Charles Pipal

The documentation of historic cultural resources is critical to the field of historic preservation. By immersion, students will learn photographic, measuring and drawing methods and subsequently develop a deep understanding of the pattern language of architectural drawing. Collections management and inventory will also be addressed. During the course, we will reference the Historic American Buildings Survey collection at the United States Library of Congress. All relevant standards and guidelines issued by the National Park Service will be referenced, as well as previous projects from the HABS collection. By measuring and drawing extant historic objects and structures to exacting standards, students will become familiar with historic construction techniques, building materials and design principles. Students will develop skills and provide final drawings and notes which will be included in the HABS collection.

A selected neighborhood or region is studied, researched, and analyzed. The tools of preservation planning are practiced in the field-including the analysis and history of individual buildings, the study of various building types and their place in the community, the impact of transportation and institutions on the historic fabric, and the history of the community over time. Students conduct surveys of historic resources, prepare a comprehensive report, and present their findings before the community.

This studio class will explore and address themes and cultural connections which migrate across geographic boundaries and time. Do sites have memory? When all visible physical traces have disappeared, how can we evoke the past using design? When cultural practices (music, language, art, food, architecture, etc.) and people transplant to another place, what do they leave behind and what do they create a new? What links prevail over space and time?

This studio course is a project-based class, offering students the opportunity to engage preservation practice through real-world engagement. In the past, practicum projects have included such topics as 'Construction Project Management', 'Integrating Green Technology into Practice', and 'Rebuilding the White City: A Study of Extant Fabric of the Columbian Expo of 1893'. Depending on the course project, expert guest speakers will be engaged, and site visits and research will be conducted. Typically students have several smaller assignments and one large final project. Since this is a project-based class, students may have the opportunity to work in smaller, multidisciplinary groups.

The graduate level Thesis Strategies seminar-studio is offered in fall semesters and intended for graduate students in Architecture and Interior Architecture engaged in preparatory research work that will ground and inform the successful development and final resolution of thesis project work in a following semester. The class will offer content on research methods, project structure and execution, and clarify common art and design thesis conventions and research-through-design methods. Professors directing the pre-thesis and research practicum, together with external critics, will respond to core project concepts, the relevance of proposed thesis concerns and questions and help to structure a viable project proposition, a timeline and introduce primary references and case studies so that the final thesis results in a comprehensive integration of research, intent and project exploration. A Graduate Thesis must make a contribution to the field and will be defended within a critical and reflective academic environment. The Thesis Strategies course prepares graduate students for this responsibility and allows for the translation of research into a personal position and informed platform from where thesis project work will develop. Student performance criteria (SPC) that address the most recent National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB) requirements will be highlighted and form part of the coursework outcomes. Readings, textual and visual case studies will vary, but always provide the background and theoretical grounding for individual research-through-design explorations and the crafting of a critical theoretical position. Outcomes are a cumulative archive of the process of problem analysis, critical reading and discourse, and the initial design problem exploration. Combined, this body of work are the synopsis of insights into facts and ideas ? all being shared through text, diagrams, drawings and abstract models.

Thesis studio asks students to determine and research an original problem with pertinent issues, and design an innovative response to some aspect of architectural production. Course Goals and Objectives 1) Give individual students the opportunity to discover, define, and research a significant aspect of architectural production in depth. 2) Develop a personal approach to an important issue of contemporary significance to the field of architecture and communicate it concisely. 3) Work with originality, clarity, and high production values at the end of an architectural education.