Glassie Winner 2007

This year the Henry Glassie Award Committee solicited nominations of books published between 2004-6 that made significant contributions to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes outside North America. The winner of the 2007 Glassie Award is Ronald G Knapp. The committee, which consisted of Rebecca Ginsburg, Greg Hise, and Tom Hubka, was interested to see that Professor Knapp had been nominated for two books, Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage of a Nation, published by Tuttle Press (2005) and House Home Family: Living and Being Chinese, published by the University of Hawaii Press (2005) (and co-edited by Kay-Yin Lo). Both books were excellent examples of scholarship of vernacular environments. The committee noted that the first was based on over thirty years of fieldwork in China.

We were impressed enough with these two volumes to want to see more. After reviewing Asia's Old Dwellings: Tradition, Resilience, and Change (2003), China's Old Dwellings (2000), China's Living Houses: Folk Beliefs, Symbols, and Household Ornamentation (1999), Chinese Landscapes: The Village as Place (1992), China's Vernacular Architecture: House Form and Culture (1989), to name just a selection of Professor Knapp's writings, we realized that this lifetime of scholarship dedicated to documenting, studying, and writing about Chinese domestic architecture for Western audiences deserved recognition.

A notable strength of Ronald Knapp's body of works is his comprehensive approach to the study of housing. His books examine scales from that of interior decor to the layout of villages. He considers the role of fengshui in the placement of furnishings and provides extensive discussion of construction techniques and materials. Floor plans, diagrams that illustrate social use of space, village layouts, and historical drawings compliment his texts, which are consistently clear and accessible. Photographs are often stunning, especially in his later works such as Chinese Houses, which is a beautifully designed book. (Credit goes to A. Chester Ong, who did the photography.)

Ronald Knapp, who was trained as a geographer, has done more than anyone else outside of China to celebrate, analyze, and promote understanding of that country's domestic architectural heritage. We are pleased to present the Glassie Award to Ronald G. Knapp for the lifetime body of his work on Chinese houses. 

For more information see the Glassie Award page.

Vernacular Architecture Forum Award for Advocacy

The VAF offers an Award for Advocacy to encourage citizen-based advocacy and to recognize exemplary efforts and achievements on behalf of our vernacular built heritage.

Criteria
The award honors individuals, organizations, or institutions for outstanding initiative, commitment, leadership, and action that foster the appreciation and protection of vernacular buildings and landscapes. The award may be made in recognition of a specific recent advocacy effort or on the basis of the nominee's long-term record of advocacy. The award may recognize a wide range of activities, including:

The following are examples of attributes or accomplishments that should be highlighted:
- Tenacious advocacy and willingness to challenge authorities and decisions that may negatively impact vernacular heritage.
- Ability to organize individuals and groups to further specific goals.
- Hands-on protection and/or preservation of vernacular resources.
- Assumption of responsibility for any/all tasks.
- Advocacy on behalf of previously underrepresented communities or resource types.
- Cooperation with and outreach to other individuals, groups and the media.
- Creation of/participation in grass-roots groups, task forces and non-governmental organizations (NGO*s)
- Planning and implementation of protection and/or preservation efforts.
- Foresight of threats and opportunities for protection.
- Thorough preparation prior to action with attention to detail.
- Number of years involved in advocacy efforts, demonstrating a solid commitment.

How to Submit a Nomination
Individuals, organizations, or institutions may be nominated by peers, colleagues, friends, or members of the public. Please consider the award criteria and determine whether the person or group you wish to nominate would be an appropriate recipient of the Award for Advocacy.
To nominate an individual, organization, or institution for the Award for Advocacy, please submit all information as follows:

The Vernacular Architecture Forum Award for Advocacy will be presented at the annual VAF conference. The next conferences will be:
May 7-10, 2008, in Fresno, California
June 11-13, 2009, in Butte, Montana

Award nominations are accepted on a continuing basis throughout the year, but must be received by March 1, 2008 to be considered for announcement at the Fresno conference. Nominations received after that date will not be considered for the 2007 award; they will instead be rolled over for consideration the following year.

When submitting your nomination, please include your name, address and e-mail address. Applications should be submitted via email to anthony_veerkamp@nthp.org with the subject line: *VAF Advocacy Award nomination for (nominee*s name).*

For nomination questions, please contact VAF Preservation Officer Anthony Veerkamp at 415-947-0692, x 38228 or anthony_veerkamp@nthp.org

(11/07)

Architectural Historian/Historian
South Pasadena, California

SWCA Environmental Consultants is a growing, employee-owned consulting firm specializing in environmental regulatory compliance, natural resource management, cultural resource management and related research. We are a company of biologists, geologists, archaeologists, architectural historians, historians, paleontologists and planners with over twenty-five years of experience and 450 employees. We offer a stimulating professional work environment, competitive salaries, and a generous benefits package, including a stock ownership plan. 
 
We are seeking a Project Manager for our cultural resources program in our South Pasadena Office. This is a regular full-time salaried position and will report to the Cultural Resource Manager. The ideal candidate should possess a Master’s Degree in historic preservation, architectural history, history or closely related field. The selected candidate will assist in the continuing development of SWCA's Southern California historic resource services and expand SWCA's professional reputation in this area. Salary will be based on individual qualifications and experience.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:
The professional who fills this job will act as a project manager and be responsible for all aspects of proposal development, field and archival research, preparation of historic context statements, quality control, data analysis and report preparation. Specialized duties will include research designs and evaluation of buildings, structures and objects for conformance with the standards from the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources, and for local eligibility.

This individual will be asked to schedule personnel, vehicles and other resources; Assist in business development; Establish project procedures and budgetary restraints; Manage the performance of individual projects and coordinate with clients; Supervise, direct and instruct field personnel; and take initiative, resolve problems and create improved procedures so that tasks are completed in an effective manner. It is important that this person work closely with SWCA's other managers and directors in both the natural and cultural resources areas of the company to promote our business interests in adherence to our mission, vision and values.

Qualifications:
M.A. or M.S. degree in Architectural History, Historic Preservation, History or related field preferred. Individual must meet Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualifications Standards (36 Code of Federal Regulations, CFR Part 61). Experience with application of The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation (36 CFR Part 67) and Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record documentation and procedures are required. Candidates should possess significant project management and leadership experience. Additionally, candidates must have exceptional technical writing and oral communications skills. Although leadership and the ability to work independently are very important in this position, the ability and willingness to work collaboratively as a team member is also paramount.

Work will occur primarily in California. Candidates with experience in California are strongly encouraged to apply. Salary will be commensurate with education and experience. The position is regular full-time and will average 40 hours a week or more. A generous benefit package includes health and dental insurance, holidays, sick leave, vacation time, 401(k) plan, etc.
 
SWCA is an employee-owned firm and an Equal Opportunity Employer. We encourage minorities and women to apply. 

How To Apply:
The position will remain open until filled. Please mail, fax, email (in MS Word format), a cover letter, writing sample, resume and a minimum of three (3) professional references to:
Jason Gerster
Recruiter
SWCA Environmental Consultants
3033 N. Central Ave., Suite 145
Phoenix, AZ 85004
602-274-3958 Fax
recruiting@swca.com

Visit SWCA's web site, www.swca.com, and discover why SWCA is a great place to work for environmental professions interested in sound science and creative solutions. SWCA is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages women and minorities to apply.

(5/08)

College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Architectural Field School, History 490/590
June 30-August 1, 2008
Williamsburg, Virginia
Carl Lounsbury, Instructor

The Colonial Williamsburg Architectural Research Department in conjunction with the College of William and Mary's National Institute of American History and Democracy offers a five-week course this summer that is open to all undergraduate and graduate students. This field school introduces students to the methods used in the investigation and recording of buildings. On-site examination of structures in the Historic Area of Williamsburg and visits to buildings in the surrounding Tidewater region follow several introductory lectures on building technology and architectural features. The program is intended to help students distinguish the form, fabrication, and assembly of materials and building elements and understand their chronology. They will learn how to apply field evidence to answer larger questions concerning architectural and social history.

The fourth week is devoted to investigating and recording buildings on location away from Williamsburg. The field school will return to Beaufort, South Carolina, to assist the local preservation society in recording town houses and plantation sites. Back in Williamsburg for the last week, students will convert their fieldwork into measured drawings using a CAD program and write reports on their sites.

This class will meet four days a week from 10:00 to 4:30. It will require travel (in a van) and some physical exercise - mainly climbing and squeezing. Students must be enrolled for the course through the College of William and Mary. The cost of travel and accommodations in Beaufort will be covered by the program. For more information, please email Carl Lounsbury at clounsbury@cwf.org or call (757) 220-7654.

(4/08)

POSITION OPENING
ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN

Cultural Resources, Inc. (CRI), a cultural resource consulting firm with offices in Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Norfolk Virginia, as well as Frederick Maryland, is seeking a full-time senior level Architectural Historian to be based out of our Richmond office. For detailed information on the services we provide please visit our web site at www.culturalresources.net.

The architectural historian will be responsible for documentation of historic properties, historic research, writing and editing technical reports, preparing and managing project budgets and schedules, and coordinating client and agency consultation. Some travel will be necessary to conduct architectural surveys and documentary research. The candidate should demonstrate familiarity with HABS/HAER documentation, measured drawings, NRHP nominations, 35mm photography, viewshed analysis and an understanding of cultural resources laws and regulations. Experience with tax credits is a plus. Strong verbal and written communication skills are required. 
Preferred qualifications for this position include a Masters degree in Architectural History, History, Historic Preservation, or a related field and at least five years of experience in cultural resource management involving Section 106 and 110 compliance. 

In addition to a competitive salary, CRI offers a complete benefits package including paid vacation, holidays, and personal leave, medical, dental, life, flexible spending accounts, and disability insurance, and professional development opportunities. Participation in our 401(k) plan is available after 90 days of service.

Interested candidates should send a resume with a brief cover letter including salary requirements and references via e-mail to clopez@culturalresources.net. 

CRI is an equal opportunity employer.

(4/08)

Call for Papers:
Sixth Savannah Symposium:  World Heritage in Perspective
 
The Department of Architectural History at the Savannah College of Art and Design invites papers for its sixth biennial symposium, February 19-21, 2009.  The Savannah Symposia were conceived as a forum for scholarly discourse about themes related to architecture and urbanism across historical periods, cultures and disciplines.  The theme for the 2009 symposium is: World Heritage in Perspective. The World Heritage trust was created in 1972 to protect manmade and natural sites deemed invaluable to our common global heritage.  Since that date, 851 properties have been awarded World Heritage status and of these, 685 sites embody various legacies of human ingenuity and cultural expression made manifest in built form. 
 
The Sixth biennial Savannah Symposium invites papers that take as their subjects the architectural and spatial elements of cultural properties on the World Heritage list and the many issues related to the creation, development and maintenance of the list itself.  Paper sessions will focus on various topics related to heritage designations as a significant factor in furthering the study of the built environment globally and locally.  Potential questions that papers might take as their focus include:  How are the criteria for designation made manifest in a building, site or city?  How have contemporary or past international politics bolstered or interfered with a given country’s or site’s application?  How does World Heritage designation affect a site’s growth and change over time?  What are the positive and negative consequences of World Heritage designation or other forms of heritage designation for the study and preservation of the built environment?  How are the national rights of sovereign states balanced against those of the international community in the context of World Heritage sites, and how is this balance negotiated within the differing member states?  What is the impact of global tourism on World Heritage?
 
The symposium will be highlighted by Zahi Hawass, renowned Egyptologist and Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt , who will serve as one of the keynote speakers.  Papers are invited from scholars and practitioners in, but not limited to, architecture, architectural history, urban history, planning, landscape design, art history, geography, archaeology, cultural history, sociology, political science and anthropology.
 
How to Participate: Send one-page abstracts and curriculum vitae to Thomas Gensheimer (tgenshei@scad.edu) or Celeste Lovette Guichard (cguichar@scad.edu), Department of Architectural History, Savannah College of Art and Design, P.O. Box 3146 , Savannah , GA 31402-3146 .  Electronic submissions are preferred.
 
Deadline for submissions:  June 30, 2008.
 
Scheduling of events and other updates can be found at the SCAD Architectural History website:
http://www.scad.edu/architectural-history/dept/events/symposiums.cfm

(3/08)

CALL FOR PAPERS
PERMANENCE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OF THE PACIFIC BASIN 1700-1820

The USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture invite proposals for papers to be presented at a conference on Permanence and the Built Environment of the Pacific Basin 1700-1820. This meeting, to be held at the University of Southern California on April 17-18, 2009, will bring together scholars who study early modern construction and structures, cityscape, and the diverse landscapes of the western coasts and hinterlands of the Americas, the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and East Asian port cities, areas greatly affected in these years by global trade, creolization, indigenous revolts, the break-up of empires, and natural disasters.

Conference Objectives. What eighteenth century and early nineteenth century societies bordering the Pacific considered to be permanent architecturally, what they constructed, and how they dealt with the erasure and destruction of their built environment is the focus of the conference.

* Did the veneration of long lasting, fixed-in-place structures increase in this period? Did conflicts between colonizer/creole and indigenous populations influence ideas about the built environment and the permanence of structures?

*Did building designed for durability increase during the period? Was the distinction of public versus private buildings important in terms of permanence? What promoted investment in buildings and infrastructure improvements such as roads and how was it affected by objectives of empires and localities as well as by warfare? Did construction innovations spread from one part of the Pacific basin to another, given the limited migration across the ocean? How did the nature and availability of building materials, the introduction of new products and designs, the scarcity or abundance of certain items, and access to skilled and unskilled labor influence construction?

* What role did climate and natural disasters play in remaking the built environment in the early modern period? Did their impact lessen over time or in certain locales by 1820 due to new understandings of natural history and the success of protective responses such as building codes, insurance, fire brigades, and public works projects?
 
 Submitting a Proposal
Proposals should be approximately 500 words and submitted electronically, along with a short c.v., to emsi@usc.edu, or in hard copy to Pacific Basin Built Environment Conference, USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, University of Southern California SOS 153, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0034, by June 30, 2008. The conference committee will entertain proposals from scholars, regardless of discipline, whose research relates to the objectives described above. We hope to have papers that offer a good geographic mix and do not over-represent any region or area. Transatlantic treatments are especially encouraged. We also seek a diversity of research designs from a variety of literary, quantitative, architectural, artistic, and archaeological perspectives. Papers will be pre-circulated, requiring authors to finish their presentations several weeks before the conference convenes. Expenses of program participants will be covered. Following the conference, the intent is to publish a volume. Direct further questions to Carole Shammas at shammas@usc.edu or by mail at the Department of History, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0034.

(2/08)

Volunteer Vacations Put History in Your Hands
Boulder, Colorado

Slinging mud, mixing mortar and photographing frescos were just some of the activities Heritage Conservation Network volunteers found themselves doing last year at project sites in places as varied as Italy, Montana, and upstate New York. The primary goal of the non-profit organization is to restore historic buildings, but volunteers who join one of HCN’s hands-on building conservation workshops as a volunteer vacation soon learn that the impact of their work goes beyond the building itself.
“Our workshops offer the chance to really get in touch with history, experience a new culture, and work with other to make a difference in people’s lives”, says Judith Broeker, HCN’s program director. The projects requiring volunteers in 2008 and beyond are all good examples of the impact historic preservation can have, she went on to say. In Armenia, volunteers will be working alongside local masons and residents to restore an earthquake-damaged home in the middle of the Kumayri central historic district of Gyumri. At the Hutmacher Farmsite in North Dakota, they will be helping preserve one of the last (and possibly the best) examples of stone-slab construction in the state. HCN is also looking for volunteers to continue preservation work at the cloister of a 15th century monastery in Italy and in the Old West town of Virginia City, Montana; and to begin work on shotgun houses in an economically depressed area of southern Illinois as well as at the oldest known vintner’s cottage in Slovenia and a traditional kullë house in Albania.

Complete workshop details - including project leaders’ bios and workshop descriptions, dates, fees, and travel tips - are available on HCN’s website, www.heritageconservation.net, or from the HCN office at +1 303 444 0128.

HCN’s experience in Ghana last year highlighted the fact that their volunteers restore more than buildings. “It was readily apparent to all our volunteers that they were not only helping restore a historic stone building for use as a community center, but they were also restoring people’s pride in their heritage”, Ms. Broeker said. “Everyone who participated will always feel a special tie to that community.”

Helping Hands Needed at North Dakota’s Hutmacher Farmstead

Heritage Conservation Network and Preservation North Dakota are looking for volunteers to help restore the Hutmacher Farmstead in Killdeer, North Dakota this May. The groups have organized a hands-on building conservation workshop at the site in order to make significant headway on the project. Volunteers will spend their days repairing the main house of the pioneer complex, which is one of the last (and possibly the best) examples of stone-slab construction in this legendary state. They’ll spend their nights listening to cowboy poetry and gazing at the stars.

A team of eight or more volunteers joining is critical to the success of the project. The buildings at the Hutmacher Farmstead were highly labor intensive to construct and to maintain; their preservation takes an equal amount of effort. The week’s primary task will be rebuilding the roof of the main house, which involves timber framing and grass thatch covered with a clay mixture. Volunteers will also be doing stone masonry work to stabilize the walls, which will then be tuck-pointed with clay mortar. No experience working with historic buildings is necessary, just an interest in the project and a willingness to learn and experience new things.

Volunteers will stay in a rustic cabin at the Naard Creek Ranch, located 20 miles northwest of Killdeer and 25 minutes from the work site. They also have the option to camp. The fee for the workshop, which is $340 or $490 depending on your lodging option, covers lunch at the site, project materials, and insurance. The dates are May 25-31, 2008. Complete details and registration information are available from HCN’s website www.heritageconservation.net/ws-hutmacher-2008.htm or by contacting Judith Broeker, HCN project director, at +1 303 444 0128.

The goal of the project is to ensure the site’s future preservation by utilizing it as an experiential vacation location. For now, this workshop, a.k.a. volunteer vacation, is sure to be unlike anything else you’ve ever done.

About HCN
Heritage Conservation Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of architectural heritage around the world. HCN produces an annual series of hands-on building conservation workshops in association with local preservation partners in order to further the sites’ preservation and provide an educational experience for participants.

Contact:
Judith Broeker
Heritage Conservation Network
1557 North Street, Boulder, CO 80304 USA
Tel: +1 303 444 0128; Fax: +1 775 320 6837
jbroeker@heritageconservation.net
www.heritageconservation.net

(1/08)