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Note from the Editor

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 20:29:48 GMT

by Christine Henry, VAN Editor

Welcome to the Fall 2015 issue of the Vernacular Architecture Newsletter! This issue is packed with information—from announcements about conferences—especially the 2016 VAF conference in Durham, North Carolina—to calls for papers, and news about members. But I want to particularly draw your attention to the dialogue that has been started around the 50^th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act on the President's Blog. This is a great chance for members to comment and discuss across space and time, until we all get another chance to meet in person in Durham. Enjoy!

Christine

VAF Annual Conference, Durham, North Carolina, June 1-4, 2016 From Farm to Factory: Piedmont Stories in Black and White

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 20:22:03 GMT

Featured Dialogue: 50th Anniversary of the Historic Preservation Act

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 19:27:59 GMT

by Gretchen Buggeln, Valparaiso University

The Chicago VAF conference this past June began with an excellent and provocative lecture by Professor Davarian Baldwin that centered on the fate of Chicago’s Checkerboard Lounge blues club. In the Q&A following the talk, Louis Nelson, architectural historian at the University of Virginia, raised important questions about the way we think about historic preservation in the United States, the language of the Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and whether VAF members could and should push for a new definition of historic preservation. Nelson's remarks sparked a lively conversation that rippled through the conference.

Professor Baldwin graciously agreed to let us reprint a portion of his June lecture in this issue of the VAN. In addition, I've asked three VAF members to respond. First, Louis Nelson reiterates his questions and critique. Jennifer Baughn, Architectural Historian for the State of Mississippi, responds with a current practitioner's perspective. Finally, Jennifer Cousineau will adds Canadian perspective. All of these essays appear in the President's Blog section of the web site with open comments sections. We hope that this online conversation will elicit your engagement. Please join in!

Call for Authors-Vernacular Architecture Studies Series

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:57:21 GMT

By Kim Hoagland

The Vernacular Architecture Studies Series, also known as the Special Series, seeks authors for future volumes. For more information, see the Special Series page on the website.

The Vernacular Architecture Studies Series is a series of books that are designed to introduce vernacular architecture to new audiences. Written by experts in the field, the books can instruct the reader in research techniques, discuss interpretation of evidence, or explore a major issue. The books are designed to be short (100-page manuscripts), well-illustrated (100 images), and accessible. The University of Tennessee Press is our publisher.

If you have an idea for a book that might fit this series, or if you are looking for an idea for your next book, please consult our webpage We are happy to discuss possibilities with you.

Call for Papers-7th Forum on Preservation Practice due October 15

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:53:36 GMT

Photo Landscape Conference October 15-17

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:45:39 GMT

PhotoPaysage / Landscape Representation

Albuquerque, NM, USA, October 15-17, 2015

Website: http://unmphotolandscape.com

A French / American Dialogue about the role of photography in changing conceptions of landscape

Images credits: Left: © J.B. Jackson/UNM, 1997. Right, top to bottom: © Sabin Delcour 2015 (cropped); © Miguel Gandert, 1996; © Geoffroy Mathieu and Bertrand Stofleth 2013; © J.B. Jackson/UNM, 2015 (cropped).

Three photographic exhibits, film screenings, social events and two days of talks by photographers, landscape architects, writers and historians.

The conference will feature a three-year French research initiative on the interface of landscape, photography and theory, along with contributors toDrawn to Landscape: The Pioneering Work of J. B. Jackson, edited by Janet Mendelsohn and Chris Wilson, which debuts at the conference.

Organized by the Ecole nationale supérieure du paysage de Versailles (French National Landscape Architecture School), and the School of Architecture and Planning, and University Libraries at the University of New Mexico

French Speakers U. S. Speakers Session Chairs

Monique Sicard Timothy Davis Brian Goldstein

Jordi Ballesta Paul Groth Richard Longstreth

Bruno Notteboom Helen L. Horowitz Chester Liebs

Frédéric Pousin Matthew Coolidge Virginia Scharff

Sabine Delcour Miguel Gandert Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

Marie-Madeleine Ozdoba Laurie Olin Katya Crawford

Raphaële Bertho Lucy Lippard Laura Harjo

Lin Chi-Ming Chris Wilson Kymberly Pinder

Exhibitions

“Photographic Notes On the Road: J. B. Jackson, 1955-1989,” School of Architecture and Planning Gallery, October 15 - November 9, curator, Jordi Ballesta.

“Vernacular in Place: Old and New Topographic Photography,” UNM Art Museum, October 16 - December 12, curators, Miguel Gandert and Chris Wilson.

“Documenting the Cultural Landscape: The J.B. Jackson and Chester Liebs Collections.” October 15 - 17, Center for Southwest Research, Zimmerman Library, curators, Audra Bellmore and Erin Fussell.

French Sponsors: Agence nationale de la recherché; AUSser: Architecture Urbanistique Société; and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique . At UNM: Center for the Southwest, History Department; Center for Southwest Research; College of Fine Arts; George Pearl Endowment; Historic Preservation and Regionalism Program; Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media Program; Landscape Architecture Program; Office of the Provost; and the University Art Museum

Call For Papers-VAF 2016 Annual Meeting 2016 in Durham, NC due October 30

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:10:42 GMT

Deadline – October 30, 2015

The Vernacular Architecture Forum invites paper proposals and applications for the Pamela H. Simpson Presenter’s Fellowships for its 35th Annual Conference in Durham, North Carolina, June 1-4, 2016.

Papers may address vernacular and everyday buildings, sites, or cultural landscapes worldwide. Submissions on all relevant topics are welcome but we encourage papers exploring African-American life, including slavery, the rise of a black middle class, the Civil Rights movement, and the relationship of race and the built environment; the transformation and industrialization of agricultural landscapes; and the architecture of institutions, including churches, schools, and hospitals.

SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT

Papers should be analytical rather than descriptive, and no more than twenty minutes in length. Proposals for complete sessions, roundtable discussions or other innovative means that facilitate scholarly discourse are especially encouraged.

Proposals should clearly state the argument of the paper and explain the methodology and content in fewer than 400 words. Please include the paper title, author’s name, and email address, along with a one-page c.v.. You may include up to two images with your submission. Note that presenters must deliver their papers in person and be VAF members at the time of the conference. Speakers who do not register for the conference by March 1, 2016, will be withdrawn. Please do not submit an abstract if you are not committed to attending the papers session on Saturday, June 4th.

THE DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS OCTOBER 30, 2015. Abstracts should be emailed to the VAF Papers Committee Chair, Annmarie Adams, at papers@vafweb.org. For general information about the Durham conference, please visit the conference website at www.vafweb.org/Durham-2016 or contact Claudia Brown at durham@vafweb.org.

Pamela H. Simpson Presenter’s Fellowships:

VAF’s Pamela H. Simpson Presenter’s Fellowships offer a limited amount of financial assistance to students and young professionals presenting papers at VAF’s annual conference. Awards are intended to offset travel and registration costs for students, and to attract developing scholars to the organization. Any person presenting a paper who is currently enrolled in a degree-granting program, or who has received a degree within one year of the annual conference is eligible to apply. Awards cannot exceed $500. Previous awardees are ineligible, even if their status has changed. Recipients are expected to participate fully in the conference, including tours and workshops.

To apply, submit with your abstract a one-page attachment with "Simpson Presenter’s Fellowship" at the top and the following information: 1) name, 2) institution or former institution, 3) degree program, 4) date of degree (received or anticipated), 5) mailing address, 6) permanent email address, 7) telephone number, and 8) paper title.

Montgomery Modern Book Launch Party, October 30

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:07:30 GMT

Celebrate the launch of Montgomery Modern: Modern Architecture in Montgomery County, Maryland, 1930-1979, written by architectural historian Clare Lise Kelly. The evening will include an illustrated talk by the author, reception, and book signing.

The Montgomery County Planning Department (M-NCPPC) is hosting the launch party on Friday, October 30 from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, Maryland. The event, sponsored by the Planning Department’s Historic Preservation Office, is free. RSVPs are encouraged but not required.

Montgomery Modern: Modern Architecture in Montgomery County, Maryland, 1930-1979

by Clare Lise Kelly (M-NCPPC, 2015)

This book is a chronicle of modern architecture in Montgomery County, Maryland from its first appearance in the 1930s through the 1970s. Located outside the nation’s capital, Montgomery County experienced a great postwar building boom, benefitting from access to federal jobs and a rolling, often rugged landscape. Modern designers include Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer and Charles Moore as well as skilled local practitioners of Charles M. Goodman and Keyes, Lethbridge & Condon. Award-winning projects featured in the book range from custom homes to modern tract houses, from corporate campuses to roadside businesses. Richly illustrated with current photographs of Carol Highsmith and archival views by Robert Lautman, the publication includes biographical sketches of practitioners (architects, landscape architects, developers, planners) and an inventory of key buildings and subdivisions. Montgomery Modern informs the reader about the significance of modern architecture and the fragile nature of the built environment from the recent past.

Clare Lise Kelly is senior architectural historian for M-NCPPC Montgomery County Planning Department. She is the recipient of the AIA Kea Medal (Potomac Valley Chapter) and the the author of Places from the Past, a history of the built environment of Montgomery County which won the Maryland Historical Trust Heritage Education award. She has a B.S. in Design & Environmental Analysis from Cornell University, and an M.S. in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont, and is a board member of Docomomo-DC. She established the M-NCPPC Montgomery Modern initiative to raise awareness of mid-century modern architecture, earning education awards from the Maryland Historical Trust and Montgomery Preservation, Inc.

Carol Highsmith has been called America’s Photographer, having made a career documenting the nation’s built environment, focusing on its fragile and disappearing architectural heritage. Her photographs are housed in a permanent collection in the Archives of the Library of Congress.

Call For Papers-Reclaiming Urban Renewal Conference due December 4

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:05:09 GMT

RECLAIMING URBAN RENEWAL: SYMPOSIUM IN LAWRENCE, MA: Coming up on May, 7, 2016.

How has urban renewal shaped Lawrence, Massachusetts and other industrial cities since the Second World War? This symposium will focus on Lawrence and other mid-size industrial cities affected by federal and state urban renewal programs, the tear-down of aging housing stock, highways being constructed through neighborhoods, and the destruction of long-established immigrant communities.

We are looking for folks who want to present! This is the third history symposium hosted by the Lawrence History Center. More information including the full call for participation can be found here. Deadline to submit a proposal to present: Dec. 4, 2015!

The 2016 Beveridge Fellowship now accepting applications due April 1

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 16:44:00 GMT

For more information and the application: http://friendsoffairsted.org/fellowship/

VAF member Susanneh Bieber receives fellowship at Crystal Bridges

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:34:01 GMT

Susanneh Bieber was awarded a fellowship at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for the fall term to work on her second book project that explores American Regionalism across the fields of art, architecture, and urban planning.

VAF member Marta Gutman receives many honors for new book

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 14:51:21 GMT

Marta Gutman, VAF member and editor emeritus of Buildings and Landscapes has received many honors for her recently published book A City for Children; Women, Architecture, and the Charitable Landscapes of Oakland, 1850-1950 including the CCNY Architecture Alumni Group of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture Faculty Achievement Award for 2015, The University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation 2015 Book Prize, and Honorable Mention in the 2013-2015 biannual award for the Gene and Adele Malott Prize for Recording Community Activism from the The Langum Charitable Trust. Congratulations Marta!

VAF member Stella Nair publishes a new book

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 14:33:19 GMT

VAF member Stella Nair, this past July has published an architectural survey and analysis of the Inca royal estate at Chinchero with the University of Texas Press. According to the press release, At Home with Sapa Inca: Architecture, Space, and Legacy at Chinchero significantly increases our understanding of how the Inca conceived, constructed, and gave meaning to their built environment.

By examining the stunning stone buildings and dynamic spaces of the royal estate of Chinchero, Nair brings to light the rich complexity of Inca architecture. This investigation ranges from the paradigms of Inca scholarship and a summary of Inca cultural practices to the key events of Topa Inca’s reign and the many individual elements of Chinchero’s extraordinary built environment.

What emerges are the subtle, often sophisticated ways in which the Inca manipulated space and architecture in order to impose their authority, identity, and agenda. The remains of grand buildings, as well as a series of deft architectural gestures in the landscape, reveal the unique places that were created within the royal estate and how one space deeply informed the other. These dynamic settings created private places for an aging ruler to spend time with a preferred wife and son, while also providing impressive spaces for imperial theatrics that reiterated the power of Topa Inca, the choice of his preferred heir, and the ruler’s close relationship with sacred forces.

This careful study of architectural details also exposes several false paradigms that have profoundly misguided how we understand Inca architecture, including the belief that it ended with the arrival of Spaniards in the Andes. Instead, Nair reveals how, amidst the entanglement and violence of the European encounter, an indigenous town emerged that was rooted in Inca ways of understanding space, place, and architecture and that paid homage to a landscape that defined home for Topa Inca.

Trained as an architect and architectural historian, Professor Nair is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History and Core Faculty in the Archaeology Interdepartmental Program at UCLA. She coauthored (with Jean-Pierre Protzen) The Stones of Tiahuanaco: A Study of Architecture and Construction.

Profile of VAF Member Tom Carter in the University of Utah magazine

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 14:24:05 GMT

There is a wonderful article that provides an overview of the career of VAF member Tom Carter in the recent issue of the magazine of the University of Utah, where he is a professor emeritus. Among other projects, the article mentions the work Tom is doing for the 2017 VAF conference in Salt Lake City. Congrats Tom on a wonderful career and a very nice profile!

http://continuum.utah.edu/features/the-stories-buildings-tell

Opportunities to Serve the VAF

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 14:10:45 GMT

The nominating committee of the Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF) is seeking nominations for individuals to serve as members of the organization’s Board of Directors. Board members serve three-year terms. Individuals nominated this year, and subsequently elected, will begin service in June 2016.

The VAF is administered by a volunteer board composed of dedicated professionals and scholars from diverse disciplines who live and work in all parts of the United States and Canada. The Board meets twice a year, once during our Annual Conference in the Spring and again in the Fall. Board members are expected to attend these day-long meetings and participate in committee work throughout the year.

The committee also seeks nominations for the position of President-Elect to start in June 2016. In the spring of 2017, the President-Elect will rise to the position of President of the VAF for two years. Candidates for the position of President-Elect should be familiar with the organization’s disparate programs, have a vision for the future of the group, and possess significant leadership skills.

Nominations should be sent to William D. Moore at moorewd@bu.edu, preferably before October 15, 2015. Nominees must be members of the Vernacular Architecture Forum. Please include a short letter (not exceeding one page) indicating the position for which the person is being nominated and describing their qualifications as well as a short vita/resume (not exceeding two pages). Self-nominations are actively encouraged.

Fall 2015 Bibliography

Christine R Henry — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 19:46:12 GMT

compiled by Ian Stevenson and Zach Violette

“Roadside Attraction: A Photographer Is Drawn to Retro Rest Stops.” Preservation, Summer 2015.

Agazarian, Dory. “Victorian Roads to Rome: Historical Travel in the Wake of the Grand Tour.” Nineteenth-Century Contexts 37, no. 5 (October 20, 2015): 391–409. doi:10.1080/08905495.2015.1080883.

Benyamin, Jasmine. “Towards a (new) Objectivity: Hermann Muthesius, Photography and the English House.” The Journal of Architecture 20, no. 4 (July 4, 2015): 579–95. doi:10.1080/13602365.2015.1064985.

Bhattacharya, Sumangala. “‘Those Two Thin Strips of Iron”: The Uncanny Mobilities of Railways in British India.’” Nineteenth-Century Contexts 37, no. 5 (October 20, 2015): 411–30. doi:10.1080/08905495.2015.1081582.

Bower, Stephanie. Kentucky Countryside in Transition: A Streetcar Suburb and the Origins of Middle-Class ... Louisville, 1850-1910. Knoxville: Univ Of Tennessee Press, 2015.

Dearinger, Ryan. The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West. First edition. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2016.

Drexler, Carl G., ed. Historical Archaeology of Arkansas: A Hidden Diversity. First edition. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2016.

García-Esparza, Juan A. “Epistemological Paradigms in the Perception and Assessment of Vernacular Architecture.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 21, no. 9 (October 21, 2015): 869–88. doi:10.1080/13527258.2012.666755.

García, Guadalupe. Beyond the Walled City: Colonial Exclusion in Havana. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2016.

Gonda, Jeffrey D. Unjust Deeds: The Restrictive Covenant Cases and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement. Justice, Power, and Politics. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

Harbusch, Gregor. “Work in Text and Images: Sigfried Giedion’s Space, Time and Architecture , 1941–1967.” The Journal of Architecture 20, no. 4 (July 4, 2015): 596–620. doi:10.1080/13602365.2015.1069371.

Hart, Emma. Building Charleston: Town and Society in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World. Columbia: Univ Of South Carolina Pr, 2015.

Heard, Malcolm. French Quarter Manual: An Architectural Guide to New Orleans’s Vieux Carré. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2015.

Herrington, Susan. “Fraternally Yours: The Union Architecture of Oskar Stonorov and Walter Reuther.” Social History 40, no. 3 (July 3, 2015): 360–84. doi:10.1080/03071022.2015.1043189.

Huebner, Anna. “Tourism and Cultural Encounters in ‘the Last Frontiers.’” International Journal of Heritage Studies 21, no. 9 (October 21, 2015): 862–68. doi:10.1080/13527258.2012.661752.

Jester, Thomas C. “Aluminum Finishes in Postwar Architecture.” APT Bulletin 46, no. 1 (2015): 41–49.

Kezer, Zeynep. Building Modern Turkey: State, Space, and Ideology in the Early Republic. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015.

Kimble, Lionel. A New Deal for Bronzeville: Housing, Employment, and Civil Rights in Black Chicago, 1935-1955. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015.

Kolnberger, T. “Between Water and Land: Urban and Rural Settlement Forms in Cambodia with Special Reference to Phnom Penh.” Urban Morphology 19, no. 2 (2015).

Laudun, John. The Amazing Crawfish Boat. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2016.

Lennox, Jeffers. “The Geography of British, French, and Aboriginal Interactions in Early Nova Scotia, 1726–44.” William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 72, no. No. 3 (July 2015): 423–61.

Maher, Neil M. “‘Work for Others but None for Us’: The Economic and Environmental Inequalities of New Deal Relief.” Social History 40, no. 3 (July 3, 2015): 312–34. doi:10.1080/03071022.2015.1043188.

Marr, Alexander Brier. “Scales of Vision: Kiowa Model Tipis and the Mooney Commission.” Winterthur Portfolio 49, no. 2/3 (June 2015): 93–125. doi:10.1086/683244.

McSweeney, Anna. “Versions and Visions of the Alhambra in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman World.” West 86th 22, no. 1 (March 2015): 44–69. doi:10.1086/683080.

Mikula, Maja. “Vernacular Museum: Communal Bonding and Ritual Memory Transfer among Displaced Communities.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 21, no. 8 (September 14, 2015): 757–72. doi:10.1080/13527258.2015.1020961.

Pollack, Deborah C. Visual Art and the Urban Evolution of the New South. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2015.

Rickly-Boyd, Jillian M. “‘It’s Supposed to Be 1863, but It’s Really Not’: Inside the Representation and Communication of Heritage at a Pioneer Village.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 21, no. 9 (October 21, 2015): 889–904. doi:10.1080/13527258.2013.807397.

Rovang, Sarah. “Envisioning the Future of Modern Farming: The Electrified Farm at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 74, no. 2 (June 2015): 201–22.

Seiter, Jane I., Michael J. Worthington, Barbara L. Voss, and Megan S. Kane. “Carving Chopsticks, Building Home: Wood Artifacts from the Market Street Chinatown in San Jose, California.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19, no. 3 (September 2015): 664–85. doi:10.1007/s10761-015-0303-8.

Sîntionean, Codruţa. “The Preservation of the Chŏnju Hanok Village From Material Authenticity to the Themed Replica.” Future Anterior 12, no. 1 (Summer 2015): 57–75.

Smith, Monica L. “The Concept of Copies: An Archaeological View of the Terracotta Ornaments from Sisupalgarh, India.” West 86th 22, no. 1 (March 2015): 23–43. doi:10.1086/683079.

Sugarman, Joe. “Period Piece: A 19th-Century House in New Orleans Comes Back from Ruin.” Preservation, Summer 2015.

Thompson, H. A., and D. Murch. “Rethinking Urban America through the Lens of the Carceral State.” Journal of Urban History 41, no. 5 (September 1, 2015): 751–55. doi:10.1177/0096144215589939.

Tomory, Leslie. “London’s Water Supply before 1800 and the Roots of the Networked City.” Technology and Culture 56, no. 3 (2015): 704–37. doi:10.1353/tech.2015.0082.

Vossoughian, Nader. “From A4 Paper to the Octametric Brick: Ernst Neufert and the Geo-Politics of Standardisation in Nazi Germany.” The Journal of Architecture 20, no. 4 (July 4, 2015): 675–98. doi:10.1080/13602365.2015.1072232.

Walker, Julia. “Islands-in-the-City: Berlin’s Urban Fragments.” The Journal of Architecture 20, no. 4 (July 4, 2015): 699–717. doi:10.1080/13602365.2015.1075226.

Wilson, Katherine Anne. “The Household Inventory as Urban ‘theatre’ in Late Medieval Burgundy.” Social History 40, no. 3 (July 3, 2015): 335–59. doi:10.1080/03071022.2015.1043179.