Provisional syllabus (4/29/13) – subject to change before spring 2014!!!

ARCHITECTURE IN THE CITY (FRSEM-UA 516)

Spring 2014, Freshman Seminar, NYU College of Arts and Science
Marvin Trachtenberg

For readings, see p. 3 below.

The course comprises three parts.

The first part is text based.
The second and third parts emphasize site visits by the class as well as independent on-site study
by students (who may work in teams if desired).

Readings and short papers are assigned most weeks.

There will be seven 2p papers + a final 5p paper.
Four papers will discuss readings, and four direct experience of NY architecture.

PART I: LEARNING FROM TEXTS

Students to write a 2-page paper each week (beginning week 2) discussing issues and themes of
readings, to be presented in class for discussion. (4 papers, beginning with class 2).
Assignments from books and articles will be of selected pages.
No more than 100 pages total reading in any given week.

1 Introduction: an ecological approach to architecture.

2 Architecture as structure and function

R: Trachtenberg/Hyman: Rome + 19th C; Frank Brown, Roman Architecture

3 Architecture as form and experience

R: T/H: Greece, Rome, Gothic; Koolhas; Ballantyne, Architecture; Bloomer and More

4 Architecture as representation, icon, symbol

R: T/H: Egypt, Med, Ren;Venturi, Las Vegas; Wittkower.

5 Architecture as history and modernity

R: T/H: 19th and 20th century; Riegl.

PART II: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE: SEEING THE BUILDING

This section stresses on-site study by the class and individually.

6 CLASS ONSITE STUDY I– selected NYU campus buildings; Soho cast iron buildings;
Cooper Union new and old building. Session stresses instructor’s seven terms of analysis.
Readings: sections of T/H on cast iron architecture, AIA guide to NY, Jane Jacobs

1
 Assignment for following week: students to study one or more buildings independently or in
teams of up to 3 students + write 2p description/analysis with images (each team member is to
write her/his own paper) + present at next class [7]

7 In class, review the class 6 visit + student presentations of independent site study, including
photography/video.

spring break

8 Discussion of issues of experiencing/describing architecture that emerged in previous session

and writing of student papers. Some basic techniques of architectural representation in
photography and video.

9 CLASS ONSITE STUDY II– Wall St to Ground Zero (includes a “Greek” Temple, a “Gothic”
and “Classical” Church, and the oldest and newest parts of the city)
Assignment for following week: as previously, students to study a site independently or in
teams + write 2p description/analysis + present at next class [10]

10 In class, review the class 9 visit + student presentations of independent site study.
Assignment for following class (11): Sitte; 1811 NYC Commissioners grid plan, Wiki;
Smithson on Central park; chapters from Kevin Lynch ; write 2p critical discussion of several
specific issues of readings.

PART III:ARCHITECTURE IN THE CITY: BUILDING AND SITE, URBAN DESIGN,

LANDSCAPE, TEMPORALITY

11 On urbanism, discuss the readings assigned previous week and present papers.
+
--assignment of 5 page paper, due the final class, choosing one of following topics:
--paper to emphasize the critical criteria discussed in course
-- at least three printed sources required in addition to online sources
–- members of teams must each be responsible their own part of the total paper (5 pages each
member)
a) squares at the intersections of bway + grid, including at least three of following: Union,
Madison, Herald, Times, Columbus
b)museums and their site/setting Guggenheim, Whitney, Moma, MMA
c)meat packing/highline district/Chesea gallery district

12 CLASS ONSITE STUDY III: CENTRAL PARK AND THE GRID

13 CLASS ONSITE STUDY IV: MIDTOWN MONUMENTS Seagrams Building, Lever House,
Citycorp, Sony Building, and Grandcentral Station,

14 Presentations of findings of final papers, with powerpoint. Paper turned in.

READINGS, Assigned and Otherwise

Assigned readings include selections from a limited number of the following. Publications not
assigned will be appropriate for consultation and for research papers. To be available on Reserve
in Bobst.

M. Trachtenberg and I. Hyman, Architecture from Prehistory to Postmodernity

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space
M. Fil Hearn, Ideas that Shaped Buildings
Kent Bloomer and Charles Moore, Body, Memory and Architecture

Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City

Lewis Mumford, “What is a City,” + The City in History
Mark Girouard, Cities and People: A social and architectural history
Spiro Kostof, The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form
Robert Venturi, Learning from Las Vegas; Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
Rem Koolhas, Delerious New York
Frank Brown, Roman Architecture (on JSTOR)
John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture
Rudolf Wittkower, Architecture in the Age of Humanism
Andrew Ballantyne, Architecture: A Very Short Introduction
Frederick Law Olmstread, “Public parks and the enlargement of towns”
Robert Smithson, “Frederick Law Olmstead and the Dialectical Landscape”
Camillo Sitte, The Birth of Modern City Planning
Alois Riegl, “The modern cult of monuments”
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of American Cities, “The Uses of Sidewalks”
E Sanderson and M Boyer, Mannahatta, A Natural History of New York City
E Homberger and A Hudson, The Historical Atlas of New York City
Hillary Ballon, ed, The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan 1811-2011
Wikipedia article on the Grid assign
Marvin Trachtenberg, The Statue of Liberty
Kate Ascher, The Works: Anatomy of a City
Paul Spencer Byard, The Architecture of Additions:Design and Regulation
S. Landau and W. Condit, The Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865-1913
R.A.M. Stern, G. Gilmartin, and J.M. Massengale, New York 1900: Metropolitan Architecture
and Urbanism 1890-1915
–Stern, Gilmartin, and T. Mellins, New York 1930: Architecture and urbanism between the Two
World Wars
–Stern, Mellins, and D. Fishman, New York 1960: Architecture and urbanism in between the
Second World War and the Bicentennial
Carol H. Krinsky, Rockefeller Center
C. Robinson and R.H. Bletter, Skyscraper Style: Art Deco New York
E. Willensky and N. White, The AIA Guide to New York City, third edition.