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COURSE DESCRIPTION. This
third-semester course is designed to encourage students to become
advocates for historic preservation and to be cognizant of the need for
an interdisciplinary approach to that advocacy. It follows, in logical
sequence, courses offered during the first and second semesters.
Introductory courses, History on the Land, History of American
Architecture, Historic Preservation Law, and Researching Historic
Structures and Sites, were intended to provide a broad view. Those
courses, in turn, were followed by seminars that offered much closer
inspection of preservation tools and areas of practice (Contemporary
Preservation Policy and Planning, Historic Preservation Practice
Methods, and Architectural Conservation.
Advocacy is the
fundamental activity that separates our discipline from that of general
history. In addition to being historians of the built and cultural
environments, we are advocates for the preservation of historic
resources. We speak for these resources and engage the public in
conservation efforts. Thus, the course's principal project assignment
will involve the development of community preservation projects for
non-profit and public-sector organizations or agencies, serving as
advocates for the resources in question and in some way benefiting such
organizations and agencies.
At the same time, preservation
advocacy cannot function in isolation of other worthy concerns, and the
need for an interdisciplinary, humanistic approach to the conservation
of resources, natural as well as cultural, is becoming increasingly
apparent. Thus, classes will advance that interdisciplinary approach
when possible.
All the while, the course will continue to
emphasize the reading of history on the land begun in HP201, but do so
in greater depth and turn our attention to cultural landscapes. Toward
that end, we will investigate two seemingly opposing aspects of land
shape: forested landscapes and heavy industry, the latter represented
by steel manufacturing and the refining of fossil fuels. Having
anchored those two poles in an environmental spectrum, we will explore
middle ground in the hope of spanning the considerable divide between
cultural and natural resource protection in this country. We will also
introduce you to the Society for Industrial Archeology, the country's
principal organization devoted to understanding and preserving the
nation's industrial heritage.
READINGS.
With such goals in mind, the following required readings have been
selected. The books by Wessels , Cannavo, and Garn will be available at
the bookstore or through the internet; copies of the Cronon article,
National Register Bulletin 18, and National Register Bulletin 30 will
be distributed; and the Guidelines for Treatment of Cultural Landscapes
will be available through the National Park Service. I have also
added a short work, Stations. An Imagined Journey, by artist and writer
Michael Flanagan, which will reinforce the important junctures between
cultural landscape history and landscape art. That book is
available through the internet.
1. Tom Wessels. Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England. Woodstock, Vermont: Countryman Press, 1997.
2. Andrew Garn. Bethlehem Steel. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.
3. William Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness, or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature." Environmental History 1 (January, 1996).
4.
Peter Cannavo. The Working Landscape. Founding,
Preservation, and the Politics of Place. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2007.
5. Michael Flanagan. Stations. An Imagined Journey. New York, Pantheon Book, 1994.
6.
U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service. "How to Evaluate
and Nominate Historic Designed Landscapes." National Register Bulletin
18.
7. U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service.
"Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes."
National Register Bulletin 30
8. U.S. Department of Interior,
National Park Service. The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for
the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for the Treatment
of Cultural Landscapes. Charles Birnbaum and Christine Peters, eds.
Washington, G.P.O., 1996.
In addition, students will be asked to
identify at least two books relevant to the project assignments
selected, to review those selections with the course instructor, and to
include those two books as part of required readings. Final project
presentations must incorporate a discussion of those readings for the
benefit of other students in the class.
SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS.
Class meetings are assigned to a three-hour segment on Wednesday’s
between 12:20 and 3:20 P.M. in Wheeler 101. In addition to class
presentations, the course is designed to give students sufficient
freedom to develop individual or team projects, coordinate activities
with sponsoring agencies or organizations, conduct research, and engage
in field study. Consequently, segments of some classes will be assigned
as laboratory study, and students will devote that time to their
semester projects. I will be available during those hours to help
students individually with projects. In addition, two field trips have
been scheduled during the semester, and students should make
arrangements for any conflicts involving other classes or teaching
assistant responsibilities. One of those trips will be a full-day
excursion to the Green Mountain National Forest and the Ironworks at
Forestdale in Brandon. Lunch will be provided.
1. September 3rd
12:20 to 2:00 P.M. Class Discussion. Course introduction and description of project portfolio.
2:00
to 3:20 P.M. Project Research. Project selection, communication with
sponsors, preparation of project statement, and bibliographic research.
2. September 10th
12:20
– 2:30 P.M. Class Discussion: A Trail Head to Interdisciplinary
Landscape Study. Presentation will focus on the fifty-year friendship
of conservationist Benton MacKaye and architect Clarence Stein,
America's 21st century kindred spirits in environmental humanism. Their
model sets the stage for using landscapes as meeting grounds where a
broad range of human concerns such as housing, urban blight,
population, transportation, community, and ecology can be confronted
through local and regional planning.
Readings: Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape, Chapters 1 – 2; and Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness."
2:30
to 3:20 P.M. Project Research. Project selection, communication with
sponsors, preparation of project statement, and bibliographic research.
3. September 17th
12:20
– 2:30 P.M. Class Discussion: Cultural Landscapes. Presentation will
focus on the structure and criteria developed by the National Park
Service to evaluate historic cultural landscapes, representing four
distinct types: historic sites, historic designed landscapes, historic
rural or vernacular landscapes, and ethnographic landscapes. This
structure will provide a benchmark for consideration of many of the
landscapes to be considered throughout the course.
Readings:
Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape, Chapters 3-4; Cannavo, The
Working Landscape, Chapters 1-3; and National Park Service, National
Register Bulletin 30
2:30 to 3:20 P.M. Project Research.
Students should have selected topics by this date, and the remainder of
the class session will be devoted to brief presentations reviewing
these selections and discussing methodology, readings and research,
development of project statements, and resolution of any concerns.
4. September 24th
7:45
A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Field Trip, Departing Wheeler House. Starting point
will be the U.S. Forest Service Station, Rochester, Vermont. We will be
joined by Dave Lacy, archeologist for the U.S. Forest Service, who will
explain the service's plans for cultural resource protection in the
Granville Gulf region of Vermont's Green Mountain National Forest. A
representative from the White River Partnership will contribute to
discussions about collaborative efforts among property owners to
reclaim river corridors and create buffer zones, and we will use the
White River in Hancock as a study model. From Hancock, we will travel
to Ripton to meet with Tony Clark and Bruce Brown, who established the
Moosalamoo Association, a consortium of recreational users of the Green
Mountain National Forest. The Moosalamoo group provides a model for
establishing partnerships among diverse and sometimes conflicting
resource groups, illustrating the ability to use landscapes as a means
to establish common ground. From Tony Clark's Blueberry Hill Inn, we
will travel a short distance south to the Forest Dale blast furnace in
Brandon, adding the component of heavy industry to the discussion. Time
permitting, we will also consider preservation efforts involving
transportation projects. Transportation will be provided, but you
should bring lunch. Dress for outdoor activities.
Readings:
Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape, Chapters 5-6; Cannavo, The
Working Landscape, Chapters 4-7; and National Park Service: National
Register Bulletin 18.
5. October 1st
12:20
to 3:20. Field Study: UVM Research Forest, Jericho, and the
Preston-LaFrenier Farm, Bolton. Class discussion will focus on the
documentation and interpretation of cultural and natural resources in
UVM's research forest, formerly an early 19th century farmstead, and on
the Bolton farmstead. We'll have a chance to read the forested
landscape first hand. We will be joined by students from the
forestry program in the School of Natural Resources.
Readings:
Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape, Chapters 7-8 and Appendices;
National Park Service, Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural
Landscapes. Flanagan, Stations. An Imagined Journey.
6. October 8th
12:20
to 3:15. Class Discussion: Management of Historic Designed Landscapes.
Presentation will focus on the 1982 Restoration and Management Plan for
New York City’s Central Park, a model plan for the survey, assessment,
and interpretation of one of the country’s most important designed
landscapes. The discussion will also provide a detailed analysis
of the park’s historic and existing landscape features.
Readings: National Park Service: Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural
Landscapes.
7. October 15th
12:20
to 3:20. Class Discussion: Preservation Advocacy by Municipal
Government. City Planner David White and Associate City Planner Mary
O'Neill, a recent graduate of our historic preservation program, will
discuss preservation efforts in the context of city planning in
Burlington.
Readings: Project selections.
8. October 22nd
12:20
to 3:20. Mid-Semester Class Presentations. Students will offer formal
presentations regarding course projects, and the status of those
projects to date. Presentations should include summaries of research
completed, description of the format for the final product (whether
written report, web page, promotional literature, historic structures
report, etc.), summary of the research materials and methods being
used, brief outline of relevant literature, and, especially important,
identification of issues, questions, or problems that must be
addressed. The class session will be provide a critique of these
projects as an aid to their successful completion. Presentations should
be confined to twenty-minute segments.
Readings: Project selections.
9. October 29th
12:20
to 3:20. Class Discussion: Vermont's Historic Bridge Program. Topics
will include a history of the program, the preservation plans that have
been developed for bridge types, including metal truss bridges and
covered bridges, and case studies of successful (or not so successful)
projects.
Readings: Project selections.
10. November 5th
12:20
to 3:20. Class Discussion: Steel Manufacturing in America. Part 1.
Presentation will focus on two aspects of steel manufacturing: (1)
converting pig iron into steel through the Bessemer, open hearth,
crucible, electric furnace, and basic oxygen methods; and (2) the
evolving technology of blast furnaces.
Readings: Garn, Bethlehem Steel, pages 3-47.
11. November 12th
12:20
to 3:20. Class Discussion: Steel Manufacturing in America. Part
2. Presentation will focus on the numerous other features of the
built environment requisite to the vertically integrated manufacture of
steel, including transport and movement of ores and coal; ore
beneficiation; by-product coking plants; blooming and various rolling
mills, and the evolving technology associated with these mills and
their rolling machines; treatment of finished products such as
porcelain enameled steel and galvanized steel; seamless tubing;
forging; power systems; blowing engines; dry air blast; steel monopoly;
and company towns.
Readings: Garn, Bethlehem Steel, pages 51-107. Please study the images and be prepared to read the history that you see.
12. November 19th
12:20
to 3:20. Class Discussion: Refining Fossil Fuels.
Presentation will continue the focus on heavy industry but will shift
to the mining and refining of fossil fuels, and the subsidiary
industries that have developed in relation to this aspect of American
manufacturing.
Readings: Project selections.
13. November 26th: Thanksgiving Recess
14. December 3rd
12:20
to 3:20. Class Discussion: Gas Stations. Presentation will focus
on the very visible part of the roadside built environment related to
motorized transportation dependent on fossil fuels, e.g. the
automobile. The history and evolution of American gas stations as a
unique architectural type will be considered, as will the numerous
contributions of this building form to other aspects of roadside
commerce.
Readings: Project selections.
15. December 10th and Thursday, December 18th
CLASS PRESENTATIONS.
Final class presentations will be scheduled in lieu of a final
examination, and students are encouraged to consider these as
rehearsals for presentations to be given to project sponsors. The
materials you discuss should be organized into forty-minute segments,
including ten minutes allotted for questions and discussion. Time of
class on Friday to be announced.
COMMUNITY PRESERVATION PROJECT ASSIGNMENT.
Students will be asked to select an area of special interest and apply
appropriate preservation tools and policies toward completion of a
project that advances the cause of historic preservation for a
non-profit organization or public agency, or in some way advance the
cause of community preservation. Five principles are fundamental to the
structure of this course.
1. Students should
be given an opportunity to explore areas of individual interest in
great depth. Select projects that interest you or involve subjects that
you hope to pursue in your preservation career.
2. Students must, in some respect, incorporate public advocacy for preservation into each project.
3.
Students will work directly with non-profit or public agency sponsors
to define and execute these projects. Your role is as a private
consultant engaged by that organization, and the project is to be
defined by mutual agreement. The form of the final product must satisfy
your professional standards as well as those of your sponsor
4. Completed projects should be substantial enough to add to student portfolios.
5.
Finally, students may develop these projects individually or in small
teams. Projects will be evaluated by sponsors and by course instructors
and will be measured against criteria that expand these fundamental
principles.
PROJECT GUIDELINES. Students will be responsible for all aspects of project development, and the following guidelines should be observed.
Project Selection.
Projects should be selected from the attached list, and students should
consider projects that can be linked to their desired areas of
practice. Students should also consider the nature or mission of the
sponsoring organization, again as a way to explore in greater depth the
type of work conducted by that organization. One of the course's goals
is to assist students faced with making career choices. Using a
template provided, students should prepare written proposals for
desired projects and meet with the course instructors to confirm any
selection. Students may also develop their own project or projects,
subject to approval from the course instructor.
Bibliography.
Each student, working with course instructors, will develop a
bibliography of readings for their respective projects. Readings should
be selected to expand students' knowledge in areas of practice relevant
to the project. Comprehensive summaries of at least two readings must
be included in the final class presentations, a means to share that
knowledge with the entire class.
Individual or Team Projects.
Students should weigh the respective merits and hardships of individual
and team projects. Generally, the scope of team projects will be
larger, more complex, and the final product may have more far-reaching
influence. In addition, the experience gained from working as part of a
team can be valuable. However, students who select team projects will
be collectively (jointly and severally) responsible for all aspects of
the work. Evaluations by the course instructors and project sponsors
will focus on the product itself, not the separate contributions of
individual students. A single grade will be given for the project, and
that same grade will be given to each participating student, regardless
of the quality or extent of work performed by individual students. Be
forewarned. This rule can create inequitable results. Thus, it is
important for students to form partnerships with colleagues whose
skills, work habits, and interests are compatible. Once a partner has
been selected and a project started, it may not be possible to change
to another project and meet the required deadlines. Team projects also
require additional time for planning and coordinating work assignments.
Individual projects, although usually narrower in scope, nevertheless
provide students with an opportunity to select topics that are of
particular interest and to explore those topics in greater depth.
Students may also have the opportunity to work more closely with
project sponsors. Finally, students may be better able to organize
their time to fit complicated work schedules.
Project Statement.
Once a project has been selected, students must develop a simple
project statement that describes the final product, explains the
expected work performance of each participating party (including
project sponsors), assigns responsibility for specific tasks, and
includes a schedule for project completion. That schedule must
incorporate the deadlines identified by these guidelines. The project
statement should be signed by each student and by the project sponsor.
Copies of that signed project statement should be submitted to project
sponsors and to the course instructors. The project statement should
also identify the expected costs, if any, and explain the method of
reimbursement.
Public Advocacy and Presentations.
One of the course's fundamental principles is that the project must in
some manner advance the cause of historic preservation. Put another
way, students must add to public awareness about the contributions of
historic preservation. Different projects can accomplish this in
different ways, and students should work with sponsors and the course
instructors to create an appropriate strategy. If possible, students
are encouraged to devise a public presentation and will be given extra
credit for that effort. .
Class Presentations.
Each student will be asked, individually or as part of a team, to
present his or her project to the entire class. Presentations will
outline project participants, content, direction, and objectives and
will identify the key readings selected and will be an opportunity to
rehearse for public presentations. In addition, a more detailed summary
of readings will be required. Class presentations will be given in lieu
of a final examination.
Travel.
Some of the projects offered will require travel, and students should
consider the complexities of transportation when making a selection.
Travel will increase the overall time required to complete a project,
and coordination with project-sponsors may be more difficult as well.
Anticipating and planning for work to be accomplished at a distant site
may also be troublesome. Nevertheless, a course with a broad
geographical reach will expose students to a greater variety of topics,
which in turn will offer more opportunities for individual exploration.
Moreover, students will be given a better understanding of the many
regional organizations that are working in the field of historic
preservation. The projects, too, may serve as very personal
introductions to specific areas of practice and become part of student
portfolios. In addition, many of the projects have been designed to
allow students to complete work it convenient locations.
Project Sponsors. Project
sponsors will serve as students' clients and will be responsible for
defining and evaluating projects. An evaluation form will be
distributed to all sponsors, and that form will provide guidelines for
review. Criteria include (but are not limited to) accuracy of content,
writing, organization or format, quality of visual materials,
communication skills, and presentation style. Course instructors will
rely heavily on these evaluations in assigning project grades. It is
crucial for students to establish clear communication with project
sponsors at the outset and to define very precisely the sponsor's
expectations. These should be incorporated into the written project
statement. If miscommunication occurs or if questions develop, stop
work immediately and resolve those questions. Delay can be costly.
Course Instructors. In
most cases, the content of projects will be determined by project
sponsors, and the course instructor may have only limited discretion to
revise that content. In addition, the breadth (or narrowness) of
certain topics may make review difficult for the course instructor. In
such instances, students must again rely on project sponsors for
essential critique. However, the course instructors will be available
for general guidance and will evaluate projects using the same criteria
given to project sponsors
Written Materials.
Students are solely responsible for producing clearly written, well
organized, and carefully edited documents. Poorly written or poorly
edited materials will be returned to students without comment and
without extension of any deadlines. Careful editing requires time, and
students should complete documents well in advance of deadlines in
order to devote several days to the editing process. If you lack
confidence in your writing skills, it is your responsibility to seek
assistance from course instructors or a professional editor early in
the semester. Final review of documents by course instructors and
project sponsors should focus on substantive content, and this is very
difficult to do if documents are poorly written. If documents are to be
placed in public circulation, students should schedule additional time
for copy-editing, a normal (if tedious) part of the publication process.
PROJECT DEADLINES. Students
will be responsible for meeting the course deadlines. If deadlines are
missed, it may not be possible for project sponsors and course
instructors to complete their reviews in time for students to graduate.
Wednesday, September 10th: Projects
should be selected and briefly presented for review to the class.
Drafts of project statements should be ready for signature by project
sponsors. A copy of the executed project statement should then be
submitted to the course instructor.
Wednesday, October 1st: Fifty per-cent of project research should be completed.
Friday, October 24th: All project research should be completed.
Friday, November 14th:
Projects are due for submission to course instructor. Any written
materials to be included as part of any project must be fully edited
for content, grammar, and syntax. Poorly edited documents will be
returned for resubmission, but project schedules will not be extended.
Projects will be reviewed and returned for necessary corrections.
Wednesday, December 10th: Revised documents should be resubmitted to project sponsors and the course instructor.