Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference

Salt Lake City, May 31 to June 4, 2017

During the first week of June 2017, Salt Lake City will serve as the host location for the annual conference of the Vernacular Architecture Forum. The 2017 event marks the 30^th anniversary of the first VAF conference in Utah, which was held in May of 1987. Dr. Thomas Carter of the University of Utah reprises his role as conference organizer. Sponsors this year include The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Utah State Historical Society, the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah, the University of Utah’s College of Architecture and Planning, and the Park City Planning Department. Preservation Utah (formerly Utah Heritage Foundation) is serving as conference planners, with principal funding from the VAF, Zions Bank, and Philip G. McCarthey.

The Salt Lake City conference highlights the process by which the vast interior of the western United States was transformed beginning in the nineteenth century into one of the world’s most distinctive regional landscapes. The story is expressed in the Two Utahs conference title, which acknowledges the central role The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also referred to as the Mormons or LDS Church, played in the place-making process, while at the same time recognizing the significant contributions of non-Mormon forces. Rather than framing the narrative within a simple Mormon/non-Mormon opposition, we break things down into a more fundamental dialogue with religious and secular forces; both Mormons and non-Mormons, and how they had to find ways of making a living and utilizing, even exploiting the region’s ample natural resources. The real duality in the landscape may be between idealism (religious utopia, Edenic nature, sustainable development) and pragmatism (individual enterprise, outdoor recreation, economic growth). Conference tours have been designed to introduce attendees to the intricacies of the region’s built environment, and to raise questions about how landscapes are constructed, maintained, contested, and changed.

Conference Schedule

Wednesday, May 31^st

Opening Reception, The Depot - http://depotslc.com/

Thursday, June 1^st

Tour 1: Town and Temple: the Mormon Landscape of Utah’s Sanpete Valley

This tour focuses on nineteenth century Mormon architecture and town planning.

Tour leaders: Thomas Carter and Peter Goss

Preview: A preview can be found in Carter’s newest book, Building Zion: The Material World of Mormon Settlement (Minnesota 2015)

Tour 2: Boomtown: From Mining to Skiing in Park City

The way western mining towns have been re-made into recreational meccas (based on skiing) is showcased in this day-long tour in the Wasatch Mountain Range.

Tour leaders: Anne Oliver, SWCA, and Anya Grahn and Hannah Tyler, Park City Planning Department.

Friday, June 2nd

Morning Tour A: Exchange Place and the Gentile City

From early in downtown’s development, Salt Lake City was composed of two distinctive cultural areas. The area on the north, centered on Temple Square, that was owned by the LDS Church, and the Gentile (Non-Mormon) area to the south, along 300 and 400 South Streets, which is the focus of this morning’s tour.

Tour leader: Kirk Huffaker, Preservation Utah.

Preview: For advance reading, see Preservation Utah’s Downtown Walking Tour Guide – Available online here. http://www.utahheritagefoundation.com/tours-and-events/self-guided-tours/item/17-historic-downtown-salt-lake-city#.WFg_nlMrKCo

Morning Tour B: The City Moves East

After 1890, the core residential area of Salt Lake City shifted from the downtown area east along South Temple Street (Brigham Street) and then into the new Avenues subdivision. This tour looks at the architectural implications of the reconfiguration.

Tour leaders: Roger Roper and Cory Jensen, Utah State Historical Society.

Preview: For a preview, see Bim Oliver’s South Temple Street Landmarks: Salt Lake City’s First Historic District, due to be released in January 2017 (The History Press).

Afternoon Tour A: Temple Square

During the afternoon, the LDS Church will open a number of buildings in and around Temple Square, including the Brigham Young’s Beehive and Lion Houses, the Joseph Smith Center (formerly the Hotel Utah—the site of the 1987 VAF conference), Assembly Hall (18xxdate?), the Tabernacle (1865-66??), and the Conference Center (2000, as well as exhibits on the ongoing renovation of the Salt Lake Temple (1893).

Tour leader: Emily Utt, Historic Sites Curator, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Preview: For a preview, see Elwin C. Robison’s Gathering as One: The History of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

Afternoon Tour B: Light Rail and Re-urbanization

Tour members will ride the TRAX light rail system to the 900 South and Sugar House districts to experience the city’s efforts to revitalize these neighborhoods through tax increment financing, upzoning for higher density, accessible transit options.

Tour leader:  Susan Petheram, University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning.

Saturday June 3^rd

Conference Paper Sessions, Reception, Annual Business Meeting, and Banquet

Salt Lake City Marriott City Center (Conference Headquarters Hotel)

Sunday June 4^th

Optional activities include the following self-guided tours:

Snowbird Mountain Resort

Salt Lake City’s Mid-Century Modern Architecture via the Utah Heritage Walks App – available in the Apple app store and Google Play

Visit The Mighty 5: Utah’s National Parks

Canyonlands National Park, then watching the sunset through an impossibly delicate rock bow in Arches National Park. It means standing nose-to-nose with ancient petroglyphs in Capitol Reef National Park, then lying on your back as a beautiful meteor shower streaks across the Milky Way. It means gazing down at coral-hued rock hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park, then gazing upward at the steep walls of slot canyon trails in Zion National Park. It means hiking, river rafting, biking, picnicking, walking, mule riding, exploring and stargazing.

Salt Lake City Marriott City Center available at a discount for VAF conference attendees now through May 5^th. 

Book your group rate for Vernacular Architecture Forum

The Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF), a non profit dedicated to the appreciation and study of ordinary buildings and landscapes, is now accepting nominations for appreciation, protections and preservation advocacy work in the Intermountain West—a region bounded by the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Cascades and Sierra Nevada on the west.

Award for Advocacy

The Vernacular Architecture Forum encourages and supports citizen efforts to protect our vernacular built heritage. The protection and preservation of that heritage depends on good stewardship by property owners supported by sound government land use policies. However, the long-term preservation of our cultural heritage is rarely achieved without the support of a well-informed, involved citizenry.

The VAF seeks to encourage citizen-based advocacy by recognizing exemplary efforts and achievements on behalf of our vernacular built heritage. The VAF Award for Advocacy honors individuals and groups for exceptional contributions toward the appreciation and protection of vernacular buildings and landscapes. The award recognizes outstanding initiative, commitment, and action to promote and protect vernacular resources. The award may be made in recognition of a specific advocacy effort, or on the basis of the nominee's long-term record of advocacy. 

This award will be presented at the concluding banquet of the annual VAF conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, May 31- June 3, 2017 http://www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org/event-2314166 

• The 2017 Award for Advocacy is open to work performed in the Intermountain West—the territory bounded by the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Cascades and Sierra Nevada on the west. Any public or private entity in these states may be nominated.

• Nominee may be an individual or an organization and may nominate themselves for consideration.

• The basis of the nomination must be documented.

• Award is not based on victory (meaning not demolished) but demonstrating vision, outreach, reason, efficacy, players, timeline, and outcome.
  

• Deadline for submittal of nominations: March 15, 2017
  

• Nominations must include the following within a PowerPoint not to exceed 15 slides: A description of the organization and parties involved, the nature of the nominated project or program, the period of time of their involvement, where and why it occurred, and the outcomes.  Please include good quality images pertinent to the work.

• Please include name, location and contact information (phone and email) of the nominee (or nominated organization) on the first slide. Please use this same name for the filename. 

Awardee will be given full registration to the 2017 VAF conference, plus registration for a guest at the conference banquet, a certificate of excellence, recognition in our national newsletter and will be recognized during the banquet award ceremony.

Please submit all nominations as a single PowerPoint file to the following email address:

VAF_Awa.vhj14fg5auo1w0rx@u.box.com

Questions? email Maire O’Neill Conrad: maireo@montana.eduor phone: (406) 994-3950

The VAF-New England Annual Meeting will be held on March 25, 2017 at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The day’s events include the annual meeting of the VAF-NE membership, conference papers, and reports on field trips and the VAF conference. Meeting is open to members and non-members alike.

The Association for Preservation Technology (APT) Building Technology Heritage Library (BTHL) reached a major milestone in September 2016 with its two millionth download.   The BTHL is an online archive of vintage architectural trade catalogs and other technical literature.  These items come from a variety of institutional and private collections.  The Association for Preservation Technology created the BTHL to serve the historic preservation community with rare documents that were not readily available to the public.  The BTHL is hosted by the Internet Archive.

The APT initiative started with just a few dozen items on the APT web site in 2006.  Since that time the collection has grown.  An agreement with the Canadian Centre for Architecture in 2010 resulted in 3,000+ documents.  Since that time the collections has doubled with contributions from Tulane University and several private collectors.

These documents are being downloaded by thousands of are users for a variety of purposes.  Preservation professionals are using these documents as part of their research into heritage buildings and their treatments.  Other uses include home owners who are curious about their own structures. One early paint catalog was a key piece of evidence in a trial about a lead paint mitigation fund in California.  APT welcomes users to reviews the items that they have downloaded.

 Mike Jackson, FAIA, the co-chair of this project said, ‘this is an exciting benchmark and shows the broad potential for these vintage documents to have a contemporary importance.  The BTHL has is modern portal to the material past.”  We are also grateful to the sponsors and contributors to this project including the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Heritage Preservation Education Foundation, Tulane University, the National Center for Preservation Training and Technology and numerous private collectors.

A few selection from the Building Technology Heritage Library:

Wunda Weve Carpet,  c. 1950   Beirug Mills, Inc. Greenville SC

https://archive.org/details/InsideAmericasLoveliestHomesWithWundaWeve

This catalog has great interiors views of homes with the company’s carpets.  Many of the pictures even feature the owners sitting, usually in very traditional interiors.  However, one particular home did not feature the owner, but did feature this modern icon, Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan CT.

Carthage Floor Coverings, 1939    Carthage Mills, Cincinnati OH

https://archive.org/details/CarthageStandardSpecificationFloorCovering

Flooring and finishes of all kinds a well represented.   Art deco linoleum patterns where particularly popular in the 1930s.

Vaughan’s Spring Flowers, 1926  Chicago IL

https://archive.org/details/VaughansSpringFloweringBulbs

Landscaping and site materials such as fencing and paving are included in the archive.

California Door Company, 1923,  San Francisco CA

https://archive.org/details/CaliforniaDoorCompanyCatalogueNo.23

Millwork, woodwork, windows and doors are well represented in the collection.   This California company featured wood doors in every possible style, from Victorian to Arts and Crafts.

New Homes, c. 1925   Lake Shore Lumber Company, Erie PA

https://archive.org/details/LakeShoreLumberCoalhousePlans

There are almost 1,000 period house plan catalogs in the collection.  These include a few 19^th century pattern books as well as many 20^th century catalogs for “kit homes” such as those from Sears Roebuck & Co. or the Aladdin Company.

Cole Steel Office Equipment, 1959.  Cole Steel Equipment Co.,  Cincinnati OH

https://archive.org/details/ColeSteelOfficeEquipment

Furniture and furnishings catalogs extend the collection into the topic of interior design.  This office equipment catalogs featured everything from desks to typewriters.

ASAP/9: The Arts of the Present
October 26-28, 2017
Hosted by the University of California, Berkeley
at the Oakland Marriott City Center

Call for Papers

ASAP/9 invites proposals from scholars and artists addressing the contemporary arts in all their forms since the 1960s—literary, visual, performing, musical, cinematic, design, and digital. We are interested in work across disciplines and media that examine the formal, cultural, social,
and political dimensions of the arts today.

• What roles can we imagine for the arts in relation to forms of social action and political resistance now?
• What conditions of risk and precarity inform contemporary artistic practice, reception, and community?
• What sense of the world at various scales—global, local, national, and more—can we discover in the particular sites and wider networks that define the arts today?
• What defines the environments and ecologies of the present, and how do we understand the duration and futurity of human action over time?
• What flows of people, capital, and power shape the arts today, and how do experiences of migration and displacement register in national and transnational contexts?
• What technologies, genres, platforms, or systems distinguish the contemporary arts, and what media archaeologies do we discover in the material histories of the present?
• What performances of affect, attention, and fandom characterize the arts of the present, and how do different modes of distribution (serial, streaming, viral) address their audiences?
  

Proposals assessing the current place and past legacies of the Bay Area in the arts are especially welcome, as well as those considering comparative, hemispheric or transpacific figures, movements, and formations with Bay Area connections. The program committee is interested in sessions that explore the recent histories of activism, protest, innovation, and change that have long distinguished the communities of Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, California, and the Pacific Rim.

Participants are encouraged to think as broadly and imaginatively as possible about the intersections between and among the contemporary arts and their institutions, economies, policies, and traditions. Proposals may focus on individual artists, writers, designers, composers, or performers; they may consider artistic movements, collectives, and local scenes,
including those online, or underground; they may discuss any theoretical, intellectual, or aesthetic formation that figures in the world of the arts as we know them now.

SESSION FORMATS: We welcome and encourage creative and alternative presentational styles, alongside traditional papers and panels. Seminars, workshops, panel debates, artist discussions, films, installations, visual displays, and PechaKucha sessions will all be considered. Seminar leaders are asked to propose topics by the deadline and to submit the full roster of
participants by April 22, 2017. Seminars normally meet for a single session, and papers are circulated among participants in advance of the conference.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MARCH 15, 2017
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND INFORMATION: http://www.asap9.org/
QUESTIONS AND HELP: asap9berkeley@gmail.com

The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) presents:

THE 17^TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PLANNING HISTORY

Cleveland, Ohio, October 26-29, 2017

SACRPH cordially invites scholars and practitioners to present papers and talks on all aspects of urban, regional, and community planning history and their relationship to urban and metropolitan studies. Particularly welcome are papers, talks, roundtables, and sessions addressing the theme of Theory and Practice in Planning History.  What is the relationship between the ideas shaping metropolitan development and the history of the built environment?

SACRPH is an interdisciplinary organization dedicated to promoting humanistic scholarship on the planning of metropolitan regions. SACRPH members include historians, practicing planners, geographers, environmentalists, architects, landscape designers, public policy makers, preservationists, community organizers, students, and scholars from across the world.  SACRPH publishes a quarterly journal, The Journal of Planning History (http://jph.sagepub.com/), hosts a biennial conference, and sponsors awards for research and publication in the field of planning history. For further information please consult our website: http://www.sacrph.org.

The Program Committee welcomes proposals for complete sessions (of three or four papers) and for individual papers. We also encourage submissions that propose innovative formats and that engage questions of teaching and learning, digital information, and publishing. Proposals must be submitted by February 25, 2017 via the following link:http://www.sacrph.org.

Each proposal must include the following:

• For individual paper submissions: a 100-word abstract

• For individual paper submissions: a one-page CV, including address, phone, and e-mail (PDF or Word Document)

• For panel submissions: a single document (PDF or Word) including cover page (indicating lead contact, with telephone and email, and the names—if available—of the session Chair and Commentator); a one-paragraph overview of the session's themes and significance, plus a description of the format (panel, roundtable, workshop); a 100-word abstract for each proposed paper; and a one-page CV for each participant, including address, phone, and e-mail
•  For all submissions: four key words identifying the thematic emphases of the topic

Please format required attachments with a standard 12-point font and 1.25-inch side margins. Do not include illustrations.  

Inquiries may be directed to Program Committee co-chairs: Julian Chambliss, Professor of History, Rollins College, Florida: jchambliss@rollins.edu; or David Freund, Associate Professor of History, University of Maryland, College Park: dmfreund@umd.edu.

The 6th International Architectural Paint Research (APR) Conference will be held from March 15 - 17, 2017 in New York City on the historic campus of Columbia University. This conference promises to bring together many members of this vibrant, creative community that includes historic paint analysts, scholars of historic interiors, art and architecture conservators, material scientists, decorative painters, preservation architects, and heritage managers.

The preliminary conference agenda is up on the website http://www.apr2017.org and there is an incredible lineup of tours being put together. The conference includes behind the scenes tours of some of New York's most unique and special sites. The tours range from an in-depth look at the conservation of Herters Brothers and Tiffany Studio rooms at the 7^th Regiment Armory to a tour of the conservation of the “ruin” rooms of the Lower East Side Tenement. We also have a tour of a wallpaper manufacturing facility, the south side of Ellis Island and a look at the conservation of the Keith Haring mural in the LGBT Center.  Details of these tours to be added to the website soon.

Registration is open at: http://www.apr2017.org/registration/

Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest

Architectural History/Architectural Restoration Field School

May 14-27, 2017

Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest announces its 2017 Architectural
History / Architectural Restoration Field School. The intensive two week program will be held from May 14 – May 27.

The program provides an overview of the philosophy, process, and techniques for museum-quality architectural restoration and conservation. Students, professionals, and instructors from any background and discipline may qualify. The program is limited to 10 participants each year. Components include: the history of Thomas Jefferson and his villa retreat; architectural investigation, documentation, and restoration techniques. Behind-the-scenes visits to other museum properties are included. A key part of the program is investigating and documenting an historic structure and producing an historic structures investigation report. This is an excellent understanding of the nexus of historic architecture, architectural history, and public history.

Application deadline: April 7
More information and a typical schedule can be found on the web site: http://www.poplarforest.org/programs/restoration/field school
Contact: Travis McDonald (434) 534-8123, travis@poplarforest.org.

Scholarships are available

The program typically qualifies for independent college credit

Announcing Summer Employment Opportunities for Students

Hiring: ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS, ARCHITECTS and LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

Heritage Documentation Programs (HABS/HAER/HALS) of the National Park Service seeks applications from qualified students for 2017 summer employment documenting historic sites and structures of architectural, landscape and technological significance. Duties involve on-site field work and preparation of written historical reports or measured and interpretive drawings for the HABS/HAER/HALS Collections at the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Projects last 12 weeks, beginning in late May or early June. For details regarding application and job duties visit our website at http://www.nps.gov/hdp/jobs/summer.htm

Call for Lesson Plans

SAH Archipedia is an authoritative online encyclopedia of the built world published jointly by the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) and the University of Virginia Press. As a tool for humanistic study, SAH Archipedia examines buildings in their communities and landscapes, not only in terms of aesthetics, but also in relation to the historical, geographical, climatic, political, religious, economic, and other forces that shaped them.

With continuing support from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH), we seek to build a collection of teaching resources and lesson plans specifically designed for K-12 teachers that utilize the robust digital content and associated metadata of SAH Archipedia. The aim is to introduce pre-collegiate students to the history of the built environment and increase literacy through instructions and discussion, reading and writing, experiential learning, and use of innovative technology.

SAH is seeking educators to produce K-12 lesson plans that align with Common Core standards and include an introduction to the subject, learning objectives, activities/assignments, assessment criteria, and resources. Interested educators should submit a proposal that includes a 500-word abstract outlining the topic of the lesson plan and include a preliminary list of the SAH Archipedia content the project would incorporate. They should also submit a 2-page CV. The SAH Archipedia Advisory Committee will review all proposals.

If selected, educators will work with SAH Archipedia editors to develop the plans in accordance with publication standards. Lesson plans will be available free to the public through SAH Archipedia and will also be submitted to NEH Edsitement! Educators will receive a $1,000 honorarium for each lesson plan accepted for publication on the site.

Submit proposals to Gabrielle Esperdy, Editor, SAH Archipedia, at esperdy@njit.edu, and Catherine Boland Erkkila, Project Editor, SAH Archipedia, at cerkkila@sah.org. Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2017. Please do not hesitate to contact the editors with questions.