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Historic Preservation Course Field Trips
New Netherland/New York Brick Archive
On Tuesday February 12, students from the Brick, Stone, and Terracotta Class, along with Professors Norman Weiss and Dan Allen, made their annual pilgrimage to Fordham University in the Bronx, to visit Professor Allan Gilbert and the New Netherland/New York Brick Archive.
Trip to Craftsman Farms
On Saturday, December 8, several first year students traveled to Craftsman Farms in Parsippany, NJ. Students in Janet Foster's Patternbooks & Builder's Books mini-course were intrigued by the American Arts & Crafts movement from the early 20th century. Craftsman Farms was the home of Gustav Stickley, who promoted Arts and Crafts furniture, architecture, and landscape design through his monthly magazine, The Craftsman. Janet and the students are shown here in front of the Log house (1908) at Craftsman Farms, which is now a National Historic Landmark and a lively museum.
Students Visit V&S Galvanizing Co.
The Architectural Metals course, taught by Richard Pieper each fall, explores the materials properties and architectural usage of metals. The course includes fieldtrips to see fabrication as well as various metals in situ around the city. The class visits V&S Galvanizing, in Perth Amboy, NJ, for a first hand look at how galvanized steel is created. Galvanized metals have been important in American architecture since the mid-19th century, and may be most popularly recognized in "pressed tin" ceilings (which are not actually tin, but zinc-dipped steel).
Steel Day was organized nationally by the American Institute of Steel Construction, which promotes education about American steel manufacturers and their construction projects. As with any good educational endeavor, the fieldtrip and the class help students make discoveries in the built environment that they had never noticed before.
Steel Day was organized nationally by the American Institute of Steel Construction, which promotes education about American steel manufacturers and their construction projects. As with any good educational endeavor, the fieldtrip and the class help students make discoveries in the built environment that they had never noticed before.
Fieldwork at Woodlawn Cemetery
Historic Preservation Studio I students have been learning building documentation skills by carrying out their second major assignment of the semester in Woodlawn Cemetery. “Since Woodlawn's founding in 1863, 310,000 people—from Gilded Age magnates to pioneers for women's rights to Harlem Renaissance writers and musicians, as well as artists, athletes, and ordinary citizens— have been interred on the cemetery's 400 acres”, reports their website.
The Woodlawn Cemetery was designated a National Historic Landmark — the highest recognition accorded to the nation's most historically significant properties - in June, 2011. Woodlawn is one of the nation's finest examples of a 19th-century garden cemetery and contains the largest and most distinguished collection of historic mausoleums in the country. The archives related to Woodlawn’s many architectural commissions are now at Avery Library, Columbia University.
With a combination of fieldwork and research, students learn process and techniques of documentation. Each student is assigned an individual mausoleum (many of which are the size of houses); the drawings, photographs and archival research related to the architect and the occupants of the mausoleum are given to Woodlawn Cemetery at the end of the semester..
With a combination of fieldwork and research, students learn process and techniques of documentation. Each student is assigned an individual mausoleum (many of which are the size of houses); the drawings, photographs and archival research related to the architect and the occupants of the mausoleum are given to Woodlawn Cemetery at the end of the semester..
