Tag: architecture

Exhibition Tour with curator Bruce Laverty

April 22, 2017 /

2017-05-11 Laying Tracks poster

Thursday, May 11 at 6:00 p.m.
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 S. 6th Street
Cost: Free, but space is limited.  Open to SAH Phila Chapter members and their guests only. Registration required at ffaphila@hotmail.com

The introduction of railroads in the 1830s initiated a revolution in the development of American industry, land use, and social patterns. The new technology challenged the nascent American professions of architecture and engineering to create entirely new building and structural types to meet railroad needs— passenger waiting stations, bridges, train sheds, repair shops, grand downtown depots, and even bedroom suburbs. For more than 100 years, Philadelphia’s most important designers met this challenge, including William Strickland, Thomas U. Walter, John Notman, Theophilus P. Chandler, the Wilson Brothers, Frank Furness, Horace Trumbauer and Paul P. Cret. This exhibit features drawings, prints, photographs, and manuscripts that document how these Philadelphia architects and engineers transformed not only their own city, but much of the American landscape.

The exhibition is on view February 13 through May 12, 2017.  http://www.philaathenaeum.org/

 

PALAZZOS OF POWER: CENTRAL STATIONS OF THE PHILADELPHIA ELECTRIC COMPANY, 1900-1930

March 31, 2017 /

2017-04-13 PECO Allegheny Ave District Off

An exhibition and book talk by by Joseph E. B. Elliott and Aaron V. Wunsch
Harvey and Irwin Kroiz Gallery, Architectural Archives
Lower Level of the Fisher Fine Arts Library
220 South 34th Street, University of Pennsylvania
Exhibition: March 20 – June 14, 2017
Reception and Book Talk: Thursday, April 13, 6:00 .p.m.
Free and open to the public.  No registration required.

This exhibition explores a series of colossal neoclassical power stations erected by The Philadelphia Electric Company between 1900 and 1930.  Presented through the photographs of Joseph E. B. Elliott (Professor of Art, Muhlenberg College) and scholarship of Aaron V. Wunsch (Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation, University of Pennsylvania), the show accompanies their recently released book, Palazzos of Power (Princeton Architectural Press): https://www.amazon.com/Palazzos-Power-Stations-Philadelphia-1900-1930/dp/1616895004

 

Don’t Scare the Horses: The Development of the American Estate Garage

March 31, 2017 /

2017-04-04 American Estate Garage Westthorpe

By Jeff Groff, Director of Interpretation and Estate Historian,
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Tuesday, April 4 at 6:00 p.m.
Room B-3, Meyerson Hall, Univ of Pennsylvania
Free and open to all.  Seating is first come, first served.  No registration required.

Innovation and speed were the keystones of American life in the early twentieth century with the wealthy embracing every new means of transportation to move about—and to show off their success.  At their country places, new types of buildings were designed to house their automobiles, and an important new type of servant was added to the estate  staff list—chauffeur.  Jeff Groff, director of interpretation & estate historian at Winterthur, will explore the design and function of these early garages; their evolution into key estate  features; and the need to define the chauffeur’s duties, status, and relationship to fellow servants and employers.

Annual Pizza & Pictures Party

November 8, 2016 /

pizza & pix

Tuesday January 24, 2017 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 as a prospective member.  Additional guests are welcome at $15.00 each.

Please RSVP to William V. Kriebel, Phila SAH Treasurer at kriebewv@drexel.edu or 215-735-3697.

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 contact Bruce Laverty at laverty@PhilaAthenaeum.org or 215-925-2688.  Digital images should be placed on a thumb drive as individual image files or in a Power Point file.

Please join us for an evening of fun and good food!

SNOW DATE THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2017

The American Country Club: Architecture For Suburban Sports

November 8, 2016 /

2016-12-04-country-clubs-wilmington-de-cc

by Anne E. Krulikowski, Assistant Professor of History, West Chester University
Sunday, December 4 at 2:00 p.m.
Union League Golf Club at Torresdale
3801 Grant Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19114

$15 for SAH members, $20 for non-members.
Light refreshments will be served.
Advance registration and pre-payment required.  Space is limited.
Registration and questions by email at info@philachaptersah.org or by phone at 610-566-2342.  Once your registration is confirmed, please mail your check to William V. Kriebel, Phila SAH Treasurer, 1923 Manning Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

The Golden Age of the American Country Club extended from the 1890s to the Great Crash of 1929.  These suburban institutions originated from several sources, including men’s city clubs and resort casinos.  The great suburban migration beginning in the 1890s increased the popularity of the sporting life for entire families.  Country club design became a notable part of some architectural practices and national architectural journals began featuring clubhouse designs and plans.   Clubhouse exteriors represented mainly traditional styles, while floor plans reflected gender roles, class hierarchies, and social values.

While not as formal as the Union League on Broad Street, the Golf Club requests that you wear business casual.

Preservation Pioneer: The Life and Legacy of Charles E. Peterson

October 4, 2016 /

An exhibition tour with with Bruce Laverty, Curator of Architecture

2016-10-25-petersonposter
Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 S. 6th Street

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia is pleased to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service and the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, with this exhibition.

In a career that spanned seven decades, Peterson founded the Historic American Buildings Survey, authored America’s first historic structures report, oversaw the creation of Independence National Historical Park, and created significant endowments that encourage building scholarship, documentation, and publication.

Peterson is credited with coming up with the neighborhood moniker “Society Hill” after discovering that William Penn’s real estate group, the Free Society of Traders, had set up shop in the area in the late 17th century.  He lived in Society Hill from 1954, when he purchased two row houses on Spruce Street for $8,000, until his death at age 97 in 2004.

This event is free, but registration is required as space is limited. Email info@philachaptersah.org

If you are unable to attend the tour the exhibit is on view through December 30, 2016. Free Admission. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 9:00 am-5:00 pm and occasional Saturdays, check the Athenaeum website www.philaathenaeum.org

Palazzos of Power: Central Stations of the Philadelphia Electric Company, 1900-1930: A Lecture and Book Signing

September 23, 2016 /

palazzos-cover_

with author Aaron V. Wunsch and photographer Joseph E. B. Elliott
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Center for Architecture + Design, 1218 Arch Street, Philadelphia
Lecture 6:00-7:00 p.m., Reception & book signing 7:00-8:00 p.m.

“If it isn’t Electric, it isn’t Modern.” Such was the slogan of the Philadelphia Electric Company, developer of an unprecedented network of massive metropolitan power stations servicing greater Philadelphia at the turn of the twentieth century.  These once-brilliant sentinels of civic utility and activity were designed to convey ‘solidity and immensity’ in an age of deep public skepticism.  They now stand vacant and decaying, a blight in the eyes of city planners and a beacon to urban explorers.  Join Aaron Wunsch, assistant professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, and Joseph Elliott, renowned photographer and Professor of Art at Muhlenberg College, as they discuss the first book on the buildings and machines that made possible the electrification of the United States.  Books will be available for purchase and signing.

This event is free, but registration is required at
http://aiaphiladelphia.org/events/palazzos-power-central-stations-philadelphia-electric-company-1900-1930-0

Sponsored by AIA Philadelphia’s Historic Preservation Committee, the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance, the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association for Preservation Technology, the Philadelphia Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians, and the Oliver Evans Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archaeology.

Flowers & Monsters: Hand-Carved Furniture by Karl von Rydingsvärd

August 17, 2016 /

with introductory remarks by Carrie Hogan, Senior Curator
Saturday, September 10 at 1:00 p.m.
The American Swedish Historical Museum, 1900 Pattison Avenue, Philadelphia

2016-09-10 Flowers & Monsters gallery

Join us at this rare exhibition of the work of Karl Arthur von Rydingsvärd (1863-1941), an influential teacher who promoted the idea that anyone, even women, could carve wood and create useful furnishings. von Rydingsvärd began his career in America working with the Herter Brothers and then with the A. H. Davenport Company. Later he taught at several institutions including Columbia, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Additionally he ran summer woodworking classes from his home near Brunswick, Maine. He also trained teachers to rehabilitate World War I veterans and advised the New York Hospital about the role of craftwork in correcting nervous disorders and other mental dysfunctions. These 20-plus works, never before seen in public, demonstrate the relationship between von Rydingsvärd’s Swedish woodcarving style and his passion for the dynamic American Arts and Crafts movement. von Rydingsvärd incorporates Norse motifs, Viking figures, and intricate floral patterns into his whimsical carvings, highlighting his attention to aesthetic detail and functionality.  The gallery talk lasts 30 minutes, you are then free to examine the objects in the gallery at your leisure and explore other galleries until the Museum closes at 4:00 p.m.

Cost is $15.00/person.  Space is limited. Reservations required by email at info@philachaptersah.org or by phone at 610-566-2342.  Please send checks payable to “Phila Chapter SAH” to William V. Kriebel, Treasurer, 1923 Manning St., Philadelphia, PA 19103

A Memorial Forty Years in the Making: THE FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT  FOUR FREEDOMS PARK

May 6, 2016 /

Curator’s Talk & Tour

2016-06-16 FDR Four Freedoms Park

In 2012, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park was completed posthumously as one of the last great projects of the visionary architect Louis Kahn (1901-74). Built in New York City, within view of the United Nations, the inside story of the Park’s design, the sudden death of its architect, the near-bankruptcy of the city, and the remarkable effort that brought the project to realization forty years after its conception, offers an unusual perspective on the making of public space today.

In these PAIRED EVENTS, William Whitaker will lecture about the project and its realization and – two days later – will lead an on-site tour of the Park. Original drawings and Kahn’s model of the park will be on-view at the talk venue for the exhibition: Harriet Pattison: Gardens & Landscapes (on view through July 15).

TALK:    Thursday, June 16th, 2016, 6:00 p.m. (rescheduled from 04/28/16)
Kroiz Gallery, Univ of Pennsylvania Architectural Archives, 220 S. 34th St.
Free, but space is limited, reservations required by email at info@philachaptersah.org or by phone to Bill Whitaker at (215) 898-8323

TOUR:   of FDR Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island, New York City
date to be determined, if interested please let us know by email at info@philachaptersah.org or by phone to Bill Whitaker at (215) 898-8323

 

 

New Jersey’s Colonial Architecture Told in 100 Buildings

May 6, 2016 /

Thursday, May 25th, 2016, at 6:00 p.m.
Kroiz Gallery, U of PA Architectural Archives, 220 S. 34th St.

2016-05-25 David Veasey book jacket

New Jersey marked its 350th birthday in 2014. Today, in this most developed and crowded of states, a surprising number of buildings are still standing from our Colonial Era, 1636 to 1783. They range from a Royal Governor’s mansion in Perth Amboy; to Sandy Hook Lighthouse in Monmouth County; to Christ Episcopal Church in Shrewsbury; to the still functioning Black Horse Inn in Mendham; to a law office in Salem City; to Moravian Gristmill in Hope; to the nation’s oldest farm building in Greenwich.

New Jersey’s extensive architectural heritage is often overshadowed by its neighbors-Philadelphia and New York City-but the Garden State has more varied every-day colonial architecture than any other state because it was the most diverse colony settled by Swedes, Dutch, Scotch, French, English Quakers, and others who brought their architectural traditions with them.

David Veasey is a life-long New Jersey resident and has given illustrated talks all over the state. He has also written other books about the state. Veasey lives in Morris Plains, and graduated from Drew University, Madison, and holds a Master’s Degree from New York University. Veasey has worked as a writer his entire career.

Free, space is limited, reservations required by email at info@philachaptersah.org or by phone to Bill Whitaker at (215) 898-8323