Neo-Classical architecture is a new birth of the classical architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. A Neoclassical building is likely to have these features: symmetrical shape, tall columns that rise the full height of the building, triangular pediment, and a domed roof. Read more about Neo-Classical buildings...

Neo-Classical architecture can be seen in the work of the renaissance architect Andre Palladio during the 1500s and his awakened interest in the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. Palladio's ideas became the model for architecture in Europe for many centuries. Many years later in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the newly-formed United States drew upon classical ideals to construct grand government buildings as well as smaller private homes. 

The Neo-classical style is rooted in Roman and Greek architecture, like that of the Roman Pantheon, which is characterized by a porch of Corinthian columns and a triangular pediment attached to the ends of the eastern arm. The Pantheon's design exemplifies the Neoclassical return to a strictly logical use of classical architectural elements. Additonally, the Roman triumphal arch was one of the main sources of Neo-classical expression with its tripartite division of four equal columns unequally spaced. The Arch of Constantine, Rome (AD. 315) supplied the idea of the 'detached' column with returning entablature and the superin cumbent 'attic storey'.

The architecture of ancient Rome and Greece inspired the designs of U.S. governement buildings.  The house of President Thomas Jefferson, Mount Vernon, the Statue of Liberty, The White House, the U.S. Supreme Court and the United States Capital are just a few pieces of Neo-Classical architecture.