Shaker Built: The Form and Function of Shaker Architecture

From the twin spiraling staircase of the Trustees Office at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, to the round stone barn at Hancock, Massachusetts, the simple magnificence of Shaker buildings has never been better captured. Sprigg's poetic text provides insight into the Shaker way of life that lets you know Shaker hands touched more than just buildings. Shaker Built presents the architectural legacy of the Shakers, featuring their simple and functional designs for villages, buildings, and interiors. Shown are communities at Hancock and Harvard, Massachusetts; Mount Lebanon, New York; Pleasant Hill and South Union, Kentucky; Sabbathday Lake, Maine; and Canterbury, New Hampshire. Beautiful color photography provides the opportunity to visit these sublime places and to examine closely the color, feeling, and texture of what the Shakers built. Both authors have a special sensitivity to Shaker places and things, which they bring to Shaker Built.

June Sprigg has written extensively about the Shakers since 1972, when she began to live and work with the Shakers in Canterbury, New Hampshire. Her major works include By Shaker Hands, Shaker: Life, Work, and Art, and Shaker Design. She has curated exhibitions on Shaker design in the United States and in Japan.

Among Paul Rocheleau's books are American Colonial: Puritan Simplicity to Georgian Grace; Farm: The Vernacular Tradition of Working Buildings;Harlem: Lost and Found; and Henry Hobson Richardson: A Genius for Architecture.