Vernacular Architecture Forum
Housing Washington
2010 Annual Conference
May 19-22, 2010 in Washington, DC
Overview
30th annual meeting of the Vernacular Architecture Forum!
Richard Longstreth
1500 block T Street, NW, Washington, DC
Please join us in the nation’s capital for the VAF's 30th annual meeting. Two days of in-depth tours go beyond the usual tourist attractions to explore the urban and suburban neighborhoods of this robust metropolitan region. Tour sites include nineteenth-century urban row houses, post-World War II suburban subdivisions, FHA garden apartments, and the New Deal enclave of Greenbelt, Maryland.
With examples dating from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the unusually rich and varied array of local housing stock both illustrates regional significance and provides insights into broader national patterns. Tradition and innovation are key parts of the story. Some of these housing patterns are common to the D.C. area, while certain projects intended to serve as new national models met with mixed success. Since most of these endeavors were targeted to a white middle-class audience until around 1960, another important tour theme is the sharp distinctions between housing for whites and for blacks. Each tour will shed light on the expanding options black residents were able to attain by the mid-twentieth century.
All conference registrants will receive a copy of the newly published book of essays Housing Washington: Two Centuries of Residential Development and Planning in the National Capital Area (Richard Longstreth, ed., Center for American Places with the University of Chicago Press, 2010). Books can be shipped in advance upon request.
A day of scholarly papers and evening events at local venues such as Glen Echo Park and the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden will round out an exciting conference program.