F. Burrall Hoffman

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Francis Burrall Hoffman, Jr. (March 6, 1882 – November 27, 1980), was an American architect best known for his design of Villa Vizcaya, the Italian Renaissance-style estate in Miami, Florida which is now a museum.

He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to F. Burrall and Lucy Hoffman, a couple socially prominent in New York City. (His mother established the National Organization of Catholic Women and helped lead the effort to build the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.) He was educated at Georgetown University and Harvard University from which he was graduated in 1903 and he was also graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts with honors.

He served in France as a Captain for the U.S. Army during World War I.

He died at 99 years of age at his home in Hobe Sound, Florida. His widow "Dolly" (Kimball) Hoffman continued to live in the former home of Henry Kissinger in Georgetown, Washington, D.C..

Hoffman was also the architect for many private homes, apartment buildings and theatres in New York City as well as other buildings and churches across the United States which include Saint Ann's Roman Catholic Church in Lenox, Massachusetts which was his family's summer home. His clients included the Astors, Morgans and Vanderbilts.

[edit] Selected works

• 1916 - Villa Vizcaya, Miami, Florida
• 1917-19 - 17 East 90th Street, New York City
• 1929 - 730 Park Avenue, New York City

[edit] References

• New York Times obituary, Nov. 29, 1980.
• Dowling, Elizabeth. American Classiscist: the Architecture of Philip Trammell Shutze. Rizzoli, 2001.
• Curl, Donald W., "The Florida Architecture of F. Burrall Hoffman Jr., 1882-1980," Florida Historical Quarterly 76 (Spring 1998), 399-416.