Charles Adams Platt, a printmaker, painter, and architect, was born in New York City. He trained as an etcher and landscape painter with Stephen Parrish, attended the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League in New York, and subsequently studied in Paris the Académie Julian, exhibiting his etchings and paintings at the Paris Salon of 1885. Platt was also associated with the Cornish Art Colony at Cornish, New Hampshire, formed by Augustus St. Gaudens.

Primarily an influential landscape designer and architect, he executed numerous architectural commissions including residential and institutional buildings, served as a trustee of the American Academy in Rome from 1919, became its president from 1928 to his death, and served on the U. S. Commission of Fine arts.