Editing Furness Style (section)

== Legacy ==

Furness's reputation collapsed after his death in 1912, as architectural fashion turned toward Beaux-Arts classicism and away from Victorian originality. His buildings were derided as ugly, many were demolished, and his name faded from architectural memory. The rediscovery began in the 1960s, as historians and critics recognized Furness's significance as an original designer who anticipated aspects of twentieth-century modernism. Robert Venturi championed Furness's work, seeing in its complexity and contradiction values relevant to postmodern architectural theory.<ref name="thomas"/>

Today Furness is recognized as one of America's most important nineteenth-century architects, and Philadelphia preserves his surviving buildings as irreplaceable cultural resources. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Fisher Fine Arts Library function as originally intended, their Furness character essential to institutional identity. Other Furness buildings have been adapted for new uses, their distinctive architecture providing character that contemporary construction cannot replicate. The style that bears his name remains unique—no one could be a Furness follower, only an admirer of an architect who created buildings unlike any others.<ref name="lewis"/>