Category: Chapter Programs

A WALKING TOUR OF LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

Lancaster Central Market

with expert guides Gregg Scott, FAIA and Jim Douglas, AIA
Saturday, July 31, 2021, 10:00 a.m. to approx. 1:00 p.m.
Meets at The Lancaster Theological Seminary Parking Lot
555 W James Street (at the corner of College Avenue)
(free parking compliments of the Seminary)

Cost $20.00 per person
This program is open only to current Phila Chapter SAH Members. Space is limited.
Advance registration is required at info@philachaptersah.org
Once your current membership is confirmed, you will receive an email with payment instructions and additional details.

Lancaster is accessible by car or Amtrak service from Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Public bus service is available between the Lancaster Amtrak Station and The Lancaster Theological Seminary.

Sandy Smith, Philadelphia Magazine’s Real Estate editor recently wrote, “Lancaster has to be the coolest small city in the state, and maybe even the entire Mid-Atlantic region.” Lancaster City was the vision of James Hamilton in 1734 and considered to be the ‘stepping off point’ to the Ohio River Valley and the frontier beyond.  Pioneers would secure their Conestoga wagons and Pennsylvania long rifles in Lancaster before heading west. The 286 years of history provides a wealth of architectural styles that are available to discover in a very condensed and tight nucleus around the town center.

Our walking tour begins at the historic Franklin & Marshall College campus and includes a six-block walk to center city along mansion row. See multiple examples of Chateauesque, Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival, English Country, Spanish Revival, Dutch Colonial, Norman Gothic, Queen Anne and Second Empire. Ending in center city, Penn Square supports an additional fourteen architectural styles within a two-block radius of the 1874 Gothic Revival Civil War memorial. The vast inventory of diverse architectural styles in excellent condition impresses even the most fervent architectural critics. Our tour will adjourn with lunch (not included) at the internationally acclaimed 1889 Romanesque Revival Central Market, a commission won by James H. Warner when he was only twenty-four years old! (https://centralmarketlancaster.com/)

Phila Chapter SAH: Two Tours at Temple

A Tour of the Exhibit “Learning to See: Denise School Brown”
with Pablo Meninato, Associate Professor of Architecture, Tyler School of Art
followed by a
Tour of Temple’s New Charles Library
with Kate Wingert-Playdon, Associate Dean, Tyler School of Art
Tuesday, June 29 from 4:00 p.m. to approx.. 6:00 p.m.

Charles Library (photo courtesy of Temple University)

This will be a live, in-person event.
As mask regulations are subject to change quickly, you should bring a mask just in case one is required.

This is a free event that was originally open only to current Phila Chapter SAH Members.  BUT WE NOW HAVE A FEW SPACES OPEN FOR NON-MEMBERS.
Advance registration is required at info@philachaptersah,org. no later than Monday, June 28.  Please email that address with any questions.

Please arrive at Temple Contemporary Tyler School of Art, 2001 N 13th St, Philadelphia, by 3:45 p.m., the tour will begin promptly at 4:00 p.m.

Denise Scott Brown is regarded as among the most influential architects of the twentieth century; through her architecture, planning, theoretical writing and mentorship she and her late partner, Robert Venturi are credited with changing the course of American Architecture.

One of the guiding principles underlying this new trajectory is a non-judgmental way of looking at and responding as designers to the everyday built environment. This “Learning From . . .” approach is vividly conveyed in the photography of Denise Scott Brown.

The photos on display document Scott Brown’s travels, inspirations and interests through the lens—from the rural vernacular of South Africa to the beauty and banality of European cities, to the significance of pop culture in the American built environment, like the Las Vegas Strip, through its gas stations, billboards, roadside stores, signs, advertisements and more

If you can’t join our tour, “Learning to See: Denise Scott Brown,” will be on exhibit at Temple Contemporary through September 19, 2021.

Temple’s Charles Library opened for the start of the fall 2019 semester. This state-of-the-art learning center is transforming the campus with its striking design and sophisticated technology. It’s the most modern library in Pennsylvania and one of the most significant new libraries in North America. It’s a place where all Temple students and faculty, regardless of discipline, can study, learn, create and collaborate.

The library boasts an impressive collection of high-demand volumes available in traditional stacks, and additional books available via an automated storage and retrieval system known as the BookBot. Located underneath Charles, the cutting-edge technology increases usability, allowing for more open space in the library where faculty and students can gather and work, while still providing easy access to the library’s extensive collection.

Sited at the intersection of two major pedestrian pathways, Polett Walk and Liacouras Walk, and at the nexus of Temple’s Main Campus, Charles Library anchors a new social and academic heart for the university’s diverse student body of over 39,000.

Woven into the fabric of North Philadelphia, the building sits just one block off of Broad Street, the connecting artery to the city. Within its dynamic urban context, Snøhetta’s design, developed in collaboration with Stantec, reinterprets the traditional typology of the research library as a repository for books, integrating the building with a diversity of collaborative and social learning spaces. And in offering more than double the amount of study spaces than its 1960s predecessor, Paley Library, the 220,000-square-foot Library anticipates welcoming over 5 million annual visitors.

SAH Phila Annual Members Meeting: Architecture Confronting Inequality

SAH Philadelphia Chapter invites you to join us for
Our Annual Members Meeting
Thurs, May 27 at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom
Free, no registration required.
Join Zoom Meeting https://Jefferson.zoom.us/j/98581864459
The brief business meeting will be followed by a talk:

ARCHITECTURE CONFRONTING INEQUALITY: SLUM UPGRADING TACTICS IN LATIN AMERICA
by Pablo Meninato, PhD

Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, most Latin American countries experienced unprecedented mass migration of impoverished people moving from rural areas to informal settlements located at the urban periphery. Dr. Pablo Meninato will present how several contemporary architects across Latin America have been developing urban interventions that significantly depart from conventional approaches to architecture and planning. He will concentrate on the tactical initiatives developed in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, the San Diego-Tijuana border, at the urban periphery of Buenos Aires, and the barrios of Medellin. This research contributes to a forthcoming book, Informality and the City. Theories, actions, interventions.

Pablo Meninato, PhD is an architect, architectural critic, and educator whose research focuses on the conception and development of the architectural project. He has academic degrees from the University of Belgrano at Buenos Aires, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Meninato is the author of Unexpected Affinities (Routledge, 2018), a book that proposes a historical reassessment of the concept of architectural ‘type’ and its impact on the design process. The book examines affinities between tactics of the readymade—as conceived by the artist Marcel Duchamp—and typological displacement. In his current research, Meninato investigates how various contemporary architects are developing new and original urban design tactics that enhance the quality of life in informal settlements across Latin America.Prior to joining Temple University as Associate Professor, Meninato taught and practiced architecture at various academic institutions in the U.S. and Latin America.His essays have been published in various magazines, journals, and books. Together with his collaborator, Dr. Gregory Marinic, Meninato will be publishing two books: Informality and the City. Theories, actions, interventions (Springer, January 2022) and Hopeful Rebar. Informal Urbanism in Mexico City (University of Cincinnati Press, March 2022).

SAVE THE DATE:
Saturday July 31, 2021
A WALKING TOUR OF LANCASTER, PA
This is an SAH Phila members-only program as space is limited.
Registration info will be announced in early July
For information on becoming an SAH member visit the membeship page on our website.

LEARNING TO SEE: REVISITING DENISE SCOTT BROWN’S WORK AND IDEAS

With AIA National President Peter Exley and Carolina Vaccaro, Scholar and Curator
Thursday, April 22, at 4:00 p.m.
Free and open to all via this Zoom link:
https://temple.zoom.us/j/95425410506

This is the third talk in SAH Philadelphia’s The Elusive Philadelphia School; The Many Guises of Philadelphia’s Modernism lecture series. Keep your eye on our website for future talks in this series www.philachaptersah.org

“Denise Scott Brown: ‘Learning to See’” will be on exhibit at Temple Contemporary from May 20 through September 19, 2021.

Denise Scott Brown is regarded as among the most influential architects of the twentieth century; through her architecture, planning, theoretical writing and mentorship she and her late partner, Robert Venturi are credited with changing the course of American Architecture.

One of the guiding principles underlying this new trajectory is a non-judgmental way of looking at and responding as designers to the everyday built environment. This “Learning From . . .” approach is vividly conveyed in the photography of Denise Scott Brown.

The photos on display document Scott Brown’s travels, inspirations and interests through the lens—from the rural vernacular of South Africa to the beauty and banality of European cities, to the significance of pop culture in the American built environment, like the Las Vegas Strip, through its gas stations, billboards, roadside stores, signs, advertisements and more. (https://www.archdaily.com/959625/learning-to-see-denise-scott-brown)

In advance of the show’s opening, SAH Philadelphia, in conjunction with the Tyler Department of Architecture is pleased to bring together two prominent architect/scholars in their own right, who learned from, and were profoundly influenced by, their formative experiences with Venturi Scott Brown and their associates.

Peter Exley, FAIA, AIA President, co-founder of the Chicago based firm architectureisfun: Peter Exley has established an internationally-recognized, award winning practice of architecture for children, families and communities elevating the standards of design for learning and play environments. He worked at Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates in the late 1980’s.

Carolina Vaccaro is an architect and scholar based in Rome, Italy, and has published multiple works around this topic. Vaccaro worked at the office of Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates in the 1980s. She is the scientific curator and designer of the “Denise Scott Brown: ‘Learning to See’” exhibition at Tyler Contemporary.

We hope you will join us for what promises to be a lively and revealing discussion.

The photography of Denise Scott Brown has been featured in a variety of shows and publications, including:

Aperture
(https://aperture.org/editorial/denise-scott-brown-las-vegas/

Graham Foundation
http://www.grahamfoundation.org/public_exhibitions/3878-las-vegas-studio-images-from-the-archives-of-robert-venturi-and-denise-scott-brown

Carriage Trade, N.Y.
https://carriagetrade.org/Denise-Scott-Brown-Photographs

Arch Record / Venice Biennale
http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/11824-view-master-the-world-as-seen-by-denise-scott-brown

A BOLD VENTURE FOR HEALTH: KLING’S LANKENAU HOSPITAL AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF COMMUNITY

by Kevin Block, PhD
Thursday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Free, no registration required
Online via Zoom, see below for access information

Lankenau Hospital was, perhaps, the most modern community hospital in America when it opened near the beginning of suburban Philadlephia’s prestigious Main Line in December of 1953. Wowed by its Atomic Age medical technology and focus on preventive health, the local press hailed Lankenau as an entirely “new kind of hospital.” The editors of Architectural Record and Progressive Architecture, meanwhile, awarded Kling’s design national honors for transcending the merely functional requirements of a healthcare facility. To them, Lankenau was “real architecture.” Edmund Bacon, Philadelphia’s famous master planner, was so impressed by Kling’s model for Lankenau that after seeing it he invited Kling to work with him on Center City’s urban renewal. Lankenau was thus the beginning of Kling’s transformation from a young hospital architect into the owner of what would become Philadelphia’s most prominent corporate architecture firm.

While historians tend to think of corporate architecture as placeless practice and overlook the importance of regional firms in the evolution of what is now a global design industry, Lankenau was a complicated, elite-directed exercise in middle-class community building, one that projected an image of scientifically administered healthcare in order to manage the process of postwar suburbanization. Central to this image was the architect himself. Kling not only served as a designer, but he also appeared as a glamorous “new man” in fundraising and promotional material that aimed to excite Philadelphia’s upper class. In reading the design of Lankenau alongside the use of Kling’s persona in Lankenau’s “A Bold Venture for Health” fundraising campaign, this presentation will attempt to complicate the prevailing theory of corporate architecture as placeless practice with a locally-informed case study in the architecture of community development.

Kevin Block is an architectural historian and preservationist who received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught courses in architectural history and American Studies at Berkeley and, most recently, at Princeton. His research focuses on the history of American architecture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially the development of architecture as a profession. This presentation is part of a book-length project about Vincent Kling and the figure of the corporate architect. He writes a newsletter about this project entitled “The Architect as Doer” (https://tinyletter.com/kpb/archive). He was born in Lankenau Hospital.”

This is the second talk in The Elusive Philadelphia School; The Many Guises of Philadelphia’s Modernism lecture series. Keep your eye on our website for future talks in this series www.philachaptersah.org”

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ALFRED PANEPINTO: MODERNIST?

by Alfred Willis, PhD, Consultant/Researcher in Architectural History
Thursday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Free, no registration required.
Online via Zoom, see below for access information.

For over fifty years Alfred Panepinto (1907-94 ) pursued a career in greater Philadelphia after completing his architectural education at Harvard University in 1931. His long-term employment by Sun Oil Co., beginning in 1934, laid the foundation for his success. A notable feature of his career was his frequent service to clients noted for a commitment to conservative politics, notably J. Howard Pew of Sun Oil.

In the 1950s and 1960s Panepinto built a significant number of structures for academic institutions, including Grove City College and the PMC Colleges (later Widener University) in Pennsylvania and Hampton Institute (now University) in Virginia. Examination of those and several other of Panepinto’s contemporary buildings sheds light on the compositional strategies the architect employed to achieve effects that were unequivocally Modern yet appealing to clients opposed to the progressivism often associated with mid-20th-centruy Modernism. This light permits a new assessment of the so-called retreat from Modernism ca. 1960 as well as of the precocious Postmodernism of the Philadelphia School.

Alfred Willis is an architectural historian and preservationist who received his doctorate in Art History from Columbia University, his Master in Library Science from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree in architecture from Clemson University. He has been on the architecture faculty at Hampton University and Kent State University.

Dr. Willis is the editor of SAH Archipedia: South Carolina. As a prolific scholar, he authored over eleven publications and over 30 papers and presentations. Since his recent retirement he has served as a preservation consultant preparing National Register Nominations and landmark designations.

This is the first talk in our The Elusive Philadelphia School; The Many Guises of Philadelphia’s Modernism lecture series. Our next in the series will be on March 25, “A Bold Venture for Health: Kling’s Lankenau Hospital and the Architecture of Community”

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ARCHITECTURAL QUIZZO


Join the Society of Architectural Historians Philadelphia Chapter & the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance for our very first Architectural Quizzo!
This event will be held virtually via Zoom.
Friday, February 26 2021, 6:30 PM — 9:30 PM

Which famous Philadelphia architect won the Medal of Honor during the Civil War? Who designed the Ben Franklin bridge? If you know the answers, and even if you don’t, join us in Philadelphia’s first-ever Architectural Quizzo! Sign up individually, or better yet with friends, to test your knowledge of Philadelphia’s architectural icons, planning and infrastructure, suburbs, and popular culture. Nothing like that boring Art History 101 course! You’ll work in teams to answer five exciting rounds of questions – with prizes for the winning team! (NOTE: you do not have to form a team, in order to make this a truly social event and introduce you to potential new friends you will be assigned to a team after you register.)

Free for members (plus 1 guest) of the Philadelphia Chapter SAH, of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, and of the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance.
$5 for non-members.
Registration requested by February 19 at
https://preservationalliance.ticketleap.com/yfpa-sah-quizzo/

Co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians and the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.

For questions, email Veronica Aplenc, of the Philadelphia Chapter of the SAH, vaplenc@gmail.com or Greg Prichard, of the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance, greg@gregprichard.com.

BOND – FLEMISH OR HUGUENOT BOND?

Chateau d’Herbault (1525), Allier province, France

by Elizabeth S. Browne
Wednesday, October 28 at 7:00 p.m.
Free and open to all, this talk will be online via Zoom (see below)

The premise of this talk is that the prevalent style of bricklaying in early America is typically, but incorrectly, called “Flemish” bond. Join us as Browne shares her original research on the origins of the elegant brick pattern which moved from France to America in the 16th-18th centuries amidst the upheavals of the Wars of Religion. Her theory, supported by extensive research, explores the path of this cultural artifact of craftsmanship and its craftsmen through the history of religion and society in France and America over two centuries. It has led her to the conclusion that this style should be called “Huguenot” bond, rather than Flemish Bond.

Elizabeth Browne received a BA in Modern European History at Wellesley College, with an emphasis on French history. Living in the midst of American history in Philadelphia gave her a new appreciation for it, leading her to become a tour guide and eventually a consultant to Historic Philadelphia, Inc. in the 1990s, designing tours of the historic area as stories and training guides to give them. She was a founder and vice-president of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, Chair of the Friends of Independence National Historical Park, founder and president of the Historic St. Peter’s Church Preservation Corp. She co-authored St. Peter’s Church: Faith in Action for 250 Years (Temple U. Press, 2011). She is currently a lecturer on American and French history topics, with a special interest in Philadelphia history and architecture and in the close bonds between the French and American peoples.

Use this link to join the Zoom meeting, you will also need to enter the passcode when promted
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Annual Members Pizza & Pictures Party

Thursday, January 16, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.
Snow Date: Tuesday, January 21 at 6:00 p.m.
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 S. 6th Street

Pizza and beverages will be provided.  Please feel free to bring a dessert to share if you wish.  There is no charge for Philadelphia Chapter SAH members AND each member is invited to bring one guest at no charge as a prospective member.  Additional guests are welcome at $15.00 each.
 
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED  Please RSVP to Bruce Laverty at laverty@PhilaAthenaeum.org or 215-925-2688.

If you would like to bring a few digital images to give a short (5 minute/10-15 image) talk on a recent project, current research, or “What I did on my summer vacation,” please let Bruce know.  Digital images should be placed on a thumb drive in a Power Point file or as individual image files.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: GENDER AND SPACE IN IMPRESSIONIST INTERIORS

In the Conservatory, Edouard Manet, 1879

by Suzanne Singletary, Ph.D., Associate Dean, New Academic Initiatives and Graduate Studies, College of Architecture and the Built Environment, Thomas Jefferson University

Tuesday Nov 12 at 6:00 p.m.
Lawrence N. Field DEC Center Forum
4201 Henry Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
Thomas Jefferson University’s East Falls Campus

Free and open to all, no registration required.
For public transit info see www.SEPTA.com.
Free parking is available in a nearby visitors’ parking lot accessed from School House Lane, just east of Henry Avenue, behind Search Hall.

As early as the 1830s, the English word home had migrated into the French language, signifying an isolated, self-contained domesticity and recognition that the “house” had undergone a radical redefinition. Population growth, demographic shifts, revolutions within the social and political spheres and, significantly, the all-encompassing redesign of Paris by Napoleon III and his urban planner Baron Haussmann effected a fundamental split between public and private spaces. Impressionist painters chronicled their responses to the “New Paris,” interpreting the many repercussions and permutations wrought by Haussmannization and leaving us a painted archive of urban vistas as well as the sequestered spaces of home. Their domestic interiors not only itemize activities of daily life, but also insinuate the volatile conditions and invariable frictions that accompanied modernity, specifically the often-strained relationships between modern men and modern women “at home.” Private space, by definition, permitted the enactment of clandestine psychological and gender-related dramas, intended to remain securely closeted behind closed doors.

Suzanne Singletary teaches the history and theory of art, architecture and design. She has been involved in the development of the History of Architecture and Interiors series and taught seminars in thesis research and preparation, photography and visual culture, and issues in contemporary architecture. Currently she serves as Associate Dean for New Academic Initiatives and Graduate Studies and Director of the MS Historic Preservation Program. Her research interests include interdisciplinary aspects of art, architecture, literature and music. She has participated in international symposia and been an invited speaker at the National Gallery of Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of London, the Tate Britain, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has published articles on Eugène Delacroix, French Symbolism, and Francesco Goya, and contributed essays to Impressionist Interiors (National Gallery of Ireland 2008), Perspectives on Manet (Ashgate 2012) and Rival Sisters (Ashgate 2014). Her book, James McNeill Whistler and France: A Dialogue in Paint, Poetry, and Music was published by Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group (2017).