Robert Adam

Robert Adam (1728-1792) was a Scottish architect and designer, son of William Adam, the leading Scottish architect of his time, and partner of his brothers John and James. On a Grand Tour of 1754-1758 he studied with Charles-Louis Clérisseau and Giovanni Battista Piranesi and surveyed the ruins of Diocletian's Palace at Split, which he published in 1764. He was Architect of the King's Works from 1761 to 1769 and member of Parliament for Kinross-shire from 1768 to 1774.

Adam designed buildings and their interiors together, often down to ceilings, fireplaces, carpets and furniture. His interiors used motifs from ancient Roman decoration, such as urns, garlands, fan shapes and griffins, in low plaster relief on pale colored grounds, in rooms of varied shapes including circles, ovals and rooms ending in apses. At Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire (from about 1760) he designed a south front based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome and a marble hall lined with twenty pink alabaster columns. At Syon House west of London (1762-1769) he remodeled five state rooms for the Duke of Northumberland.

Other works include Osterley Park and Kenwood House in London, the Adelphi riverside terraces (1768-1775, mostly demolished), Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, Culzean Castle in Ayrshire and the Old College of the University of Edinburgh. American builders adapted his decoration in the Federal style. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.