This past weekend, 12 students were selected to participate in an all day bricklaying workshop at the American College of the Building Arts, as part of the new DAPS program. Prof. Gayle Goudy from the Art History Department and Prof. Muldrow are spearheading the Design + Arts + Preservation in the Schools (DAPS) program, designed to introduce middle and high school students to preservation and the arts.

On November 8, Muldrow, Goudy, and Prof. Christina Butler joined the students for an intensive workshop led by Simeon Warren, trowel trades professor, at the College of Building Arts. The students participated in geometry, estimating, and drafting exercises in the morning. After lunch, they had the chance to learn about historic lime mortar and mix a few batches. The students then broke into groups of two and put their training to the test, building small sections of a brick wall using historic bricks and mortar.

The goal of the day’s exercises is part of the a faculty effort to create K-12 curriculum for the DAPS program combining history, algebra, fractions, and chemistry with architecture and the arts through fun, hands on exercises.

Thanks to Simeon Warren, Dr. Goudy, and Ralph Muldrow for a fun and educational day!

Here is a brief description of the Design+Art+ Preservation in the Schools (DAPS) initiative, taken from the DAPS blog page:

The DAPs initiative seeks to integrate design, art, and preservation into Charleston County Schools curriculum using the often overlooked tools of creative design including visual, tactile, and experiential learning. We strive for ways to to aide teachers in achieving their learning outcomes and use the city of Charleston with its extensive stock of historic architecture as a living laboratory. A special emphasis will be to find new ways forward in aiding low performing schools in their quest for new ways forward in education.

This initiative is composed of members from throughout the community including the College of Charleston, Clemson Architectural Center, Clemson Lasch Lab, American College of Building Arts, Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, Preservation Society of Charleston, Yo Art Project, Historic Charleston Foundation, Gibbes Museum of Art, and local architectures and teachers.

Prof. Warren demonstrates geometric exercises with a compass on the floor of a jail cell in the ACBA’s campus.

The students learn about laying brick and the importance of proper foundations.

Drafting exercises.

Mixing historic lime mortar and laying brick!

Dr. Goudy tries her hand at masonry.

Prof. Goudy and Prof. Butler admire upper class stone carving student work at ACBA.

Prof. Muldrow approves of the work.

Preservation student Zach Liollio builds a wall; completed sections stand waiting for Prof. Warren to check them for level and plumb.

Last week, Prof. Ward brought his students for a behind the scenes tour of the Warren Lasch Conservation Lab. The facility is home to the famous C.S.S Hunley, a Civil War submarine rediscovered and salvaged from the Charleston harbor, which is currently undergoing conservation and research work at the lab.
Warren Lasch Lab is currently looking for student interns with an interest in conservation to take part in interpretation, archaeology, CAD drawing,and 3-D surface mapping projects.

Prof. Butler’s Building Pathology class took a trip to Historic Charleston Foundation’s Salvage and Sustainability Warehouse on upper Meeting Street, where Will Hamilton gave an introduction and a tour of the facility and artifacts. The warehouse holds a collection of rare pieces reserved for research and study, including a colonial stone mile marker, Greek Revival pocket door with original hardware, and interior paneling. The rest of the collection is for sale to home owners and contractors looking for period accurate pieces to install in their projects. The collection includes mantels, paneling, wood trim, plaster, tin signs and ceiling tiles, windows, doors, and even historic hardware, or varying conditions.

Congratulations to this year’s recipients of the Simons Medal of Excellence, Richard Jenrette and Thomas Gordon Smith! Mr. Jenrette is the founder of the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust and has worked tirelessly at saving and restoring historic buildings. Prof. Smith brought the classical and traditional architecture approach to the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, making it the primary school for the study of classical architecture. The Historic Preservation and Community Planning Department is very proud to honor these men who have greatly impacted our field of study.
Mr. Jenrette receiving his award from Dean Valerie Morris of the School of the Arts:

Prof. Ralph Muldrow giving an intriguing introduction to this year’s recipients and the history of the Simons Medal:

Prof. Smith receiving his medal:

Lastly, a few views from the reception in Randolph Hall:

Last weekend Prof. Butler attended a luncheon and lecture held at Nemours Plantation, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a ground breaking conservation initiative to preserve and protect cultural landscapes and wildlife in the Ashley, Combahee, and Edisto River region of Beaufort and Colleton Counties, better known as the ACE Basin. In the 1980s, several non profits, public entities, and private owners partnered to protect the Lowcountry’s marshlands and historic sites from development using conservation easements and other means. Through their efforts, over 200,000 acres are protected today. The former rice plantations and other sites comprising the ACE Basin are a refuge for migrating birds and other wildlife, and have several layers of important cultural history, not unlike Hobcaw Barony a hundred miles to the north that Prof. Stiefel, Ward, and Muldrow are working to document.

Professors Ward, Stiefel, and Muldrow are in the beginning stages of creating a Cultural Landscapes Report for the 16,000 acre cultural landscape in Georgetown County known as Hobcaw Barony. Managed by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation, the site is comprised of several colonial and antebellum plantation sites and is today operated as wildlife refuge. The study will be a comprehensive analysis of human effects on the Lowcountry site over time, from the Native American and pre-contact period to the present. Architectural analysis of vernacular buildings with draw upon Muldrow’s earlier measured drawings and reports from 2003.

To learn more about this fantastic cultural landscape and future research work, please visit the Hobcaw Barony webpage here:
http://www.hobcawbarony.org/

Fall is shaping up to be a busy season of interesting lectures on Campus and thought-provoking conferences around the world. Dr. Stiefel recently returned from Montreal, where he presented a paper, entitled “What else came with the Chattel?: African and Indian Imports to the American South Prior to 1808” for a conference on Trade in Animals and Animal Products in the Indian Ocean World.

This week, Professors Muldrow and Stiefel will attend the National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference in Savannah, Georgia.

Program Chair Grant Gilmore is heading to Florence, Italy this December for a UNESCO HERITY conference focused on world heritage, site interpretation, and archaeology.
Here is a great photograph from the Duomo in Florence, taken by Dr. Gilmore:

Quite the crowd at the ICOMOS conference: