5 Stunning Examples of Classical Architecture

Just like a black dress, classical architecture will never go out of style. For proof, flip through the pages of the new book The Architecture of John Simpson: The Timeless Language of Classicism (Rizzoli, $85). "[Simpson's] buildings are at once fresh and original yet are conceived as contributions to the classical and traditional architecture that has been as the heart of Western civilization for approaching two thousand years," writes author David Watkin, a professor emeritus of the history of architecture at the University of Cambridge. The London-based talent has made an effort not to box himself into a design corner—he's behind the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace , but is also responsible for an American Beaux Arts–style mansion in New York City . "I firmly believe that by working on buildings of different types and scales, where the work from one informs the next, an architect retains a much more holistic view, which leads to a fresh approach to each commission and a more thoughtful, well-rounded result," he writes in the preface. Read on to see five of his most impressive projects.

Each of the four façades of the Ashfold House, designed for Simpson's parents in Sussex, England, is slightly different.

"John Simpson's buildings of 1999–2002 in Chelsea [London] on the east side of Old Church Street, toward its south end, are an excellent example of his sensitive creation of townscape, if here on a relatively small scale," writes Watkin. "His facades of varying height and in local buff and red brick and stucco have something of the ad hoc, picturesque atmosphere of much understated eighteenth-century domestic architecture."

Simpson won the competition to transform Kensington Palace into a must-see destination. The new garden entrance features a freestanding gilded cast-iron loggia honoring the Diamond Jubilee of HM the Queen.

On New York's Upper East Side, Simpson reimagined the historic Carhart Mansion as luxurious apartments and built a new building next door in the same classic style to complement it.

In just one month, students at the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture crafted the Pipistrelle Pavilion in Hammersmith, England, using Simpson's designs.