Note that this is a two-part assignment, requiring both a research proposal and a research paper.
Proposal: In order to assign each student a unique topic and to insure the timely commencement of research, you must submit a research proposal of ca. 6 pages. This should identify the major historical questions raised by each of three possible topic architects and review the research resources (i.e. bibliography) for each. Rank them according to your preference. You will be assigned one of these architects.
Research paper: The assigned architect will be the subject a research paper of about 15 pages. The primary objective of your paper must be to establish the way our understanding of his or her historical significance has changed over the years. In other words, you must write a paper that acknowledges that history is not an objective science--that our perception of things changes over time. You should try to explain the way that changing ideas about architecture in general have changed the interpretations of your particular architect.
In conducting your research, you will need to use all of your
ingenuity. Begin with the assigned texts, but get to know the reference
section of the Fine Arts Library like the back of your hand. In addition
to the biographical dictionaries and specialized bibliographies that live
there, you should take note of the Avery Obituary Index (NA 40 A87
1980) and the Avery Index of Architectural Periodicals (Z 5945
C649 1973). The latter is also available on-line--ask how to use it,
because it is much more comprehensive when it comes to architecture than
the on-line "Wilson Index," which includes only the electronic version of
the painting-oriented Art Index. But remember, you will need to
use the paper version for older periodicals! Your survey of books should
start with these:
Banham, Reyner. Theory and Design in the First Machine
Age. New York: Praeger, 1960. UPFA reserve NA 680 B25 1960b
Benevolo, Leonardo. History of Modern Architecture. 2
vols. tr. H.J. Landry. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1971. UPFA non circ.
NA 642 B413 1971b
Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical
History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. UPFA reserve NA
500 F75
Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. Architecture: Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries. 3d ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968. UPFA non
circ. NA 642 H45 1968
-----. Modern Architecture, Romanticism and
Re-integration. New York: Payson and Clarke, 1929. UPFA locked case
NA 500 H5
Hitchcock, Henry-Russell and Philip Johnson. The
International Style. [1932] 2d ed. New York: Norton: 1966. UPFA
reserve NA 680 H5 1966
Scully, Vincent. Modern Architecture. New York:
Braziller, 1960. UPFA reserve 724.91 Scu64
Remember, not all of the books and journals that you will need to consult will be available at Penn. Learn how to use interlibrary loan, and put in your orders early. Your inability to find a critically important publication will not be accepted as an excuse for not using it!
Please treat all library resources gently and with respect. If humanly possible, do not charge books out; leave even open shelf books in the library, where others can use them. Book vandals will be treated savagely.
Plagiarism is a very serious and complicated matter. You are expected to know the rules, so ask when in doubt. The consequences are very severe, and my own views on this matter are particularly strong.
Possible topics Note that none began his or her career after ca. 1960, to make sure that enough time has elapsed for there to be some history.
| Philip Webb | Richard Norman Shaw | Charles R. Ashbee | Louis Sullivan | William le Baron Jenney | John Root | Gustave Eiffel | Ferdinand Dutert | Charles Rennie Mackintosh | Otto Wagner | Josef Hoffmann | Adolf Loos | Edwin L. Lutyens | Charles and Henry Greene | Bernard Maybeck | C. F. A. Voysey | Victor Horta | Henry van de Velde | Hector Guimard | Antoni Gaudí | Tony Garnier | Auguste Perret | Albert Kahn | Peter Behrens | Hans Poelzig | Hans Scharoun | Erich Mendelsohn | Antonio Sant'Elia | Bruno Taut | Alexander and Victor Vesnin | Konstantin Melnikov | Ivan Leonidov | El Lissitzky | Vladimir Tatlin | Michel de Klerk | Piet Kramer | Ragnar Östberg | Eliel Saarinen | Erik Gunnar Asplund | Alvar Aalto | Joze Plecnik | Daniel Burnham | Julia Morgan | Paul Cret | John Russell Pope | Albert Speer | Josef Maria Olbrich | Irving Gill | Richard Neutra | George Howe | Rudolph Schindler | Gerrit Rietveld | J. J. P. Oud | Ernst May | Mart Stam | Marcel Breuer | Berthold Lubetkin | Giuseppe Terragni | Eileen Gray | Arthur Loomis Harmon | Raymond Hood | Norman Bel Geddes | Joseph Urban | Robert Van Alen | Ivan Leonidov | Oscar Niemeyer | Pierre Chareau | John Portman | Philip Johnson | Louis I. Kahn | Kenzo Tange | Charles Eames | Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill |