FALL QUARTER 1999 List of Links     Discussion Board      Announcements

Students often make the mistake in a so-called "lecture course" of equating the "lectures" with the "course" in a one-to-one fashion, expecting lecture content always to be synonymous with course content. This will not be the case here since lectures, while important, will be presented as only one component of the course and will attempt to suggest and illuminate aspects of American architectural history that may not be quite so explicitly covered in the reading. The readings, on the other hand, will contain important (and frequently more technical) material that will not be repeated in the lectures. In exploring the whole history of American architecture from the beginning to the present in two quarters, we will emphasize certain periods, problems, and specific architects and buildings to the regrettable exclusion of others. The course will attempt to help you to "see" and appreciate architecture and the built environment and to know and understand another dimension of the American past.

There will be two lectures a week. For discussing the material informally, students are encouraged to see the instructor and TA after class or during office hours. There will be a mid-term around the first week of November and a final exam during exam week. The mid-term will count approximately one-third and the final approximately two-thirds. Makeup exams and an "incomplete" grade will be given only in extreme emergencies and only after the student has conferred with me. No exams can be given earlier than the date specified. Because of the special visual nature of this course, students are asked not to tape lectures. All students are expected to attend all lectures punctually and to complete all readings on schedule. Auditors are welcomed as seating allows.  My office hours are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 - 12:30 and by appointment, in Architecture B237A.
 

Graduate students will also write a paper which they must discuss with me by the beginning of the third week of the course. the paper will be due the next-to-last day of class. The paper will be of a microcosmic nature, of 10-15 pages of text, focusing on one building or related cluster of buildings by a single architect or firm. Papers will deal analytically with 1) the architect's biography, 2) the role of the client, and 3) the functional, esthetic and symbolic meaning of the building in its time and place. Illustrations and notes should be placed at the end. Building discussed should not duplicate those in Jordy's volumes.

Required Readings (in paperback)

1. Leland Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture
2. Thomas S. Hines, Burnham of Chicago: Architect and Planner
3. William Jordy, Progressive and Academic Ideals at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
4. William Jordy, The Impact of European Modernism in the Mid Twentieth Century
5. Robert A.M. Stern, New Directions in American Architecture (2d edition.)
6. Reyner Banham, Los Angeles; the Architecture of Four Ecologies

Kenneth Boulding, The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society
Herbert Gans, Popular Culture and High Culture
John Fleming, et al., The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture
Henry R. Hitchcock, Architecture, 19th and 20th Centuries
Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: the Growth of a New Tradition
Vincent Scully, Modern Architecture
John Burchard and Albert Bush-Brown, The Architecture of America: a Social and Cultural History
James Fitch, America Building: the Environmental Forces that Shaped It
John J. G. Blumenson, Identifying American Architecture: a Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms, 1600- 1945
Carl Condit, American Building: Materials and Techniques from the Beginning of Colonial Settlement to the Present
Philip Johnson and Henry R. Hitchcock, The International Style
Vincent Scully, American Architecture and Urbanism
Rayner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
John Cook and Heinrich Klotz, Conversations with Architects
Barbaralee Dimondstein, American Architecture Now
Mellier Scott, American City Planning Since 1890
Esther McCoy, Five California Architects
Sinclair Gauldie, Architecture
David Gebhard and Robert Winter, A Guide to the Architecture of Los Angeles and Southern California
Daniel Vieyra, Fill 'er Up, and Architectural History of America's Gas Stations
Richard Pare and Phyllis Lambert, Court House
Thomas Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture
Thomas Hines, William Faulkner and the Tangible Past: the Architecture of Yoknapatawpha
Robert Clark and Thomas Hines, Los Angeles Transfer: Architecture in Southern California, 1880-1980
Richard Guy Wilson, et a/., The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

Recommended Reading Schedule

WEEK
 

One	Roth, Concise History of American Architecture, chapters 1-5
Two	Hines, Burnham of Chicago, Architect and Planner
Three	Jordy, Progressive and Academic Ideals, chapters 1-3  Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture, chapter 6
Four	Jordy, Progressive and Academic Ideals, chapters 4-7   Banham, Los Angeles: the Architecture of Four Ecologies (first half)
Five	Prepare for mid-term examination
Six	Jordy, The Impact of European Modernism, chapters 1-2   Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture, chapter 7
Seven	Jordy, The Impact of European Modernism, chapters 3-4  Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture, chapter 8
Eight	Jordy, The Impact of European Modernism, chapters 5-6  Banham, Los Angeles: the Architecture of Four Ecologies (second half)
Nine	Stern, New Directions in American Architecture  Roth, Epilogue
Ten	Prepare for final examination

 
Note: In addition to the catalogue at URL, UCLA, the major bibliographic references for architectural history are the published catalogue of the Avery Architectural Library, Columbia university, and the companion Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, available in the URL reference department.

More Course Links	Help List of Links
Final Exam Code	(12) Friday, December 17, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
UCLA Links	Registrar Listing, Registrar Course Info
Social Science Links	HIST, 99F Class Websites, Social Sciences Computing, Social Sciences Division,
Administration	ClassWeb for TAs, Administration, Main Page Edit Updated Daily from Registrar and Departmental Data as well as any changes made by Instructor. Best Viewed with Netscape Communicator 4.0 and higher Updated Sep 13 1999 13:38:16