The Buell Center's Spring 2002 lecture series reflects on the attack on
the World Trade Center by placing it in a wider cultural and historical
perspective of response to urban disaster and crisis. The series begins
with the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and the Chicago fire of 1871, then
takes up three cities after World War II (Hiroshima, Rotterdam, Plymouth).
It continues with the redevelopment of post-Cold War Berlin, the
reconstruction of Sarajevo and other Balkan cities, the urban symbolism of
Jerusalem, and the history of destruction and rebuilding in New York. A
keynote lecture by political theorist Benjamin R. Barber, on the role of
the city in the struggle between cosmopolitanism and fundamentalism,
concludes the program.
All lectures take place on Monday evenings, 6:30 pm, in Wood Auditorium,
Avery Hall at Columbia University. Free and open to the public.
The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture
Spring 2002 Lecture Series
OUT OF GROUND ZERO:
CASE STUDIES IN URBAN REINVENTION
All lectures Monday, 6:30 pm, Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall
February 4
Lisbon
The earthquake of 1755 and urban recovery under the Marques de Pombal
Kenneth Maxwell
Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Inter-American Studies and Director, Latin America Program, Council on Foreign Relations
Author, Pombal: Paradox of the Enlightenment (1995) and The Making of Portuguese Democracy (1995)
with introduction by Kenneth Frampton
February 18
Chicago
How the fire of 1871 reshaped the city
Ross Miller
Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Connecticut
Author, American Apocalypse: The Great Fire and the Myth of Chicago (1990/2000) and Here's the Deal: The Buying and Selling of a Great American City (1996)
with introduction by Gwendolyn Wright
March 4
Hiroshima
The atomic bomb and Kenzo Tange's Peace Memorial
Carola Hein
Assistant Professor, Program in Growth and Structure of Cities, Bryn Mawr College
Organizer, "The Rebuilding of Japan's Bombed Cities" (2000); author, Hauptstadt Berlin (1991)
with introduction by Kunio Kudo
March 11
Rotterdam and Plymouth
The rebuilding of two European cities after World War II
Han Meyer
Urban planner; Professor of Urbanism, Technical University, Delft
Author, City and Port: The Transformation of Port Cities: London, Barcelona, New York and Rotterdam (1999)
Alan Powers
Architectural historian, London
Author, Serge Chermayeff: Designer, Architect, Teacher (2001)
with introduction by Robin Middleton
March 25
Berlin
Architecture and redevelopment since the fall of the Berlin Wall in a film in made in 2000
Berlin Babylon
screening with comments by the film's writer and director, Hubertus Siegert, founder, S.U.M.O. Film, Berlin
and Ralph Stern
Architect and architectural historian, Berlin
April 1
Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Vukovar, Belgrade
"Urbicide" and reconstruction after the Balkan war
Milan Prodanovic
Architect; Professor of Urbanism, University of Novi Sad
Codirector, Ecourban Workshop, Belgrade; former coeditor, Republika
with introduction by Lebbeus Woods
April 8
Jerusalem
The symbolism of the Dome of the Rock from the Seventh Century to the present
Kanan Makiya
Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Brandeis University; architect
Author, Republic of Fear (1989), The Monument (1991), Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising and the Arab World (1993); The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem (2001)
with introduction by Yehuda Safran
April 15
New York
The destruction of September 11, 2001, in historical context
Max Page
Assistant Professor of Architecture and History, University of Massachusetts in Amherst
Author, The Creative Destruction of Manhattan, 19001940 (2000)
with introduction by M. Christine Boyer
Buell Evening Lecture Sponsored by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Wednesday, April 17, 6:30 pm
Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall
Cosmopolitanism versus Fundamentalism: The City as Democracy's Forge
Benjamin R. Barber
Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society, University of Maryland; Director, New York office of The Democracy Collaborative
Author, The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House (2001); A Passion for Democracy (1999); Jihad vs. McWorld (1995); An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics of Education and the Future of America (1992); Strong Democracy (1984)
