The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation explores automotive her... more The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation explores automotive heritage, its place in society, and the ways we might preserve and conserve it. Drawing on contributions from academics and practitioners around the world and comprising six sections, this volume carries the heritage discourse forward by exploring the complex and sometimes intricate place of automobiles within society. Taken as a whole, this book helps to shape how we think about automobile heritage and considers how that heritage explores a range of cultural, intellectual, emotional, and material elements well outside of the automobile body itself. Most importantly, perhaps, it questions how we might better acknowledge the importance of automotive heritage now and in the future. The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation is unique in that it juxtaposes theory with practice, academic approaches with practical experience, and recognizes that issues of preservation and conservation belong in a broad context. As such, this volume should be essential reading for both academics and practitioners with an interest in automobiles, cultural heritage, and preservation.
What Is Your Heritage and the State of its Preservation? Volume 3: Putting Theory into Practice, 2018
During the Spring 2018 semester several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preserva... more During the Spring 2018 semester several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation and Community Planning program participated in their Senior Seminar titled “What Is Your Heritage and the State of Its Preservation?” This was the third time this seminar topic had been taught, with the first in 2014 and the second in 2016. For this class each student had to conduct a lengthy, in-depth research paper on the state of preservation of heritage sites, material objects, or traditions associated with their family’s history. The assignment used genealogical research methods in an unconventional way by elevating the assessment of ancestors beyond typical names, dates, and generational succession so commonly found on most family trees. The students had to ask profound questions to guide their inquiry, such as “Where (as in a specific spot) did my ancestors come from?”;“What was life like for them?”; and “What cultural traditions were important for them?”. In this way people, whether through a specific individual or a group, became connected and contextualized within time, place, and society. Moreover, the students had to utilize and synthesize the knowledge, skills, and experiences they acquired in other classes from past semesters. Essays contributed within this volume are by Rebecca Lawing, Flannery Wood, Ellen Feringa, Madison Alspector, Madison Moga, and Alec Meier.
Sustainable Heritage: Merging Environmental Conservation and Historic Preservation, 2018
This book brings together ecological-conservation theory and heritage-preservation theory and sho... more This book brings together ecological-conservation theory and heritage-preservation theory and shows how these two realms have common purpose. Through theoretical discussion and illustrative examples, Sustainable Heritage reframes the history of multiple movements within preservation and sustainable-design strategies into cross-disciplinary themes. Through topics such as Cultural Relationships with Nature, Ecology, Biodiversity, Energy, and Resource Systems; Integrating Biodiversity into the Built Environment Rehabilitation Practice; Fixing the Shortcomings Within Community Design, Planning, and Policy; Strategies for Adapting Buildings and Structures for Rising Sea Levels; and Vehicles as a Microcosm of Approaching Built Environment Rehabilitation, the book explores contemporary ecological and heritage ethics as a strategy for improving the livability of the built environment.
The authors provide a holistic critique of the challenges we face in light of climate and cultural changes occurring from the local to the global level. It synthesizes the best practices offered by separate disciplines as one cohesive way forward toward sustainable design. The authors consider strategies for increasing the physical and cultural longevity of the built environment, why these two are so closely paired, and the potential their overlap offers for sustained and meaningful inhabitation. Sustainable Heritage unites students and professionals in a wide range of disciplines with one common language and more closely aligned sets of objectives for preservation and sustainable design.
Human-Centered Built Environment Heritage Preservation: Theory and Evidence-Based Practice, 2018
Human-Centered Built Environment Heritage Preservation addresses the question of how a human-cent... more Human-Centered Built Environment Heritage Preservation addresses the question of how a human-centred conservation approach can and should change practice. For the most part, there are few answers to this question because professionals in the heritage conservation field do not use social science research methodologies to manage cultural landscapes, assess historical significance and inform the treatment of building and landscape fabric. With few exceptions, only academic theorists have explored these topics while failing to offer specific, usable guidance on how the social sciences can actually be used by heritage professionals.
In exploring the nature of a human-centred heritage conservation practice, we explicitly seek a middle ground between the academy and practice, theory and application, fabric and meanings, conventional and civil experts, and orthodox and heterodox ideas behind practice and research. We do this by positioning this book in a transdisciplinary space between these dichotomies as a way to give voice (and respect) to multiple perspectives without losing sight of our goal that heritage conservation practice should, fundamentally, benefit all people. We believe that this approach is essential for creating an emancipated built heritage conservation practice that must successfully engage very different ontological and epistemological perspectives.
he Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation, 2020
The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation explores automotive her... more The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation explores automotive heritage, its place in society, and the ways we might preserve and conserve it.
Drawing on contributions from academics and practitioners around the world and comprising six sections, this volume carries the heritage discourse forward by exploring the complex and sometimes intricate place of automobiles within society. Taken as a whole, the book helps to shape how we think about automobile heritage and considers how that heritage explores a range of cultural, intellectual, emotional, and material elements well outside of the automobile body itself. Most importantly, perhaps, it questions how we might better acknowledge the importance of automotive heritage now and in the future.
The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation is unique in that it juxtaposes theory with practice, academic approaches with practical experience, and recognizes that issues of preservation and conservation belong in a broad context. As such, the volume should be essential reading for both academics and practitioners with an interest in automobiles, cultural heritage, and preservation.
Neither in Dark Speeches nor in Similitudes is an interdisciplinary collaboration of Canadian and... more Neither in Dark Speeches nor in Similitudes is an interdisciplinary collaboration of Canadian and American Jewish studies scholars who compare and contrast the experience of Jews along the chronological spectrum (ca. 1763 to the present) in their respective countries. Of particular interest to them is determining the factors that shaped the Jewish communities on either side of our common border, and why they differed. This collection equips Canadian and American Jewish historians to broaden their examination and ask new questions, as well as answer old questions based on fresh comparative data.
Throughout history and around the world, community members have come together to build places, be... more Throughout history and around the world, community members have come together to build places, be it settlers constructing log cabins in nineteenth-century Canada, an artist group creating a waterfront gathering place along the Danube in Budapest, or residents helping revive small-town main streets in the United States. What all these projects have in common is that they involve local volunteers in the construction of public and community places; they are community-built.
Although much attention has been given to specific community-built movements such as public murals and community gardens, little has been given to defining community-built as a whole. This volume provides a preliminary description of community-built practices with examples from the disciplines of urban design, historic preservation, and community art.
Taken as a whole, these community-built projects illustrate how the process of local involvement in adapting, building, and preserving a built environment can strengthen communities and create places that are intimately tied to local needs, culture, and community. The lessons learned from this volume can provide community planners, grassroots facilitators, and participants with an understanding of what can lead to successful community-built art, construction, preservation, and placemaking.
What is Your Heritage and the State of its Preservation?: Volume 2, Collaborations with Storyboar... more What is Your Heritage and the State of its Preservation?: Volume 2, Collaborations with Storyboard America - Edited By Barry L. Stiefel. During the Spring 2016 semester, several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation and Community Planning program participated in their Senior Seminar titled, “What is Your Heritage and the State of Its Preservation?”. This was the second time this seminar topic had been taught, with the first in 2014. For this class, each student had to conduct a lengthily in-depth research paper on the state of preservation of heritage sites, material objects, or traditions associated with their family history. The assignment used genealogical research methods in an unconventional way by elevating the assessment of ancestors beyond typical names, dates, and generational succession; so commonly found on most family trees. The students had to ask profound questions to guide their inquiry, such as “Where (as in specific spot) did my ancestors come from?”; “What was life like for them?”; and “What cultural traditions were important for them?”. In this way people, whether through a specific individual or a group, became connected and contextualized within time, place, and society. Moreover, the students had to utilize and synthesize the knowledge, skills and experiences they acquired in other classes from past semesters. Susan Kammeraad-Campbell of Storyboard America also collaborated with the students on investigating and writing family history stories. Essays contributed within this volume are by Meagan Pickens, Kaylee Lass, Christa Kearns, Kyra Rooney, Evan Rubel, and Katherine Schofield, with a faculty guest contribution from Marian Mazzone.
During the Spring 2014 semester several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preserva... more During the Spring 2014 semester several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation and Community Planning program participated in their Senior Seminar titled “What is Your Heritage and the State of its Preservation?”. For this class, each student had to conduct a lengthily in-depth research paper on the state of preservation of heritage sites, material objects, or traditions associated with their family’s history. The assignment used genealogical research methods in an unconventional way by elevating the assessment of ancestors beyond typical names, dates, and generational succession; so commonly found on most family trees. The students had to ask profound questions to guide their inquiry, such as “Where (as in a specific spot) did my ancestors come from?”; “What was life like for them?”; and “What cultural traditions were important for them?”. In this way people, whether through a specific individual or a group, became connected and contextualized within time, place, and society. Moreover, the students had to utilize and synthesize the knowledge, skills, and experiences they acquired in other classes from past semesters. Essays contributed within this volume are by Blanding Lee Clarkson, Emily Floyd, Kaitlin Glanton, Dannielle Nadine Hobbs, and Michael C. Patnaude, as well as a prototype from when the editor was a student. Barry L. Stiefel, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program at the College of Charleston, where he enjoys collaborating on projects with students.
Over the past twenty years, there has been a fundamental shift in the institutional organization ... more Over the past twenty years, there has been a fundamental shift in the institutional organization of historic preservation education. Historic preservation is the most recent arrival in the collection of built environment disciplines and therefore lacks the pedagogical depth and breadth found in allied endeavors such as architecture and planning. As the first degree programs in preservation only date to the 1970s and the first doctoral programs to the 1990s, new faculty are confronted with pedagogical challenges that are unique to this relatively nascent field. Based on a conference that included educators from around the world, Barry L. Stiefel and Jeremy C. Wells now present a collection that seeks to address fundamental issues of preservation pedagogy, outcome-based education and assessment, and global issues of authenticity and significance in historic preservation. The editors argue that the subject of the analysis has shifted from, “What is the best way to fix a historic building?” to, “What are the best ways for teaching people how to preserve historic properties (and why) according to the various standards that have been established?” This important reconsideration of the state of the field in historic preservation education will appeal to a broad audience across numerous disciplines.
Before the mid-fifteenth century, the Christian and Islamic governments of Europe had restricted ... more Before the mid-fifteenth century, the Christian and Islamic governments of Europe had restricted the architecture and design of synagogues and often prevented Jews from becoming architects. With the socio-political changes that occurred during the course of the early modern period, synagogue architecture experienced a renaissance of design – a phenomenon reflected in the wider tolerance of Jews themselves. Stiefel examines the relationships between Jews and gentiles, and between separate Jewish groups, as well as looking at the growth of urbanization and globalization. In doing so he presents a study of the material culture and religious architecture that this era produced.
Jewish Sanctuary in the Atlantic World is a unique blend of cultural and architectural history th... more Jewish Sanctuary in the Atlantic World is a unique blend of cultural and architectural history that considers Jewish heritage as it expanded among the continents and islands linked by the Atlantic Ocean between the mid–fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Barry L. Stiefel achieves a powerful synthesis of material culture research and traditional historical research in his examination of the early modern Jewish diaspora in the New World.
Through this generously illustrated work, Stiefel examines forty-six synagogues built in Europe, South America, the Caribbean Islands, colonial and antebellum North America, and Gibraltar to discover what liturgies, construction methods, and architectural styles were transported from the Old World to the New World. Some are famous—Touro in Newport, Rhode Island; Bevis Marks in London; and Mikve Israel in Curaçao—while others had short-lived congregations whose buildings were lost. The two great traditions of Judaism—Sephardic and Ashkenazic—found homes in the Atlantic World.
Examining buildings and congregations that survive, Stiefel offers valuable insights on their connections and commonalities. If both the congregations and buildings are gone, the author re-creates them by using modern heritage preservation tools that have expanded the heuristic repertoire, tools from such diverse sources as architectural studies, archaeology, computer modeling and rendering, and geographic information systems. When combined these bring a richer understanding of the past than incomplete, uncertain traditional historical resources. Buildings figure as key indicators in Stiefel's analysis of Jewish life and social experience, while the author's immersion in the faith and practice of Judaism invigorates every aspect of his work.
Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada = Journal de la Société pour l'étude de l'architecture au Canada, 2021
In recent decades much has been written about architecture in Canada as well as on synagogue arch... more In recent decades much has been written about architecture in Canada as well as on synagogue architecture, the house of worship in Judaism. However, these as well as other Canadian architecture publications have addressed synagogue architecture in a piecemeal fashion, either investigating individual buildings or specific communities. Synagogue architecture scholarship also treats Canada peripherally, with their being a more interest in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern period synagogues that have their emphasis in the Old World. Modern and contemporary synagogue architectural studies primarily focus on Europe, Israel, and the United States. Canada’s Jewish population has migrated and changed significantly through suburbanization and upward socioeconomic mobility. The synagogues that existed in 1975 compared to 2022 as a signifier of Jewish expressions on the built environment, are different from one another as night and day from the snapshot perspective of a broader cultural landscape. Pre-1970 synagogues were a product of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Eastern European Jewish immigrants, mostly with modest economic means; they reflect the practice of adaptively reusing pre-existing buildings and borrowing Canadian vernacular architectural traditions, with an occasional monumental structure through the pooling of larger community resources. After 1970, larger Modern architecture synagogues became abundant as new and conglomerated Jewish congregations replaced the former smaller, immigrant-oriented institutions. Other aspects of Jewish communal infrastructure on the built environment include schools, community centers, museums, memorials, ritual baths (mikvaot), and ritual enclosures (eruvin). In recent years, there has also been a growing interest in built environment heritage conservation of synagogues. Therefore, this paper will revisit and explore synagogue architecture in Canada thematically with a focus on social and cultural history, instead of taxonomical assessment of quantitative building surveys.
Few buildings are as ephemeral as the sukkah (plural: sukkot), a structure meant to last just a w... more Few buildings are as ephemeral as the sukkah (plural: sukkot), a structure meant to last just a week to house the Jewish family under the protection of the divinely ordained “clouds of glory” in a manner reminiscent of the precarious times immediately after the Exodus from Egypt. After more than two millennia from its inception in the desert and hundreds of years since it was portrayed in illuminated manuscripts during the Middle Ages, the sukkah still represents a unique sacred architecture that reflects a “virtual reality.” In time, it acknowledges the changing of the seasons; in space it is a carefully defined temporary structure; and in thought, it is an allusion to the collective national and religious memories of the Tabernacle and the Temple through which one can acquire a palpable sense of being close to God and his creation and to all his children.
This chapter examines Jewish sacred spaces in medieval and Early Modern Europe by looking at case... more This chapter examines Jewish sacred spaces in medieval and Early Modern Europe by looking at case studies. As its point of departure, it affirms that sacred spaces are socially constructed, dynamic, and often multifunctional products of human creation that respond to the changing needs of the communities they serve. These ideas are addressed through the examination not only of spatial arrangements or ornamental programs of Jewish sacred space, but also of the ways in which it created, claimed, or negotiated sacred loci within the built environment. In this way, this chapter presents a complex and historically grounded picture of Jewish life and religious practice from the onset of the European Middle Ages, when Jews lost the opportunity for citizenship, to the beginning of their emancipation from these restrictions in the early nineteenth century.
The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation explores automotive her... more The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation explores automotive heritage, its place in society, and the ways we might preserve and conserve it. Drawing on contributions from academics and practitioners around the world and comprising six sections, this volume carries the heritage discourse forward by exploring the complex and sometimes intricate place of automobiles within society. Taken as a whole, this book helps to shape how we think about automobile heritage and considers how that heritage explores a range of cultural, intellectual, emotional, and material elements well outside of the automobile body itself. Most importantly, perhaps, it questions how we might better acknowledge the importance of automotive heritage now and in the future. The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation is unique in that it juxtaposes theory with practice, academic approaches with practical experience, and recognizes that issues of preservation and conservation belong in a broad context. As such, this volume should be essential reading for both academics and practitioners with an interest in automobiles, cultural heritage, and preservation.
What Is Your Heritage and the State of its Preservation? Volume 3: Putting Theory into Practice, 2018
During the Spring 2018 semester several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preserva... more During the Spring 2018 semester several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation and Community Planning program participated in their Senior Seminar titled “What Is Your Heritage and the State of Its Preservation?” This was the third time this seminar topic had been taught, with the first in 2014 and the second in 2016. For this class each student had to conduct a lengthy, in-depth research paper on the state of preservation of heritage sites, material objects, or traditions associated with their family’s history. The assignment used genealogical research methods in an unconventional way by elevating the assessment of ancestors beyond typical names, dates, and generational succession so commonly found on most family trees. The students had to ask profound questions to guide their inquiry, such as “Where (as in a specific spot) did my ancestors come from?”;“What was life like for them?”; and “What cultural traditions were important for them?”. In this way people, whether through a specific individual or a group, became connected and contextualized within time, place, and society. Moreover, the students had to utilize and synthesize the knowledge, skills, and experiences they acquired in other classes from past semesters. Essays contributed within this volume are by Rebecca Lawing, Flannery Wood, Ellen Feringa, Madison Alspector, Madison Moga, and Alec Meier.
Sustainable Heritage: Merging Environmental Conservation and Historic Preservation, 2018
This book brings together ecological-conservation theory and heritage-preservation theory and sho... more This book brings together ecological-conservation theory and heritage-preservation theory and shows how these two realms have common purpose. Through theoretical discussion and illustrative examples, Sustainable Heritage reframes the history of multiple movements within preservation and sustainable-design strategies into cross-disciplinary themes. Through topics such as Cultural Relationships with Nature, Ecology, Biodiversity, Energy, and Resource Systems; Integrating Biodiversity into the Built Environment Rehabilitation Practice; Fixing the Shortcomings Within Community Design, Planning, and Policy; Strategies for Adapting Buildings and Structures for Rising Sea Levels; and Vehicles as a Microcosm of Approaching Built Environment Rehabilitation, the book explores contemporary ecological and heritage ethics as a strategy for improving the livability of the built environment.
The authors provide a holistic critique of the challenges we face in light of climate and cultural changes occurring from the local to the global level. It synthesizes the best practices offered by separate disciplines as one cohesive way forward toward sustainable design. The authors consider strategies for increasing the physical and cultural longevity of the built environment, why these two are so closely paired, and the potential their overlap offers for sustained and meaningful inhabitation. Sustainable Heritage unites students and professionals in a wide range of disciplines with one common language and more closely aligned sets of objectives for preservation and sustainable design.
Human-Centered Built Environment Heritage Preservation: Theory and Evidence-Based Practice, 2018
Human-Centered Built Environment Heritage Preservation addresses the question of how a human-cent... more Human-Centered Built Environment Heritage Preservation addresses the question of how a human-centred conservation approach can and should change practice. For the most part, there are few answers to this question because professionals in the heritage conservation field do not use social science research methodologies to manage cultural landscapes, assess historical significance and inform the treatment of building and landscape fabric. With few exceptions, only academic theorists have explored these topics while failing to offer specific, usable guidance on how the social sciences can actually be used by heritage professionals.
In exploring the nature of a human-centred heritage conservation practice, we explicitly seek a middle ground between the academy and practice, theory and application, fabric and meanings, conventional and civil experts, and orthodox and heterodox ideas behind practice and research. We do this by positioning this book in a transdisciplinary space between these dichotomies as a way to give voice (and respect) to multiple perspectives without losing sight of our goal that heritage conservation practice should, fundamentally, benefit all people. We believe that this approach is essential for creating an emancipated built heritage conservation practice that must successfully engage very different ontological and epistemological perspectives.
he Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation, 2020
The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation explores automotive her... more The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation explores automotive heritage, its place in society, and the ways we might preserve and conserve it.
Drawing on contributions from academics and practitioners around the world and comprising six sections, this volume carries the heritage discourse forward by exploring the complex and sometimes intricate place of automobiles within society. Taken as a whole, the book helps to shape how we think about automobile heritage and considers how that heritage explores a range of cultural, intellectual, emotional, and material elements well outside of the automobile body itself. Most importantly, perhaps, it questions how we might better acknowledge the importance of automotive heritage now and in the future.
The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation is unique in that it juxtaposes theory with practice, academic approaches with practical experience, and recognizes that issues of preservation and conservation belong in a broad context. As such, the volume should be essential reading for both academics and practitioners with an interest in automobiles, cultural heritage, and preservation.
Neither in Dark Speeches nor in Similitudes is an interdisciplinary collaboration of Canadian and... more Neither in Dark Speeches nor in Similitudes is an interdisciplinary collaboration of Canadian and American Jewish studies scholars who compare and contrast the experience of Jews along the chronological spectrum (ca. 1763 to the present) in their respective countries. Of particular interest to them is determining the factors that shaped the Jewish communities on either side of our common border, and why they differed. This collection equips Canadian and American Jewish historians to broaden their examination and ask new questions, as well as answer old questions based on fresh comparative data.
Throughout history and around the world, community members have come together to build places, be... more Throughout history and around the world, community members have come together to build places, be it settlers constructing log cabins in nineteenth-century Canada, an artist group creating a waterfront gathering place along the Danube in Budapest, or residents helping revive small-town main streets in the United States. What all these projects have in common is that they involve local volunteers in the construction of public and community places; they are community-built.
Although much attention has been given to specific community-built movements such as public murals and community gardens, little has been given to defining community-built as a whole. This volume provides a preliminary description of community-built practices with examples from the disciplines of urban design, historic preservation, and community art.
Taken as a whole, these community-built projects illustrate how the process of local involvement in adapting, building, and preserving a built environment can strengthen communities and create places that are intimately tied to local needs, culture, and community. The lessons learned from this volume can provide community planners, grassroots facilitators, and participants with an understanding of what can lead to successful community-built art, construction, preservation, and placemaking.
What is Your Heritage and the State of its Preservation?: Volume 2, Collaborations with Storyboar... more What is Your Heritage and the State of its Preservation?: Volume 2, Collaborations with Storyboard America - Edited By Barry L. Stiefel. During the Spring 2016 semester, several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation and Community Planning program participated in their Senior Seminar titled, “What is Your Heritage and the State of Its Preservation?”. This was the second time this seminar topic had been taught, with the first in 2014. For this class, each student had to conduct a lengthily in-depth research paper on the state of preservation of heritage sites, material objects, or traditions associated with their family history. The assignment used genealogical research methods in an unconventional way by elevating the assessment of ancestors beyond typical names, dates, and generational succession; so commonly found on most family trees. The students had to ask profound questions to guide their inquiry, such as “Where (as in specific spot) did my ancestors come from?”; “What was life like for them?”; and “What cultural traditions were important for them?”. In this way people, whether through a specific individual or a group, became connected and contextualized within time, place, and society. Moreover, the students had to utilize and synthesize the knowledge, skills and experiences they acquired in other classes from past semesters. Susan Kammeraad-Campbell of Storyboard America also collaborated with the students on investigating and writing family history stories. Essays contributed within this volume are by Meagan Pickens, Kaylee Lass, Christa Kearns, Kyra Rooney, Evan Rubel, and Katherine Schofield, with a faculty guest contribution from Marian Mazzone.
During the Spring 2014 semester several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preserva... more During the Spring 2014 semester several students at the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation and Community Planning program participated in their Senior Seminar titled “What is Your Heritage and the State of its Preservation?”. For this class, each student had to conduct a lengthily in-depth research paper on the state of preservation of heritage sites, material objects, or traditions associated with their family’s history. The assignment used genealogical research methods in an unconventional way by elevating the assessment of ancestors beyond typical names, dates, and generational succession; so commonly found on most family trees. The students had to ask profound questions to guide their inquiry, such as “Where (as in a specific spot) did my ancestors come from?”; “What was life like for them?”; and “What cultural traditions were important for them?”. In this way people, whether through a specific individual or a group, became connected and contextualized within time, place, and society. Moreover, the students had to utilize and synthesize the knowledge, skills, and experiences they acquired in other classes from past semesters. Essays contributed within this volume are by Blanding Lee Clarkson, Emily Floyd, Kaitlin Glanton, Dannielle Nadine Hobbs, and Michael C. Patnaude, as well as a prototype from when the editor was a student. Barry L. Stiefel, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program at the College of Charleston, where he enjoys collaborating on projects with students.
Over the past twenty years, there has been a fundamental shift in the institutional organization ... more Over the past twenty years, there has been a fundamental shift in the institutional organization of historic preservation education. Historic preservation is the most recent arrival in the collection of built environment disciplines and therefore lacks the pedagogical depth and breadth found in allied endeavors such as architecture and planning. As the first degree programs in preservation only date to the 1970s and the first doctoral programs to the 1990s, new faculty are confronted with pedagogical challenges that are unique to this relatively nascent field. Based on a conference that included educators from around the world, Barry L. Stiefel and Jeremy C. Wells now present a collection that seeks to address fundamental issues of preservation pedagogy, outcome-based education and assessment, and global issues of authenticity and significance in historic preservation. The editors argue that the subject of the analysis has shifted from, “What is the best way to fix a historic building?” to, “What are the best ways for teaching people how to preserve historic properties (and why) according to the various standards that have been established?” This important reconsideration of the state of the field in historic preservation education will appeal to a broad audience across numerous disciplines.
Before the mid-fifteenth century, the Christian and Islamic governments of Europe had restricted ... more Before the mid-fifteenth century, the Christian and Islamic governments of Europe had restricted the architecture and design of synagogues and often prevented Jews from becoming architects. With the socio-political changes that occurred during the course of the early modern period, synagogue architecture experienced a renaissance of design – a phenomenon reflected in the wider tolerance of Jews themselves. Stiefel examines the relationships between Jews and gentiles, and between separate Jewish groups, as well as looking at the growth of urbanization and globalization. In doing so he presents a study of the material culture and religious architecture that this era produced.
Jewish Sanctuary in the Atlantic World is a unique blend of cultural and architectural history th... more Jewish Sanctuary in the Atlantic World is a unique blend of cultural and architectural history that considers Jewish heritage as it expanded among the continents and islands linked by the Atlantic Ocean between the mid–fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Barry L. Stiefel achieves a powerful synthesis of material culture research and traditional historical research in his examination of the early modern Jewish diaspora in the New World.
Through this generously illustrated work, Stiefel examines forty-six synagogues built in Europe, South America, the Caribbean Islands, colonial and antebellum North America, and Gibraltar to discover what liturgies, construction methods, and architectural styles were transported from the Old World to the New World. Some are famous—Touro in Newport, Rhode Island; Bevis Marks in London; and Mikve Israel in Curaçao—while others had short-lived congregations whose buildings were lost. The two great traditions of Judaism—Sephardic and Ashkenazic—found homes in the Atlantic World.
Examining buildings and congregations that survive, Stiefel offers valuable insights on their connections and commonalities. If both the congregations and buildings are gone, the author re-creates them by using modern heritage preservation tools that have expanded the heuristic repertoire, tools from such diverse sources as architectural studies, archaeology, computer modeling and rendering, and geographic information systems. When combined these bring a richer understanding of the past than incomplete, uncertain traditional historical resources. Buildings figure as key indicators in Stiefel's analysis of Jewish life and social experience, while the author's immersion in the faith and practice of Judaism invigorates every aspect of his work.
Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada = Journal de la Société pour l'étude de l'architecture au Canada, 2021
In recent decades much has been written about architecture in Canada as well as on synagogue arch... more In recent decades much has been written about architecture in Canada as well as on synagogue architecture, the house of worship in Judaism. However, these as well as other Canadian architecture publications have addressed synagogue architecture in a piecemeal fashion, either investigating individual buildings or specific communities. Synagogue architecture scholarship also treats Canada peripherally, with their being a more interest in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern period synagogues that have their emphasis in the Old World. Modern and contemporary synagogue architectural studies primarily focus on Europe, Israel, and the United States. Canada’s Jewish population has migrated and changed significantly through suburbanization and upward socioeconomic mobility. The synagogues that existed in 1975 compared to 2022 as a signifier of Jewish expressions on the built environment, are different from one another as night and day from the snapshot perspective of a broader cultural landscape. Pre-1970 synagogues were a product of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Eastern European Jewish immigrants, mostly with modest economic means; they reflect the practice of adaptively reusing pre-existing buildings and borrowing Canadian vernacular architectural traditions, with an occasional monumental structure through the pooling of larger community resources. After 1970, larger Modern architecture synagogues became abundant as new and conglomerated Jewish congregations replaced the former smaller, immigrant-oriented institutions. Other aspects of Jewish communal infrastructure on the built environment include schools, community centers, museums, memorials, ritual baths (mikvaot), and ritual enclosures (eruvin). In recent years, there has also been a growing interest in built environment heritage conservation of synagogues. Therefore, this paper will revisit and explore synagogue architecture in Canada thematically with a focus on social and cultural history, instead of taxonomical assessment of quantitative building surveys.
Few buildings are as ephemeral as the sukkah (plural: sukkot), a structure meant to last just a w... more Few buildings are as ephemeral as the sukkah (plural: sukkot), a structure meant to last just a week to house the Jewish family under the protection of the divinely ordained “clouds of glory” in a manner reminiscent of the precarious times immediately after the Exodus from Egypt. After more than two millennia from its inception in the desert and hundreds of years since it was portrayed in illuminated manuscripts during the Middle Ages, the sukkah still represents a unique sacred architecture that reflects a “virtual reality.” In time, it acknowledges the changing of the seasons; in space it is a carefully defined temporary structure; and in thought, it is an allusion to the collective national and religious memories of the Tabernacle and the Temple through which one can acquire a palpable sense of being close to God and his creation and to all his children.
This chapter examines Jewish sacred spaces in medieval and Early Modern Europe by looking at case... more This chapter examines Jewish sacred spaces in medieval and Early Modern Europe by looking at case studies. As its point of departure, it affirms that sacred spaces are socially constructed, dynamic, and often multifunctional products of human creation that respond to the changing needs of the communities they serve. These ideas are addressed through the examination not only of spatial arrangements or ornamental programs of Jewish sacred space, but also of the ways in which it created, claimed, or negotiated sacred loci within the built environment. In this way, this chapter presents a complex and historically grounded picture of Jewish life and religious practice from the onset of the European Middle Ages, when Jews lost the opportunity for citizenship, to the beginning of their emancipation from these restrictions in the early nineteenth century.
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been ... more This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized
The Michigan Avenue Retail Revitalization Plan is the result of a four-month planning effort for ... more The Michigan Avenue Retail Revitalization Plan is the result of a four-month planning effort for the Michigan Avenue Business Association (MABA) by students from the University of Michigan’s Urban and Regional Planning Program in conjunction with MABA staff. The goal of this project was to develop a comprehensive strategy that MABA can use to guide retail redevelopment and physical revitalization along Michigan Avenue in the City of Detroit.
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Books by Barry Stiefel
The authors provide a holistic critique of the challenges we face in light of climate and cultural changes occurring from the local to the global level. It synthesizes the best practices offered by separate disciplines as one cohesive way forward toward sustainable design. The authors consider strategies for increasing the physical and cultural longevity of the built environment, why these two are so closely paired, and the potential their overlap offers for sustained and meaningful inhabitation. Sustainable Heritage unites students and professionals in a wide range of disciplines with one common language and more closely aligned sets of objectives for preservation and sustainable design.
In exploring the nature of a human-centred heritage conservation practice, we explicitly seek a middle ground between the academy and practice, theory and application, fabric and meanings, conventional and civil experts, and orthodox and heterodox ideas behind practice and research. We do this by positioning this book in a transdisciplinary space between these dichotomies as a way to give voice (and respect) to multiple perspectives without losing sight of our goal that heritage conservation practice should, fundamentally, benefit all people. We believe that this approach is essential for creating an emancipated built heritage conservation practice that must successfully engage very different ontological and epistemological perspectives.
Drawing on contributions from academics and practitioners around the world and comprising six sections, this volume carries the heritage discourse forward by exploring the complex and sometimes intricate place of automobiles within society. Taken as a whole, the book helps to shape how we think about automobile heritage and considers how that heritage explores a range of cultural, intellectual, emotional, and material elements well outside of the automobile body itself. Most importantly, perhaps, it questions how we might better acknowledge the importance of automotive heritage now and in the future.
The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation is unique in that it juxtaposes theory with practice, academic approaches with practical experience, and recognizes that issues of preservation and conservation belong in a broad context. As such, the volume should be essential reading for both academics and practitioners with an interest in automobiles, cultural heritage, and preservation.
Although much attention has been given to specific community-built movements such as public murals and community gardens, little has been given to defining community-built as a whole. This volume provides a preliminary description of community-built practices with examples from the disciplines of urban design, historic preservation, and community art.
Taken as a whole, these community-built projects illustrate how the process of local involvement in adapting, building, and preserving a built environment can strengthen communities and create places that are intimately tied to local needs, culture, and community. The lessons learned from this volume can provide community planners, grassroots facilitators, and participants with an understanding of what can lead to successful community-built art, construction, preservation, and placemaking.
Through this generously illustrated work, Stiefel examines forty-six synagogues built in Europe, South America, the Caribbean Islands, colonial and antebellum North America, and Gibraltar to discover what liturgies, construction methods, and architectural styles were transported from the Old World to the New World. Some are famous—Touro in Newport, Rhode Island; Bevis Marks in London; and Mikve Israel in Curaçao—while others had short-lived congregations whose buildings were lost. The two great traditions of Judaism—Sephardic and Ashkenazic—found homes in the Atlantic World.
Examining buildings and congregations that survive, Stiefel offers valuable insights on their connections and commonalities. If both the congregations and buildings are gone, the author re-creates them by using modern heritage preservation tools that have expanded the heuristic repertoire, tools from such diverse sources as architectural studies, archaeology, computer modeling and rendering, and geographic information systems. When combined these bring a richer understanding of the past than incomplete, uncertain traditional historical resources. Buildings figure as key indicators in Stiefel's analysis of Jewish life and social experience, while the author's immersion in the faith and practice of Judaism invigorates every aspect of his work.
Papers by Barry Stiefel
The authors provide a holistic critique of the challenges we face in light of climate and cultural changes occurring from the local to the global level. It synthesizes the best practices offered by separate disciplines as one cohesive way forward toward sustainable design. The authors consider strategies for increasing the physical and cultural longevity of the built environment, why these two are so closely paired, and the potential their overlap offers for sustained and meaningful inhabitation. Sustainable Heritage unites students and professionals in a wide range of disciplines with one common language and more closely aligned sets of objectives for preservation and sustainable design.
In exploring the nature of a human-centred heritage conservation practice, we explicitly seek a middle ground between the academy and practice, theory and application, fabric and meanings, conventional and civil experts, and orthodox and heterodox ideas behind practice and research. We do this by positioning this book in a transdisciplinary space between these dichotomies as a way to give voice (and respect) to multiple perspectives without losing sight of our goal that heritage conservation practice should, fundamentally, benefit all people. We believe that this approach is essential for creating an emancipated built heritage conservation practice that must successfully engage very different ontological and epistemological perspectives.
Drawing on contributions from academics and practitioners around the world and comprising six sections, this volume carries the heritage discourse forward by exploring the complex and sometimes intricate place of automobiles within society. Taken as a whole, the book helps to shape how we think about automobile heritage and considers how that heritage explores a range of cultural, intellectual, emotional, and material elements well outside of the automobile body itself. Most importantly, perhaps, it questions how we might better acknowledge the importance of automotive heritage now and in the future.
The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation is unique in that it juxtaposes theory with practice, academic approaches with practical experience, and recognizes that issues of preservation and conservation belong in a broad context. As such, the volume should be essential reading for both academics and practitioners with an interest in automobiles, cultural heritage, and preservation.
Although much attention has been given to specific community-built movements such as public murals and community gardens, little has been given to defining community-built as a whole. This volume provides a preliminary description of community-built practices with examples from the disciplines of urban design, historic preservation, and community art.
Taken as a whole, these community-built projects illustrate how the process of local involvement in adapting, building, and preserving a built environment can strengthen communities and create places that are intimately tied to local needs, culture, and community. The lessons learned from this volume can provide community planners, grassroots facilitators, and participants with an understanding of what can lead to successful community-built art, construction, preservation, and placemaking.
Through this generously illustrated work, Stiefel examines forty-six synagogues built in Europe, South America, the Caribbean Islands, colonial and antebellum North America, and Gibraltar to discover what liturgies, construction methods, and architectural styles were transported from the Old World to the New World. Some are famous—Touro in Newport, Rhode Island; Bevis Marks in London; and Mikve Israel in Curaçao—while others had short-lived congregations whose buildings were lost. The two great traditions of Judaism—Sephardic and Ashkenazic—found homes in the Atlantic World.
Examining buildings and congregations that survive, Stiefel offers valuable insights on their connections and commonalities. If both the congregations and buildings are gone, the author re-creates them by using modern heritage preservation tools that have expanded the heuristic repertoire, tools from such diverse sources as architectural studies, archaeology, computer modeling and rendering, and geographic information systems. When combined these bring a richer understanding of the past than incomplete, uncertain traditional historical resources. Buildings figure as key indicators in Stiefel's analysis of Jewish life and social experience, while the author's immersion in the faith and practice of Judaism invigorates every aspect of his work.