Forrest, I'll email you a lengthy obit I wrote in June 2000 covering Trent's legacy.
Meanwhile, I'd summarize his design approach as:
-big, long tees; lined up with the center of the fairway
-big, elevated greens with level areas segmented by slopes (interior greens w/i greens)
-fairway bunkers at landing point, often on the inside of the dogleg
-greenside bunker at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
-routing plans with holes perpindicular to the contour lines
Unfortunately, his own design approach is evident in relatively few courses, and certainly by the 1960s he was tossing aside golf courses left and right with abandon, which led to a loss of distinctiveness. There is still a certain elegance in his Dunes Club (SC), Peachtree (GA), Pauma Valley (CA), Boyne-Heather (MI). But there is way too much indifferent stuff. My bet is 20 years from now historians will look at Trent's work and wonder what the fuss was all about. In restrospect, Trent's greatest innovation was not design but marketing, salesmanship and business practice.
In the hands of his longtime associate, Roger Rulewich, the classic Trent style ended up with jagged little bunker pieces, jammed up fairway landing areas and shriveled down greens inside greens, culminating (!)in the 1980s redo of Aronimink and the RTJ Trail in Ala.