across our state.
Our Goal: $25,000
To expand our educational programs, workshops, lectures, scholarship offerings, and member events, we have set a year end fundraising goal of $25,000.
Your gift—whether modest or substantial—directly helps us build a vibrant and enduring community of architects, designers, craftsmen, students, and supporters who believe in the power of timeless design.
How Your Support Makes an Impact
Your generosity fuels:
- Educational Programs & Lectures
Featuring leading architects, scholars, and practitioners who share their expertise. - Hands-On Workshops
Offering training in classical principles, traditional building methods, and the applied arts. - Scholarships & Emerging Professional Support
Nurturing the next generation of classical designers through meaningful opportunities. - Community-Building Events
Connecting individuals who value the enduring traditions of architecture and the arts.
Each contribution helps preserve craftsmanship, history, and the architectural heritage that shapes our built environment.
Ways to Give This Year
Make a Tax-Deductible Donation
Support our mission directly by making a donation of any amount. Every dollar contributes to educational programming and resources that enrich our community.
Give the Gift of Membership
Share your passion for classical architecture by gifting an annual ICAA-NC membership to a friend, family member, colleague, or student. It’s a lasting gift that supports the arts while welcoming new voices into our chapter.
Join Us in Celebrating Generosity
Your support ensures that the traditions of classical architecture and art continue to thrive in North Carolina for generations to come. Thank you for giving, for sharing, and for championing the beauty and importance of timeless design.
November Reception & Talk Introducing Charlotte in the Era of John Nolen
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, North Carolina Chapter is pleased to present a very special talk by Historian Tom Hanchett
Join us for a talk + wine & cheese reception
Tuesday, November 4
5pm to 7pm
Duke Mansion
400 Hermitage Road
Charlotte, NC 28207
SOLD OUT
Historian Tom Hanchett offers an overview of Charlotte’s development from its Colonial beginnings to the present, emphasizing the city’s rapid early 20th-century growth as the center of the south’s textile manufacturing region. Guests will learn about neighborhood design in Myers Park by the prolific Boston-based planner John Nolen, and in Eastover by his Charlotte-based, yet regionally and nationally influential protege, Earle Sumner Draper. The lecture also highlights historic landmark homes by key Charlotte architects Louis Asbury, C.C. Hook, and Martin Boyer.
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Dr. Tom Hanchett enjoys working with community groups on neighborhood histories, museum exhibitions and walking tours. Educated at Cornell, University of Chicago and UNC Chapel Hill, he is best known for his Charlotte history books Sorting Out the New South City and Affordable Housing in Charlotte. Check out his lively website HistorySouth.org for fresh perspectives on topics ranging from the South’s Rosenwald Schools to Charlotte’s international food scene today. Charlotte Magazine calls him “Charlotte’s Dr. History” and named him a Charlottean of the Year.
Tom’s books will be available for purchase at the event!
NC Chapter December Holiday Soiree & Home Tour
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, North Carolina Chapter invites you to join us for a very special holiday event.
Join us for an exclusive Charles Barton Keen Home Tour & Holiday Social
Thursday, December 11
6pm to 8pm
94 North Union Street
Concord, NC 28025
Stewart Butler, expert on the Charles Barton Keen architectural history, will give a short introduction followed by a short Q&A with architect Don Duffy.
Click here to purchase tickets
About the Charles Albert & Ruth Coltrane Cannon House (1928)
Charles A. Cannon, whose father founded Cannon Mills, and his wife Ruth, an active historic preservationist, hired Keen to design their residences, as did his sister Laura, the wife of Charlotte mayor Charles Lambeth.
Thank you to our sponsors
Charles Barton Keen (1868-1931), a prolific designer of suburban residences and country estates primarily on Philadelphia’s Main Line for more than thirty-five years, added a second locus of activity—North Carolina—when he became a favorite architect of wealthy tobacco and textile families starting around 1912. In several of his projects in North Carolina he was associated with landscape architect Thomas Sears. His best-known project in the state is Winston-Salem’s Reynolda (1912-1917) for Katharine and R. J. Reynolds. On the strength of that commission he found a wider clientele associated with the state’s unprecedented industrial wealth of the early twentieth century and who in the 1910s and 1920s were advancing the national trend from downtown living to country houses or newly created elite suburbs.
October Member Social @ Trouvaille Winston-Salem
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, North Carolina Chapter is pleased to host a member
social at Trouvaille Home in Winston-Salem.
Join us for Lite Bites & Drinks
Tuesday, October 21
5:30 to 7:30pm
Trouvaille Home
938 Burke Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
This event is free for all ICAA, NC Chapter Members
please RSVP you attendance by October 15 to info@classicist-nc.org
Founded in 2014, Trouvaille has grown into one of the South’s premier destinations for bespoke interiors. Located in Winston-Salem’s historic West End, the 12,000 sq. ft. showroom offers an immersive luxury shopping experience, featuring locally crafted designs alongside custom North Carolina–made upholstery. In addition, Trouvaille Home provides full-service residential and commercial interior design.
Sponsored by
Mr. and Mrs. William E. Hollan, III
Mr. Stuart Parks
January Workshop in Classical Architecture: University of North Carolina, Charlotte
7 credits towards the Certificate in Classical Architecture (Tuscan Order & Measured Drawing) | 7 AIA CES Learning Units|Elective
September Member Social @ Ann Sacks Charlotte
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, North Carolina Chapter is pleased to host a member
social with our friends Ann Sacks Tile & Stone at their new Charlotte Showroom.
Join us for Lite Bites & Drinks
Thursday, September 11
5:30 to 7:30pm
Ann Sacks Tile & Stone
721 Gov Morrison Street
Unit 110A
Charlotte, NC 28211
This event is free for all ICAA, NC Chapter Members
please RSVP your attendance by September 5 to info@classicist-nc.org
Located in Charlotte, NC, Ann Sack’s tile & stone showroom offers clients the ability to view collections installed in inspired vignettes; lay-out plans and concepts in their design studio, and easily compare selections through a sample library. Offering a vast selection of ceramic, concrete, porcelain and stone tile collections suitable for the whole home.
Sponsored by
with
With additional sponsorship support from
Private Charlotte: Exploring Classicism in the Southeast
Join the ICAA and Classical Excursions in collaboration with our ICAA North Carolina Chapter this November on an insider access tour of Charlotte, NC
November 4-7, 2025
Founded in 1768 and named in honor of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of King George III of England, Charlotte proudly carries its royal heritage in both name and spirit, having earned its reputation as a hotbed of independence and defiance during the Revolution. Come discover Charlotte’s rich historic fabric—preserved in its buildings, museums, culture and communities.
This tour is arranged by Classical Excursions with the ICAA North Carolina Chapter. Please note, that you must contact Classical Excursions’ Director, Lani Summerville to formally register for this program. Upon completing a registration form, submitting a deposit to Classical Excursions, and receiving a confirmation from Classical Excursions you will be considered registered for this program. Payment of the $600 donation to the ICAA prior to registration does not guarantee placement on the trip. Again, to inquire about registration for this program, please contact Lani Summerville at lani@classicalexcursions.com or 413-446-8728.
A fully tax-deductible donation of $600 per person is required to participate in this travel program. Please note that this donation is non-refundable except in the case that this travel program is cancelled by the organization. All travel program participants have the opportunity to receive a complimentary Individual level membership for one year to the ICAA.
What’s included?
- A luxury 3-night stay at the historic Duke Mansion
- A visit to the Wing Haven Garden
- Private tours of residences designed by such architects as Pursley Dixon Architects, Ruard Veltman, Bobby McAlpine, and historic architect Martin Boyer
- A private reception at Jane Schwab’s residence (as featured in Veranda Magazine)
- A dinner at the charming Charlotte Country Club
- A dinner at the Stagioni, the former Reynolds-Gourmajenko House designed by William Lawrence Bottomley
Meals Included in the Itinerary: breakfast and lunch daily per itinerary, one reception and three dinners.
Images courtesy of Pursley Dixon Architects
Virtual Documentary Screening
MEMBERS ONLY – Virtual Screening – An English Vision: Traditional Architecture & Decoration for Today with Ben Pentreath
Wed, June 25 at 6PM
📍Virtual on Zoom
Join the ICAA for a virtual screening of An English Vision: Traditional Architecture and Decoration for Today with Ben Pentreath where he discusses his new publication An English Vision: The interconnected worlds of architecture, interiors, and places — of history and happiness — and how we live today.
For more than 20 years, award-winning architectural designer and decorator Ben Pentreath has been a champion of exceptional English design, creating homes, interiors, and town developments that are at once traditional and distinctively modern, timeless, and boldly contemporary. His new book, An English Vision, explores his unique way of creating buildings that are infused with a strong sense of happiness, history, character, color, imperfection, and a specific place in time. Above all, Pentreath believes in the intuitive nature of imperfection to make interiors truly sing. Join him as he opens the doors to a number of special city apartments, country houses, and farm estates, while sharing insight into his philosophy and process, along with many never before seen photos of these incredible spaces. In each, he will show how he integrates history, tradition, the different rhythms of time, and the personal tastes of his clients to create homes that replace fussy excess with a light, effortless sense of comfort and harmony, as though they were always meant to be just as they are.
Ben Pentreath is an award-winning architectural designer and decorator whose work embodies the highest principles of traditional and classical architecture, as well as urbanism in contemporary society. He studied Art History at the University of Edinburgh before attending the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture. After working for five years in New York and then with the Prince’s Foundation, Ben started his own practice, Ben Pentreath Ltd, in 2004. Since then, the firm has grown to occupy two beautiful studios in Bloomsbury, London. Ben is also co-founder, with Bridie Hall, of Pentreath & Hall, one of London’s most distinctive interiors and decoration shops, located just around the corner from the Ben Pentreath Ltd studios.
FREE and for ICAA Members only
Images from An English Vision, published by @rizzolibooks. Courtesy of Ben Pentreath.
Sip & Sketch at Old Salem
The ICAA North Carolina Chapter was pleased to partner with the Museum of Southern Decorative Arts to host a Sip & Sketch in conjunction with the 2025 In Perfect Harmony: A MESDA Design Seminar on Friday, May 2 at Old Salem
Throughout history architects and designers have continually looked to antiquity for inspiration and instruction, studying historic buildings as precedent for contemporary practice. As students of the built environment, we primarily turn to measured drawing and observational sketches as a medium for capturing these precedents— which can vary in scale from something as small as a moulding profile, all the way up to a building façade study, or a site plan that illustrates the relationship between building and landscape. This course aims to introduce participants to a step-by-step process to produce measured drawings, and to provide an opportunity to put process into practice by doing a guided measured drawing at a historic location in Old Salem, NC.
Instructor, Alexander Ancona— Alex is a project architect for the Charlotte, NC based architecture and interior design firm, Pursley Dixon. He is also a board member for the North Carolina chapter of the ICAA, as well as the inaugural recipient of the Kyle D. Taylor Memorial Scholarship. His love of drawing and historic buildings, particularly the 19th century log cabin he calls home, has led to continued study and appreciation of traditional architecture and details.
The class will took place from 3-5:30 pm starting off in the Sally Gant Classroom at MESDA (924 South Main St, Winston-Salem 27101). After a presentation on measured drawings from Alex Ancona, participants were guided on a measured drawing of John Siewers House (1844) before concluding the day on Lot 63’s patio for a refreshing drink.
ICAA, NC was pleased to be a major sponsor the 2025 In Perfect Harmony: A MESDA Design Seminar in Winston-Salem, May 2 and 3. Moderated by J. Thomas Savage, MESDA’s longtime Design Seminar host and the Director of Educational Travel & Conferences at Colonial Williamsburg, this program brings together notable architects, designers, and gardeners to share the latest trends in design, and how they create harmony between a home, garden, and a space’s history.
Sip & Sketch at Old Salem – May 2
The ICAA North Carolina Chapter is pleased to partner with the Museum of Southern Decorative Arts to host a Sip & Sketch in conjunction with the 2025 In Perfect Harmony: A MESDA Design Seminar.
Throughout history architects and designers have continually looked to antiquity for inspiration and instruction, studying historic buildings as precedent for contemporary practice. As students of the built environment, we primarily turn to measured drawing and observational sketches as a medium for capturing these precedents— which can vary in scale from something as small as a moulding profile, all the way up to a building façade study, or a site plan that illustrates the relationship between building and landscape. This course aims to introduce participants to a step-by-step process to produce measured drawings, and to provide an opportunity to put process into practice by doing a guided measured drawing at a historic location in Old Salem, NC.
Instructor, Alexander Ancona— Alex is a project architect for the Charlotte, NC based architecture and interior design firm, Pursley Dixon. He is also a board member for the North Carolina chapter of the ICAA, as well as the inaugural recipient of the Kyle D. Taylor Memorial Scholarship. His love of drawing and historic buildings, particularly the 19th century log cabin he calls home, has led to continued study and appreciation of traditional architecture and details.
The class will take place from 3-5:30 pm starting off in the Sally Gant Classroom at MESDA (924 South Main St, Winston-Salem 27101). After a presentation on measured drawings from Alex Ancona, participants will head into Salem Square to select a building to draw before concluding the day on Lot 63’s patio with a refreshing drink.
This event is free for all ICAA Members and MESDA Design Seminar Attendees, please RSVP to info@classicist-nc.org
ICAA, NC is pleased to be a major sponsor the 2025 In Perfect Harmony: A MESDA Design Seminar in Winston-Salem, May 2 and 3. Moderated by J. Thomas Savage, MESDA’s longtime Design Seminar host and the Director of Educational Travel & Conferences at Colonial Williamsburg, this program brings together notable architects, designers, and gardeners to share the latest trends in design, and how they create harmony between a home, garden, and a space’s history.
During the Saturday program, Lady Xa Tollemache, Author of A Garden Well Placed, will share her experiences designing the gardens at Helmingham Hall while remaining in harmony with the home. Followed by a presentation by Charlottesville-based interior designer Charlotte Moss, author and editor of over a dozen books and star of the American interior design world, about her design influences. Finally, interior designer and architect Steven Gambrel, part of the Architectural Digest’s AD100 in 2023, will share how he creates modern interiors rooted in tradition. The day will close out with a book signing.