A Classical Adventure: The Architectural History of Downing College, Cambridge, tells the full story of the College's buildings from the earliest plans and ideas through to the College of today, illustrated by a wealth of photographs and drawings. Founded in 1800 through the will of the third Sir George Downing, Baronet, it was the first new college to be built in Cambridge for more than 200 years; the first major scheme in the neo-Classical Greek Revival style; and the first instance of the spacious campus plan in collegiate architecture, acting as the precursor to Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia and the American campus universities that were to follow. For the last 215 years the College has been fully committed to the defining style of its original buildings for all subsequent additions to its spacious site in the centre of Cambridge, and the story of its architecture is traced from the earliest plans and ideas through to the college of today. Photographs (mostly colour) by Tim Rawle and Louis Sinclair ; aerial perspective drawings by Jeremy Bays and Ed Rawle ; sponsored by the Howard Foundation with a printed letter by Alan Howard gifting the book to a student & still in original shrink-wrap plastic cover.