---
title: "Vanna Venturi House – Keast & Hood"
url: https://keasthood.com/portfolio-item/vanna-venturi-house
description: "Vanna Venturi House Robert Venturi’s house for his mother has come to define the Postmodern style of architecture. Venturi’s firm described the 1,800-sf house as a “small building with big scale.” Its use of symbolism, distorted symmetry, and multiple contrast"
lang: en
---

# Vanna Venturi House

Image: Vanna Venturi House (https://keast-hood.itigniter.com/media/imported/2025-10-01-Entry-Facade-01-Classic-1.jpg)

Robert Venturi’s house for his mother has come to define the Postmodern style of architecture.

Venturi’s firm described the 1,800-sf house as a “small building with big scale.” Its use of symbolism, distorted symmetry, and multiple contrasting historical styles was defiantly against the tenets of modernism, and has made the house loathed and loved by architects and design historians. Keast & Hood provided structural engineering for the light wood frame and masonry structure of the house. Spaces are centered around a chimney, symbolically the heart of the home.

In 1989, the Vanna Venturi House received the American Institute of Architects Twenty-Five Year Award as a design “of enduring significance that has withstood the test of time.” In 2005, the U.S. Postal Service featured the house on one of 12 “Masterworks of modern American Architecture” stamps. In 2012, AIA Philadelphia and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia recognized the house with the Landmark Building Award.

Principal

Nicholas L. Gianopulos, PE (emeritus)

Client

Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates

Location

Philadelphia, PA

Project Type

Historic | Residential | New Construction

Project Scope

New Construction

Status

Complete

Image: Vanna Venturi House (https://keast-hood.itigniter.com/media/imported/2025-10-vanna-venturi-house-2.jpg)

Image: Vanna Venturi House (https://keast-hood.itigniter.com/media/imported/2024-11-200109_403.jpg)

All Projects: https://keasthood.com/projects

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