Writing Architectural History: Evidence and Narrative in the Twenty-First Century

361 Pages·2021·15.735 MB·English

by  Aggregate Architectural History Collective

Writing Architectural History

WRITING
ARCHITECTURAL
HISTORY
Evidence and Narrative in the
Twenty-First Century
A G G R E G AT E
University of Pittsburgh Press
Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260
Copyright © 2021, University of Pittsburgh Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-4684-7
ISBN 10: 0-8229-4684-X
Cover art: a selection of images from the interior art and icons for
Aggregate's identity designed by Project Projects.
Cover design: Alex Wolfe
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Evidence, Narrative, and
Writing Architectural History
Daniel M. Abramson, Zeynep Çelik Alexander,
3
and Michael Osman
PART I Legends
Chapter 1 The Fires of Saint-Domingue, or, Landscapes of the
Haitian Revolution
Peter Minosh 19
Chapter 2 Known Unknowns: The Documentary History of the
Franklin Ghost House
Edward Eigen 33
Chapter 3 Vacuum Suction Conveyance, Part II
Meredith TenHoor 46
PART II Self-Evidence
Chapter 4 Talkative Timbers: A. E. Douglass, the Beam Expeditions,
and the Construction of Architectural Evidence
Albert Narath 63
Chapter 5 Concrete Is One Hundred Years Old: The Carbonation
Equation and Narratives of Anthropogenic Change
Lucia Allais and Forrest Meggers 75
Chapter 6 Medieval and Renaissance Money: On Trial, On Architecture
Lauren Jacobi 90
v
vi CONTENTS
PART III Data
Chapter 7 From Truth to Proof: Friedrich Adler’s Medieval Brick
Architecture of the Prussian States
Laila Seewang 103
Chapter 8 The Banister Fletchers’ Tabulations
Zeynep Çelik Alexander and Michael Osman 117
Chapter 9 Evidence and Narrative in Digital Art History:
Exploratory Methods for Weimar Architecture
Paul B. Jaskot and Ivo van der Graaff 133
PART IV Pairings
Chapter 10 Comparative Architecture and Its Discontents
Roy Kozlovsky 147
Chapter 11 When Baghdad Was Like Warsaw:
Comparison in the Cold War
Łukasz Stanek 162
Chapter 12 Forensic Architecture as Symptom
Andrew Herscher 177
Chapter 13 Architectural History after Sebald’s Austerlitz:
A Squirrel’s Hoard, a Curved Road
Daniel M. Abramson 190
PART V Testimony
Chapter 14 Failing Memories and Forgotten Histories:
The Dispute over the Venetian Church of San Giobbe
Janna Israel 203
Chapter 15 Settling Imaginations: Between Dust and Silt
Ijlal Muzaffar 214
Chapter 16 Dadaab Is a Place on Earth: Land and the Migrant Archive
Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi 227
Chapter 17 Learning from Johannesburg: Unpacking Denise Scott
Brown’s South African View of Las Vegas
Ayala Levin 235
PART VI Retrials
Chapter 18 Architectural Narratives of Habeas Corpus on the High Seas:
Charles Frederick Lees versus the Crown
Lisa Haber-Thomson 249
CONTENTS vii
Chapter 19 “This Whole Maze of Evidence”: Revisiting Professionalism
and Property through Hunt v. Parmly
Erik Carver 260
Chapter 20 “Striking and Imposing Beauty”: On the Evidence of
Aesthetic Valuation
Timothy Hyde 274
Notes 285
Selected Bibliography 333
Contributors 335
Index 341
vii

Acknowledgments
The Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative is deeply grateful to several
organizations for sponsoring opportunities for this project to be developed
between 2017 and 2019 through a series of panels, symposia, workshops,
conferences, and a preliminary publication. These include the Society of Archi-
tectural Historians 2017 Annual Conference and the Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians; the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial and the School
of the Art Institute of Chicago; Boston University’s Center for the Human-
ities and Department of the History of Art and Architecture; the Sterling and
Francine Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program; the Taubman
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan; and the
Department of Art History, Northwestern University. Numerous individuals
aided and participated in these activities and events. We are truly grateful
for their contributions, insights, and generosity. We would especially like to
acknowledge the efforts and support of Can Bilsel, Abby Collier, Jonathan
Massey, Patricia A. Morton, Lisa Saltzman, Julián Serna Lancheros, Jonathan D.
Solomon, and Claire Zimmerman. Aggregate is delighted to be working again
with the University of Pittsburgh Press.
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