Photo: Tanya Hoard
Architecture and Urbanism of Philadelphia (ARTH 029)
Brian Goldstein, SC
Wednesday 12:00-3:00 p.m.
Philadelphia offers a nearly unmatched physical record of American architectural and urban history. Even a cursory list touches on many major developments in the built environment over the last five centuries: William Penn’s Philadelphia Plan; Eastern State Penitentiary; W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Philadelphia Negro; Philadelphia Savings Fund Society; Carl Mackley Houses; Levittown; and Society Hill. This course turns to this history not only to understand the specific arc of architecture and planning in an influential metropolitan area, but also to understand how these examples can teach about broader themes in Philadelphia and beyond, including the history of land use and planning, the industrial and urban revolutions, social struggle and social change, public memory, and aesthetic and formal innovation. The course will combine discussion with extensive first hand observation in Philadelphia and visits with local experts to introduce the foundational methods of architectural and urban history, some of the questions that animate it, and the major cultural, political, and social forces that have shaped it.
This course will proceed from two basic assumptions: that the built environment, as a cultural product, is a rich archival record; and that architecture and urbanism are not born complete but made by people through discussion, debate, contingency, use, and reuse. These will offer the framework for an interdisciplinary introduction to the history of Philadelphia’s built environment through a variety of sources: paintings, archival documents, maps, drawings, and scholarly texts from fields including art history, history, sociology, and political science. Our primary text will be the city itself, with both brief and extended field trips a central part of the class. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
Photo: Calista Cleary
Literary Philadelphia – A Collective Exploration (ENGL 093P)
Moriel Rothman-Zecher, SC
Thursday, 12:15-3:00 p.m.
Philadelphia offers a nearly unmatched physical record of American architectural and urban history. Even a cursory list touches on many major developments in the built environment over the last five centuries: William Penn’s Philadelphia Plan; Eastern State Penitentiary; W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Philadelphia Negro; Philadelphia Savings Fund Society; Carl Mackley Houses; Levittown; and Society Hill. This course turns to this history not only to understand the specific arc of architecture and planning in an influential metropolitan area, but also to understand how these examples can teach about broader themes in Philadelphia and beyond, including the history of land use and planning, the industrial and urban revolutions, social struggle and social change, public memory, and aesthetic and formal innovation. The course will combine discussion with extensive first hand observation in Philadelphia and visits with local experts to introduce the foundational methods of architectural and urban history, some of the questions that animate it, and the major cultural, political, and social forces that have shaped it.
This course will proceed from two basic assumptions: that the built environment, as a cultural product, is a rich archival record; and that architecture and urbanism are not born complete but made by people through discussion, debate, contingency, use, and reuse. These will offer the framework for an interdisciplinary introduction to the history of Philadelphia’s built environment through a variety of sources: paintings, archival documents, maps, drawings, and scholarly texts from fields including art history, history, sociology, and political science. Our primary text will be the city itself, with both brief and extended field trips a central part of the class. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
