Course Description
Architecture is the product of social, cultural, religious, and political forces. Great cultures and civilizations throughout the world would have produced not only great monuments but robust vernacular architectural traditions, closer ties to the environment and heir local contexts. This course will present an introduction to buildings, landscapes, and other built artifacts in the United States constructed from the colonial period to the present, looking at both urban and rural building types. Its approach will be pluralistic, drawing historical references from art history, social history, and cultural studies and introducing the range of material culture produced by Americans of all ethnic and socioeconomic groups. The course will discuss the most significant works of engineering that relate to the creation of architecture, such as train sheds, exposition halls, stadium, bridges, industrial buildings, and dams. The course will examine relevant examples of architectural history from other parts of the world, especially Europe, to help place development of American architecture within the wider content of movements throughout the world. The course develops critical tools for the analysis and appreciation of architecture and its role in the world in which we live. This course is required for the certificate in historic preservation.
