Welcome to the February 2021 issue of VAN. Just scroll down the page for all the exciting news.  Some highlights come from our VAF members sharing their interesting work and accomplishments.  There is a reminder about our new publication schedule, so please keep sharing all those great pieces of news with me to include in our new monthly format.  You will also find another preview image from the tours being planned for the VAF annual meeting and conference in San Antonio in May 2022--mark your calendars!  Finally, the call for the next VAN Editor, with openings for two assistant editors is included in this issue.  If you are interested please don't hesitate to reach out and ask questions and encourage others to apply--it is a great way to learn more about the VAF community.

I hope you enjoy this issue!

Christine

VAN Editor

The Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF) solicits letters of interest to serve as part of its Vernacular Architecture Newsletter (VAN) team of editors.  The newsletter currently has openings for 1) VAN Editor; 2) Assistant Editor for News; and 3) Assistant Editor for Features. This will be an exciting opportunity to contribute to our VAF community and help VAN transition to a dynamic new format.

In a time of social distancing, digital communications are even more essential for keeping VAF members in touch and current.  In recent months, an ad hoc committee has reviewed the current state of VAN and envisioned ways VAN can be redesigned and restructured to be more useful for our members, more easily integrate with all our digital communication channels, and bring in new generations to VAF.  The VAF Board has approved a plan to increase VAN’s publication schedule from quarterly to monthly and to add two Assistant Editors to share the work of producing the newsletter.

Publication every month, with set deadlines for submission and publication, will improve communication and alleviate the uncertainty of publication.  Going forward, information that comes to VAN editors will be immediately posted in one of four blogs on the website, currently planned to cover VAF business, other business, member news, and features. A monthly digest of blog posts will be sent to members as VAN, with expanded visual and narrative content on a quarterly basis. Eight times a year, the newsletter will be mostly text and will include news and information items from the VAF.  Four times a year, the newsletter will have more images, longer features, the bibliography, and any news items.

Undertaking this work will be three editors. The VAN Editor will oversee the Assistant Editors and the collection, editing, and publishing of VAN eight times per year.  The VAN Editor serves a three-year term and is also a member of the VAF Board.  The Assistant Editor for Features will solicit and edit longer articles, works with the bibliographer, and oversee the collection, editing, and publishing of VAN four times per year. The Assistant Editor for News will edit/adapt and sends content to social media, coordinating with web editor.  The Assistant Editors will first serve a one or two year term to establish a rotation for the three positions and will then be eligible for a three year term.  The Assistant Editors will not serve on the Board. The plan is for the new VAN Editor to join the selection committee to select the Assistant Editors.  All editors will begin their terms in spring 2021 by shadowing the current VAN editor, Christine Henry.

To be considered for one of these VAN editorial positions, interested parties should send letters of interest and CVs/resumes (or any questions) to VAF President Claire Dempsey at dempseyc@bu.edu. Applicants should have knowledge of the VAF and its mission regarding the built environment; excellent writing, editing, and communication skills; and facility with social media. Past digital issues of VAN are available on the VAF website.

Applications for VAN Editor are due by March 1, 2021.

Applications for Assistant Editor for Features are due by April 1, 2021. 

Applications for Assistant Editor for News are due by April 1, 2021. 

Although this year because of the pandemic we will all gather again virtually to have our annual meeting and share wonderful research we want to make sure that everyone is planning for San Antonio in May 2022.  So this is the second installment of images that preview those exciting tours. Hope to see you all there! 

While staying in downtown San Antonio that you will be able to exit the hotel and find National Register properties within a few blocks in any direction. A very significant theme is landscapes of the New Deal, which we will see at the restored and reconstructed Mission San Jose, at the restored La Villita neighborhood (where we will have our end-of-conference fiesta), and even the famous River Walk. While not on any tour, you will be able to visit the historic core of the River Walk any time during your visit. This distinctive U-shaped bend separates Main Plaza from Alamo Plaza. In the 1920s the bend was bypassed, but it was not until the late 1930s that San Antonio Mayor Maury Maverick was able to convince FDR to fund the creation of a Spanish Colonial Revival retail fantasy. The result was a resounding commercial flop, but after Hemisfair in 1968 it became a major tourist magnet and home to many restaurants and bars.

In January 2020 VAF member Howard Davis published a new book, Working Cities: Architecture, Place and Production.  The book describes the history of industry in its relation to architecture and cities, argues for the continuing importance of cities in which things are crafted and manufactured, and proposes strategies with which cities can support local, humane industrial economies and the people who work in them­­.

A year ago VAF member Boyd C. Pratt published another of his studies in the vernacular architecture and landscape of the San Juan Islands: Island Farming: History and Landscape of Agriculture in the San Juan Islands.  

A free-ranging pig that caused an international war; a year’s crop of ginseng that paid off the mortgage; and a breachy cow that led to bloody murder.  Farming in the San Juan Islands has always presented challenges and opportunities.  From Coast Salish camas cultivation through homesteading to commercial farming, explore the islands’ rich agricultural history in the landscape and farms of today.  Tour guides included.

You can purchase the book on Amazon or send a check for $22.50 to Mulno Cove Publishing, 2551 Cattle Point Road, Friday Harbor, WA 98250 and Boyd will inscribe and sign it, too!

For a description of his previous book on the San Juan Islands, Lime: Quarrying and Limemaking in the San Juan Islands  you can visit  the Summer 2017 issue of VAN.

VAF member Brent Fortenberry has been appointed as the next Director of Preservation Studies and Christovich Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at Tulane School of Architecture, starting in June 2021.  Please see the full announcement for more details.

Historic Ithaca, where VAF member Christine O'Malley serves as the preservation services director, received a 2020 New York State Historic Preservation Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation Organizational Achievement. The press announcement from Governor Andrew Cuomo recognized their office and other statewide historic preservation advocacy organizations for rising "to the challenge of programming during a global pandemic and tumultuous political year. Their ingenuity, resilience, and creativity proved that preservation is imperative to quality of life and will be essential in navigating the path to economic recovery."

VAF Amber Wiley has been active in sharing her significant body of work on historic preservation and social justice.  On January 23 she was part of a panel hosted by ULCA Architecture and Design students titled “Toward an Anti-Racist Architecture.”  On January 27-28 she was part of the UMD Conference “Re-Centering the Margins: Justice and Equity in Historic Preservation”  and an interview with Amber appeared in the January 25 issue of the Architect’s Newspaper where she spoke about her work for an upcoming book Concrete Solutions: Architecture, Activism, and Black Power titled “School’s in Session: Washington, DC’s unique political status reflected in the design of its schools.”