VRA Conference 2008, San Diego, CA (March 12-16, 2008)

Session 12: Architecture and the Built Environment: Special Projects and Cataloging Issues

Sunday March 16, 2008: 2:00-3:30 pm

Abstract:

The complexities of cataloging images of architecture and the built environment are myriad.  Classification issues in architecture, landscape architecture, construction, and urban planning are often outside the scope of traditional vocabularies.  Identifying and documenting buildings in a fast-paced urban environment can be confounding.  Keeping up with contemporary design and construction issues in a global arena can be frustrating.  How do architecture collections deal with these issues in a manner that is responsive to copyright, curriculum, and context?

This session will deal with a number of these larger issues, while concentrating on specific problems in several collections.  

MODERATOR:
Jodie Walz
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
College of Design
jwalz@umn.edu

ORGANIZER:
Heather Seneff
University of Washington
College of Architecture and Urban Planning
hs3@u.washington.edu

PRESENTERS:


Jodie Walz, Director of Digital Collections and Archives, Univ of MN

Vernacular Architecture:  Capturing and Cataloging the Elegant Mundane”


Joseph Romano, Visual Resources Curator, Department of Art, Oberlin College

"From Blondel to Pugin: Architects as Authors & Theorists "

Since the time of Vitruvius and throughout the Renaissance architects have written books, treatises explaining either their theoretical or practical views on architecture. By the eighteenth century such books were often the collaborative endeavors of architects, authors, printmakers, and publishers. They were usually richly illustrated. Traditionally, such illustrations were viewed simply as pictures in a book by librarians. However, to the modern art and architectural historian, the images have taken precedence, and the book itself is often seen as incidental. Such conflicting points of view presents a challenge to the visual resources curator embarking on a digitization project where the source of the images are to be found in old books in special collections. This presentation will discuss the various issues that need to be addressed, from digital capture to metadata, in order to successfully complete such a project.


Francine Stock, Visual Resources Curator, Tulane School of Architecture

Documenting the City: collaborative collection building with faculty and students"


Chris Hilker, Director, Smart Media Center, School of Architecture, University of Arkansas

Some sources for contemporary architecture....


Some architecture resources online

International Architecture Database (archINFORM)

National Trust for Historic Preservation

United Kingdom Database of Historic Parks and Gardens

Structurae

ArchNet

Contemporary Architecture Group on Flickr