ART 371 Survey of Modern Western Architecture
 
 
DePaul University 
Fall Semester 2001
1150 W. Fullerton, Room 202
T-Th 3:10-4:40

Paul B. Jaskot, Office 213
Phone 325-2567
Office hours: Wednesday, 10:00-12:00, or by appointment.
e-mail: pjaskot@wppost.depaul.edu
web-page: www.depaul.edu/~pjaskot
Chiswick House (Garden View), Lord Burlington, 1725: A building introducing problems of politics and architecture in the modern era (see Lecture #1). (Photo courtesy of Modern Architecture student, Matt Reeves)
Purpose of the Course: Architecture, of all the arts, is the one most associated with the organization of daily life. This course seeks to explore the connection between western architecture since the 1789 French Revolution and the political, economic and social development of modern western society. While analyzing major movements and significant building sites in this period, our focus will remain on what function the built environment had for broader societal development. This historical understanding of architecture encourages the student not only to gain a solid knowledge of modern architectural forms and functions, but also to attain a critical ability to distinguish how architecture influences and is influenced by social, political and economic change.

Course Expectations: In studying this area, the student is expected to do c. 6 hours of outside study on average per week for the course. If this is the case, the student can expect to have a thorough knowledge of architectural and urban developments beginning in modern Europe and the United States and extending internationally in the last century. But in addition, the student can expect to work on crucial reading, writing, and argumentation skills applicable to any discipline (or any job, for that matter). With these skills in mind, the purpose of the course will be to make students not only more aware of architectural history from the past but also more critical in understanding the development of European, U.S. and contemporary "global" culture as a whole.

Required Texts: Spiro Kostof, A History of Architecture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985); Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1977 [1972]). Both books are available for purchase at the DePaul University Bookstore. Additional readings required for discussions will be available on electronic reserve accessible through the DePaul libraries' home page.

 Syllabus

Sept. 6: Introduction

  • Kostof: 3-19.
    •      Sept. 11, 13: European and U.S. Architecture in an Age of Revolution
  • Kostof: 547-569, 605-629.
  • Joseph Rykwert, "The Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the classical tradition," in The Beaux-Arts and nineteenth-century French architecture (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1982): 8-17.
    •      Sept. 18, 20: Paris, Capital of the 19th Century: The Rise of the Bourgeois Metropolis
  • Kostof: 571-603, 635-647.
  • Neil Levine, "The book and the building: Hugo's theory of architecture and Labrouste's Bibliothèque Ste-Geneviève," in The Beaux-Arts and nineteenth-century French architecture (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1982): 138-173.
    •      Sept. 25, 27: We Other Victorians: Nationalism, Regionalism and Industrialization in Architecture
  • Kostof: 629-633.
  • Kevin D. Murphy, Memory and Modernity : Viollet-Le-Duc at Vezelay (College Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999):  selection to be announced.

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    DESCRIPTION PAPER DUE SEPTEMBER 25 IN CLASS!

         Oct. 2, 4: Architecture Turns West: The Chicago World's Fair and the Exchange between European and U.S. Architects
  • Kostof: 647-667.
  • Alan Trachtenberg, "White City," The Incorporation of America (New York: Hill and Wang, 1982): 208-234.
  • Elizabeth G. Grossman and Lisa B. Reitzes, "Caught in the Crossfire: Women and Architectural Education, 1880-1910," in Architecture. A Place for Women (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989): 27-39.
    •      Oct. 9:  Mid-Term Exam!!!!

    Oct. 11, 16, 18: Suburban and Urban Developments through World War I

  • Kostof: 669-693.
  • Dietrich Neumann, ""The Century's Triumph in Lighting": The Luxfer Prism Companies and their Contribution to Early Modern Architecture," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 54 (March 1995), No. 1: 24-53.
    •      Oct. 23, 25: Architecture Between the Wars

       (Troost, Haus der deutschen Kunst, 1937)

  • Kostof: 695-723.
  • Richard Pommer, "Mies van der Rohe and the Political Ideology of the Modern Movement in Architecture," in Mies van der Rohe. Critical Essays (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1989): 96-145.
    •      Oct. 30, Nov. 1: Post-War Architecture and Cold-War Politics
  • Kostof: 725-747.
  • (Anonymous), "Monument in Bronze," TIME Magazine (3 March 1958): 52, 55.
  • Richard Gid Powers, "The Cold War in the Rockies: American Ideology and the Air Force Academy Design," Art Journal 33 (Summer 1974), No. 4: 304-313.
  • Joel Sanders, "Cadet Quarters, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs," reprinted in Gender Space Architecture, edited by Jane Rendell, Barbara Penner and Iain Borden (London: Routledge, 2000): 353-357.
    •      Nov. 6: Economic Crisis and Architectural Critique: Architecture in the 1970s
  • Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1977 [1972]): 3-103.
    •      Nov. 8, 13: Conclusion: Multi-national Capitalism, Conservative Victories and the "Post-Modern" Built Environment
  • Kostof: 747-755.
  • David Harvey, "The Spaces of Utopia," The Spaces of Hope (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000): 133-181.
  • Info Box: The Catalogue (Berlin: Verlag Dirk Nishen, 1996): 145-176.

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    SECOND PAPER DUE NOV. 8 IN CLASS!

         Nov. 16: FINAL EXAM! 2:45-5:00

    NOTE: The final exam cannot be rescheduled or taken at another time. If you cannot make the exam, you should not sign up for the course.
     
     
     
    Paper Assignment #1 Paper Assignment #2

     
    GRADING: Your grades will be determined in the following way: 1) Description paper, due Sept. 25 (10%)

    2) Mid-term, Oct. 9 (20%)

    3) Second paper, due Nov. 8 (20%)

    4) Final exam, Friday, Nov. 16 (30%)

    5) Discussion participation (20%)

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