2024 Buchanan Award Recipient

The Buchanan Award recognizes contributions to the study and preservation of vernacular architecture and the cultural landscape that do not take the form of books or published work. The award is named for Paul E. Buchanan, who served for over thirty years as the Director of Architectural Research at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Buchanan set the standard for architectural fieldwork in America.

The 2024 Buchanan Award recipient is “Before Displacement: an Urban History,” which was submitted by Amy Finstein, Associate Professor of Architectural and Urban History at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. The project captures the essence of the study of vernacular architecture in a way that not only records and gives voice to people and places but also provides a roadmap to others aspiring to do the same. It is also a testament to the power of student engagement. The project memorializes the evolving urban history and built environment of the one-and-a-half-mile corridor in Boston that was cleared for highway construction in the 1950s and later redeveloped as the Rose Kennedy Greenway via the “Big Dig.”

Using multi-disciplinary research and documentation methods, and in the face of the pandemic, the project was executed collaboratively by 50 undergraduate students and their professorial leadership. The project team performed in-depth archival research, undertook on-site survey work, and developed interactive tools that not only document and give identity to the built environment but amplify the voices of the people, cultures, and businesses that breathed life into the landscape over time. In addition to the volume of work and degree of collaboration involved, they brought these methods to bear to make accessible a conversation about changing urban landscapes, the movement of marginalized populations, and the often-politicized topic of displacement in urban landscapes. They also developed a model of memorializing urban landscapes that can be further expanded and applied to new urban environments. Perhaps most important, the project reinforced the value and power of student learning, critical thinking, and engagement that, when applied to the built environment, is the future of preservation.

2024 Buchanan Award Committee (Caroline Spurry)