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Society of Architectural Historians appoints Ben Thomas as its new Executive Director

2023-01-10T17:35:00-05:00

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has announced Ben Thomas as their new Executive Director. The current Director of Programs for the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) comes to the post with more than 17 years of experience in higher education non-profit work and will replace Pauline Salinga when he steps into office on February 1st.

“Ben Thomas’ deep knowledge of membership organizations and his commitment to diversity make him the ideal person to lead SAH at a transformative moment for the Society,” the organization’s President, Patricia A. Morton, said in a statement. “We are delighted to welcome Ben to the SAH team.”

The roughly 2,300-member strong Chicago-based organization is in the early stages of developing a five-year strategic plan that will rely heavily on Thomas’ extensive past experience with DEI initiatives, fundraising drives, and programming to best position it for “long-term stability and sustainability.”

Related on Archinect: Society of Architect...

Online architecture event recommendations for the week of March 3-10

2021-03-03T09:10:00-05:00

This week's list of featured online events from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide includes lectures, presentations, discussions, a conference, an award presentation, and a symposium.

Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here.

Are you an expert in an arena that's especially important right now? Let us know if you would like to work with Archinect to host an online event.

Lecture: Mark Lee | JOHNSTONMARKLEE
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT
Since its establishment in 1998 in Los Angeles, Johnston Marklee has been recognized nationally and internationally with over 40 major awards and numerous publications. Projects undertaken by Johnston Marklee are diverse in scale and type, spanning fourteen countries throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
Click here to attend and/or register

Mabel O. Wilson: Studio&: A Black Study
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT
Mabel O. Wilson ...

Society of Architectural Historians "supports and encourages the removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces"

2020-06-19T17:53:00-04:00

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has issued a statement in support of the removal of Confederate monuments in American public spaces following a concerted effort to rid memorial sites of these installations.

The statement comes as the National Trust for Historic Preservation and other architecture groups express their own support for the movement to remove these monuments.

SAH's full statement, which was crafted by the group's Heritage Conservation Committee is printed in full below.

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) supports and encourages the removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces. In its 80-year history, SAH has never before advocated for the direct removal of any historic resource, let alone listed monuments. As architectural historians committed to preserving significant elements of the built environment and cultural landscape, we have vigorously championed the preservation of difficult aspects of our nation’s history such as Wounded Kne...

Society of Architectural Historians Seattle conference rescheduled as online event

2020-03-20T20:51:00-04:00

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) announced today that it will reschedule its previously cancelled annual conference as an online-only event.

SAH’s Seattle 2020 Conference was initially scheduled to take place April 29th through May 3rd in Seattle, but it had to be cancelled as the growing novel coronavirus pandemic began to disrupt previously planned Spring conferences and events.

As a result of the pandemic and social distancing measures put in place to limit the spread of the virus, SAH has elected to reschedule the gathering as a virtual conference that will take place Thursday, April 30, and Friday, May 1, 2020 via Zoom. A schedule for the conference, which will be broadcast live on Pacific Standard Time, can be found here.

The group’s website states, “The SAH 2020 Virtual Conference will bring together professionals from around the world who focus on the history of the built environment and its role in shaping contemporary life.”

Like the IRL gathering had plann...

Society of Architectural Historians launches survey of architectural history in higher education

2020-02-26T12:51:00-05:00

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has launched the next phase of its ongoing SAH Data Project, a two-year study aimed at assessing the "status of the field of architectural history in higher education."

The latest phase of the project, which is led by postdoctoral researcher Sarah M. Dreller, includes the launch of comprehensive surveys geared toward administrators, faculty, and students that aim to gather first-hand information on a variety of topics related to architectural education from a broad population, including institutional type (public or private), enrollment size, student demographics, and relationship (if any) to design curricula.

The surveys will also dig into the experience of teaching and learning architectural history by asking questions relating to tenure-track or adjunct faculty status, the prevalence of social justice- and climate crisis-related topics in architecture history curricula, and whether student mentorship is offered in conjunction with ar...

SAH Archipedia aims to chronicle America's built environment

2019-07-03T14:07:00-04:00

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has unveiled a new "archipedia" website focused on extensively cataloging a wide range of structures and other facets of the built environment.

Dubbed SAH Archipedia, the online encyclopedia was developed by SAH and the University of Virginia Press. The site contains detailed historical information, interactive maps, photographs, and drawings for over 20,000 structures and places. To aid in research efforts, the database is tagged by subject, and includes indexes organized by architectural style, demographic and cultural information, location, and historical period.

Chronicled sites include Frank Lloyd Wright's Arizona Biltmore Hotel, the architecture and historical sites of Alaska, California's Spanish missions, breweries across the United States, and many others.

A view of the Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Image courtesy of Paul J. Jakubovich, Wisconsin Historical Society, and SAH Archipedia.

The bulk of the information is dra...

Preservation groups urge to save Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown-designed postmodern Abrams House from demolition

2018-09-07T15:36:00-04:00

With more and more buildings of the postmodern school regaining media attention—either by entering the realm of heritage protection or by getting contemporary makeovers (essentially taking the Po out of PoMo)—we've now learned about another threatened structure, designed in the late 1970s by Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown (DSB was awarded the 2018 Soane Medal earlier this week).

The Society of Architectural Historians and Docomomo US have issued a joint statement calling for the protection of the Abrams House in Pittsburgh, calling it a "landmark of American architecture" and a "significant example" of American postmodern architecture on a par with the AT&T Building and the Portland Municipal Services Building.

Image: realtor.com, via docomomo-us.org.

Here's an excerpt of the statement:

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) and Docomomo US express strong opposition to the demolition of the Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown-designed Abrams House, 118A Woodland Road, Pittsburgh...

Society of Architectural Historians to Host 70th Annual International Conference in Glasgow

2017-01-11T13:55:00-05:00

It’s a privilege to be welcoming some 600 international professionals from the Society of Architectural Historians to Glasgow this summer. It’s also a milestone meeting as it marks the first time the SAH has held its annual congress outside North America in more than 40 years and it comes during our national Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology—so it’s altogether fitting that it has chosen Glasgow for its first-ever visit to Scotland.

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) will hold its 70th Annual International Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, from June 7–11, 2017, marking the first time SAH has met outside North America since 1973. An estimated 600 historians, architects, preservationists, and museum professionals from around the world will convene to present new research on the history of the built environment at the University of Strathclyde’s Technology & Innovation Centre. The conference program will feature paper sessions, keynote talks, roundtables, social receptions, and public events including architecture tours in and around Glasgow and a seminar on heritage and sustainability.

Aileen Crawford, Head of Conventions at Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said: “It’s a privilege to be welcoming some 600 international professionals from the Society of Architectural Historians to Glasgow this summer. It’s also a milestone meeting as it marks the first time the SAH has held its annual congress outside Nort...

Society of Architectural Historians Announces 2016 SAH Fellows

2016-02-18T18:53:00-05:00

The Society of Architectural Historians will induct Barry Bergdoll, Diane Favro, Richard Longstreth and Therese O’Malley as SAH Fellows at its 2016 Annual International Conference in Pasadena. Fellows of the Society of Architectural Historians are those individuals who have distinguished themselves by a lifetime of significant contributions to the field of architectural history, which may include scholarship, service to SAH or stewardship of the built environment. The 2016 SAH Fellows, all past presidents of the Society, will be honored at an awards ceremony on April 7. Visit sah.org/sah-fellows for more information.

Barry Bergdoll is the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Architectural History at Columbia University, where he has been on the faculty since 1985. He is also curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, where from 2007 to 2013 he served as The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design. At MoMA he organized, curated and...

Society of Architectural Historians Announces Major Grant for Charnley-Persky House Conservation Management Plan

2016-02-10T17:53:00-05:00

The Society of Architectural Historians has received a $123,000 grant from the Alphawood Foundation to hire Harboe Architects to develop a conservation management plan for Charnley-Persky House. Designed by Adler and Sullivan in 1891–1892 when Frank Lloyd Wright was an apprentice in their office, Charnley-Persky House will celebrate the 125th anniversary of its design in 2016 with a new conservation management plan that will assess the current physical state of the structure, identify potential problem areas, and establish conservation priorities for the continued health of the building. Charnley-Persky House serves as the headquarters of the Society of Architectural Historians, an international not-for-profit membership organization that promotes the study, interpretation and conservation of architecture, design, landscapes and urbanism worldwide.

As an advocate for heritage conservation, SAH is extremely grateful to the Alphawood Foundation for giving the organization the ability...

Society of Architectural Historians Accepting Applications for H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship

2015-06-15T17:41:00-04:00

The Society of Architectural Historians’ prestigious H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship will be offered for 2015 and will allow a recent graduate or emerging scholar to study by travel for one year. The fellowship is not for the purpose of doing research for an advanced academic degree. Instead, Professor Brooks intended the recipient to study by travel and contemplation while observing, reading, writing, or sketching.

The goals are to provide an opportunity for a recent graduate with an advanced degree or an emerging scholar to:

see and experience architecture and landscapes firsthand
think about their profession deeply
acquire knowledge useful for the recipient’s future work, contribution to their profession, and contribution to society

The fellowship recipient may travel to any country or countries during the one-year period. This fellowship is funded completely by the Society of Architectural Historians’ H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship Fund.

In 2015 the Brooks Fellowship wil...

Society of Architectural Historians Announces 2015 Award Winners and Fellows

2015-04-22T23:41:00-04:00

The Society of Architectural Historians announced the winners of the 2015 Publication Awards and the 2015 SAH Award for Film and Video at its 68th Annual International Conference Awards Ceremony in Chicago, Ill., on April 16. The Society also named four individuals as SAH Fellows for their lifelong contributions to the field of architectural history.

2015 Publication Award Recipients
Each year, SAH presents publication awards honoring excellence in architectural history, urban history, landscape history and historic preservation scholarship as well as architectural exhibition catalogues.

The winners of the Society’s 2015 Publication Awards are listed below. The 2016 award cycle opens on June 1, 2015. For more information, visit sah.org/publication-awards.

Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award

Richard Harris, Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914–1960 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012)

Christopher Curtis Mead, Making Modern Paris: Victor Baltard’s Central ...

Society of Architectural Historians Presents Public Seminar at Chicago Conference

2015-03-10T13:29:00-04:00

Leading scholars from around the world will convene in Chicago, April 15–19, to present new research on the history of the built environment at the 68th Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians. But the conference isn’t just for academics. SAH aims to engage two important audiences—conference attendees and the local community—with public programs such as the SAH Chicago Seminar.

The SAH Chicago Seminar, “Magnitudes of Change: Local Sites and Global Concerns in Chicago’s Built Environment,” will take place Saturday, April 18th, at The Gratz Center at Fourth Presbyterian Church. Hear from local architects, historians, and policy makers as they discuss the history and future of Chicago’s waterways and neighborhoods. Harvard University professor Charles Waldheim will give the keynote address "Reading Chicago's Landscape as Urbanism." Alison Fisher, Harold and Margot Schiff Assistant Curator of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago, will moderate ...

“Unfinished Spaces” documentary receives 2014 SAH Award for Film and Video

2014-04-18T15:10:00-04:00

Unfinished Spaces by Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray continues to gain recognition since its initial release in 2011. In addition to previous grants and awards, the documentary film recently won the 2014 Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Award for Film and Video at the 2014 Annual Conference in Austin, Texas. Established in 2013, the annual award is given to the most distinguished international work of film or video on the history of the built environment.

Reflective of its Cuban Revolution setting in 1961, Unfinished Spaces tells the complex tale of Cuba's historic National Art Schools project commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to visionary architects Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti, and Roberto Gottardi. Construction of the school complex immediately began and artists from all over the country attended the school. But the project was abruptly halted as soon as the Revolution came to fruition.

Forty years later, the schools continue to operate but have remained unfinished. Castro has invited the exiled architects back to finally complete their unrealized dream.

See the official trailer below.

Also check out Archinect's previous coverage of Unfinished Spaces here.

The Digital Future of Architectural History

2013-09-23T15:34:00-04:00

In creating associated descriptive metadata, in tagging building entries to describe their materials, types, and, perhaps most especially, their styles, the author of metadata is practicing the historian’s craft and engaging in the historian’s stock in trade. "Name it, then we’ll know what it is," Reyner Banham suggested at the end of “The Great Gizmo.” We can name it metadata creation, but we already know what it is: architectural history.

For several years Gabrielle Esperdy has been part of a team working on the development of SAH Archipedia — an online encyclopedia of American architecture sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians. Here she explores the critical challenge of creating structural and descriptive metadata for the new resource — and argues that the digital platform has the potential "not only to publish scholarship but to produce it."