DREW UNIVERSITY CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION American Architectural History: An Introduction Winter Semester 2013, January 17, 2013 to March 21, 2013 Thursdays, 7:00pm to 9:15pm (except there will be no class on January 31, 2013) Drew Course 13WHP02 Edmund P. Meade, PE, FAPT Structural Engineer and Specialist in Historic Preservation B.S. Civil Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland M. Arch. History and Certificate in Historic Preservation, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia Principal and Director of Preservation Robert Silman Associates, P.C. 88 University Place New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 620-7970 Fax: (212) 620-8157 Email: meade@silman.com Web: www.silman.com I. Course Description The course is intended to present an introduction to buildings, landscapes, and other built artifacts in the United States constructed between 1608 and the present. Brief reference will be made to the built environment of pre-western settlement. References to New Jersey s built environment will be added to supplement the major examples drawn from throughout the U.S. Besides this concentration on New Jersey, additional illustrations of the built environment from neighboring areas, including New York City, will be put forward. 1
The class approach will be pluralistic; historical references will be drawn from art history, social history, and cultural studies. The range of material culture produced by Americans of all ethnic and socio-economic groups will be introduced. To supplement the traditional art and architectural historic approach, the course will also include discussions of the most significant works of engineering that relate to the creation of architecture. Examples such as train sheds, exposition halls, stadium, bridges, industrial buildings, and dams will be reviewed during the course. Some of the philosophical and logistical differences and similarities between architects and engineers and between architecture and engineering will be discussed. Because of the time limits imposed by a course that is 10 weeks long, some of the more detailed aspects of architectural design movements will be discussed only briefly. Both urban and rural building types will be discussed. To support the review of New Jersey s built environment examples will be drawn from domestic architecture in both the Delaware River and Hudson River valleys. Whenever critical to the historical timeline, our discussions of American Architectural History will include relevant examples of architectural history from other parts of the world in particular the historical developments in architecture in Europe. This will help place development of American works of architecture within the wider context of architectural movements throughout the world. II. Course Requirements Attendance at lectures and participation in discussions/ seminars each week. One unexcused absence and two excused absence are allowed; for a passing grade, students must attend 70% of the lectures. Weekly readings from the course text: American Architecture, A History, by Leland M. Roth (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2001 or 2003 imprint). This text may be conveniently purchased new or used on Amazon.com or Alibris.com. If you do not have access to the Internet, please order the book in advance through your local bookseller, such as Borders or Barnes and Noble. To facilitate discussions in class, students are expected to read the appropriate chapter covering each period before the class in which it will be presented. Supplementary readings will be assigned from the photocopied Class Handout Reader (available for purchase from the Office of Continuing Ed). Completion of two writing/ research assignments, approximately 5 pages each (typed and double spaced). Successful completion of one multiple-choice exam. 2
III. Lecture/ Reading Schedule Class No./ Date Class Topics 1. January 17, 2013 Course Introduction Themes, Currents, and Tendencies in American Building The Art of the Architect and the Art of the Engineer Research Methods in Architectural History; Introduction to Essential Reference Materials and Library/ Internet Resources Introduction to the Language of Architecture Reading Assignment: Roth, Chapter 1. Reading Assignment: Class Handout Articles #1 and 2. 2. January 24, 2013 Settlement of North America by Indigenous Peoples First European Settlements in North America, 1608-1700 Massachusetts Bay, Quaker Pennsylvania, Virginia Early House Types: Timber Frame, Adobe, Native Vernacular Reading Assignment: Class Handout Articles #3 and 4. 3. January 31, 2013 There will be no class on this Thursday. 4. February 7, 2013 Vernacular Architecture and Fashions in Architecture, 1700-1750 Development of Planned Landscapes and American Urbanism; Plans for Boston, Charleston, Philadelphia, Annapolis, and New Haven; first appearance of the Rowhouse Reading Assignment: Roth, Chapter 3. Reading Assignment: Class Handout Articles #5 and 6. 5. February 14, 2013 Carpenters, Builders, and Architects, 1750-1790 18 th Century Houses and Public Buildings Buckland, Harrison, Swan, and Byrd Colonial Williamsburg Reading Assignment: Class Handout Articles #7 and 8. Writing Assignment #1 Due Today. 6. February 21, 2013 Neoclassicism in the Federal Period, 1790-1810 Thomas Jefferson, Charles Bulfinch, Benjamin Henry Latrobe The Design of Washington, D.C. Rise of the Professional Architect Reading Assignment: Roth, Chapter 5. Reading Assignment: Class Handout Article #9. 7. February 28, 2013 Greek and Gothic Revivals, 1810-1840 From Canals to Railroads, Rise of the Engineer Plantations and Villas The Italianate and other Revival Styles 3
Reading Assignment: Roth, Chapter 6. Reading Assignment: Class Handout Article #10. 8. March 7, 2013 The Civil War and the Centennial Expo, Philadelphia, 1840-1880 AJ Davis, James Renwick, Richard Upjohn, John and Washington Roebling, Frank Furness Cathedrals, Parish Churches, Railroad Terminals, and Houses for the Middle Class Reading Assignment: Roth, Chapter 7. Reading Assignment: Class Handout Article #11. 9. March 14, 2013 Eclecticism and the Triumph of Commerce, 1880-1920s; The Industrial Development of the US, World War I, the Great Depression, and Public Works HH Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Richard M Hunt, Charles F McKim, and Frank Lloyd Wright The Development of the Tall Office Building in Chicago and New York The Shingle Style, Gustav Stickley, and Romanticism Beaux Arts Country Homes Federal Dams Projects and Great Bridges From Art Deco to Modernism, 1920s to 1960s; World War II, the Cold War, and the Space Race New York Skyscrapers Reading Assignment: Roth, Chapter 8 and Chapter 9. Reading Assignment: Class Handout Article #12. 10. March 21, 2013 Machines to Live In : Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Fallingwater The American Century, 1960s to 2000, and the Twenty First Century; Corporate Modern to Post-Modernism; Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi, Richard Meier, Frank Gehry, Fall of the Soviet Union, Ascendance of Market Capitalism, 9-11, the New Millennium; Recent Optimism and Skepticism Writing Assignment No. 2 Due Today. IV. Bibliography Below are several suggested reading lists for students interested in pursuing the study of architectural history, the history of engineering and science, historic preservation, and building science in the United States. 4
A. Architectural History General and U.S. Banham, Reyner. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1960. Benevolo, Leonardo. History of Modern Architecture. Two volumes. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1984. Calthorpe, Peter. The Next American Metropolis; Ecology, Community, and the American Dream. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993. Frankl, Paul. Principles of Architectural History, The Four Phases of Architectural History, 1420-1900. Translated and Edited by James F. O Gorman. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1968. Garvin, James L. A Building History of Northern New England. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2001. Greenagle, Frank L. The New Jersey Churchscape; Encountering Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Churches. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Gutter, Robert P., and Janet W. Foster. Building by the Book; Pattern-Book Architecture in New Jersey. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992. Harris, Cyril M. Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1983; originally published 1977. Howe, Jeffery, ed. The Houses We Live In; An Identification Guide to the History and Style of American Domestic Architecture. London: PRC Publishing, Ltd., 2003. Kennedy, Roger G. Architecture, Men, Women and Money in America 1600-1860. New York: Random House, 1985. Kimball, Fiske. Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1966; originally published 1922. Kostof, Spiro. The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History. Boston: A Bulfinch Press Book, Little, Brown and Company, 1992. Kostof, Spiro. The City Shaped; Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History. Boston: A Bulfinch Press Book, Little, Brown and Company, 1991. Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. 5
Musgrove, John, ed. Sir Banister Fletcher s A History of Architecture. Boston: The Butterworth Group, 1987. Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Meaning in Western Architecture. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1983. Reynolds, Donald Martin. The Architecture of New York City; Histories and Views of Important Structures, Sites, and Symbols. New York: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1984. Trachtenberg, Marvin, and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: From Prehistory to Post- Modernism. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. and New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986. Watkin, David. The Rise of Architectural History. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980. Whiffen, Marcus, and Frederick Koeper. American Architecture. Two volumes. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1983. B. History of Engineering and Science. Banham, Reyner. A Concrete Atlantis; U.S. Industrial Building and European Modern Architecture, 1900-1925. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1986. Billington, David P. The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy. New Haven: Princeton University Art Museum, distributed by Yale University Press, 2003. Condit, Carl. American Building Art: The Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960. Herrin, Dean. America Transformed: Engineering and Technology in the Nineteenth Century. Reston, VA: ASCE Press, 2002. Jandl, H. Ward, ed. The Technology of Historic American Buildings. Washington, D.C.: Published by the Foundation for Preservation Technology for the Association for Preservation Technology, 1983. Pannell, J.P.M. Man The Builder: An Illustrated History of Engineering. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 1977. Petroski, Henry. Engineers of Dreams; Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. 6
Pfammatter, Ulrich. The Making of the Modern Architect and Engineer; The origins and development of a scientific and industrially oriented education. Boston: Birkhauser, Publishers for Architecture, 2000. Schodek, Daniel L. Landmarks in American Civil Engineering. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987. C. Historic Preservation. Gayle, Margot, and Carol Gayle. Cast-Iron Architecture in America; The Significance of James Bogardus. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. Maddex, Diane, ed. All About Old Buildings; The Whole Preservation Catalog. Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1985. Parks, Janet, and Alan G. Neumann. The Old World Builds the New: The Guastavino Company and the Technology of the Catalan Vault, 1885-1962. New York: Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library and the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University in the City of New York, 1996. Tung, Anthony M. Preserving the World s Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis. New York: Clarkson Potter, Publishers, 2001. 7