Historic Preservation Program Courses

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Local-level historic preservation, with an emphasis on historic districts, design guidelines, regulatory controls and community consensus-building.

Methods and approaches in the identification and regulation of historic districts and landmarks. Taught as a combination of lectures, discussions and field exercises, the course will provide students with an understanding of how to survey historic districts, establish boundaries, draft design guidelines and write local preservation ordinances. Emphasis will be placed on legal considerations, community concerns, including the problem of displacement, and the regulatory process.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:
The course is delivered in a combined lecture, discussion and field exercise format. Students will be expected to attend class regularly, participate in class discussions and contribute to a class project focusing on a local community. Students will be given weekly reading assignments, research tasks and field exercises. The final product will be a class report to which each student is expected to contribute. There will be also short midterm and final examinations.

Recommended Prerequisites: Historic Preservation; Survey and Theory (AmSt 675) and Recording Historic Resources (AmSt 676). Cultural Resource Management (Anth 645), American Architecture (AmST 623), and The American City (AmSt 627) would also be useful prior courses, but are not required.

TEXTS AND READINGS:

Roberta Brandes Gratz, The Living City