Vernacular Architecture Forum Blog

#VAF2026 Registration is now LIVE! Register Today!

Amanda Clark — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 18:01:08 GMT

Registration is Live!

https://www.vafweb.org/Columbia-River-Plateau-2026

Columbia River Plateau: Atomic Space. Native Soil. Geologic Time. (Walla Walla, WA)
27-30 May 2026

Winter MiniVAN now available!

Amanda Clark — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 20:26:49 GMT

As a reminder, the next full issue will be out in late February/early March. If you have time-sensitive information to get out about conferences, RFPs, etc., make sure you send them along!

Questions? Comments? Submission ideas? Email me at vaneditor@vafweb.org! ~Gretchen

Join us for the Abbott Lowell Cummings Award Lecture

Amanda Clark — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:00:00 GMT

EVENT INFO:

Abbott Lowell Cummings Award Lecture

City of Wood: A Conversation with James Buckley

January 14, 12pm EST on Zoom

REGISTRATION LINK:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TewxZcpbQf-__KHatr39-A

SPEAKER BIOS:

James Michael Buckley is an urban planner and historian in San Francisco, CA. His book, City of Wood: San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry (University of Texas, 2024) has been awarded the Abbott Lowell Cummings Award (Vernacular Architecture Forum, 2025), the J.B. Jackson Award (American Association of Geographers, 2025), and the John Brickerhoff Jackson Book Prize (UVA Center for Cultural Landscapes, 2025). Jim is a long-time member of the VAF and served as its President from 2021-2023. He taught in the urban planning programs at MIT and UC Berkeley and was the Director of the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Oregon.

Winter 2025 VAN now available!

Amanda Clark — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 03:28:50 GMT

VAN Winter 2025.pdf

Deadlines extended! It's not too late!

Amanda Clark — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:17:53 GMT

The deadline for submitting paper and poster proposals for the 2026 VAF Annual Meeting has been extended to December 15th, 2025. If you are considering proposing a paper or poster presentation for the upcoming Columbia River Plateau conference in Walla Walla, Washington, please go to this page on the VAF website.

Please note that the deadlines for the Advocacy, Access, Ambassadors, and Simpson awards are now on December 15th, 2025.

Now available: Late fall edition of the MiniVAN!

Amanda Clark — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 01:36:43 GMT

Welcome to the late fall edition of the MiniVAN!

This issue is a reminder about the call for papers for the VAF 2026 conference in Walla Walla, WA; the call for papers for the VAF-New England Chapter's 2026 conference in Portsmouth, NH; and reminders to send nominations for all of the VAF awards.

The next full issue of the VAN will come out in late November/early December. Please send me any news to be included in the next issue by November 20th!

You can download the pdf at the link below, or from the publications tab on the VAF website.

MiniVAN_Fall 2025.pdf

Happy reading!

VAF Board -- Call for Applications

Amanda Clark — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 16:14:51 GMT

Opportunities to Serve the Vernacular Architecture Forum

The nominating committee of the Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF) is seeking applications for individuals to serve as members of the VAF Board of Directors. Elected board members have the unique opportunity to help support the work and shape the intellectual trajectory of a dynamic organization whose attention to the diverse people and places of the ordinary built environment has been instrumental in the transformation of architectural history.

VAF is administered by a volunteer board composed of professionals and scholars from diverse disciplines who live and work in all parts of the United States and Canada. The board currently meets three times a year via Zoom in fall and winter and in person during our annual conference in late spring.

We are seeking five (5) new board members to the VAF Board of Directors this year as well as a VAF President-Elect. All individuals recommended to the board this year, and subsequently elected, will begin service following the election held at the annual meeting. All selected candidates must be members of the Vernacular Architecture Forum by the time of election.

VAF Board of Directors: The committee seeks applications to fill five (5) open positions on the VAF Board of Directors. Board members serve three-year terms and will begin service on June 1, 2026. Board members are expected to be broadly familiar with the scope and purpose of the VAF, attend all meetings, and participate in committee work throughout the year. Applications for the VAF Board of Directors will be accepted until Monday, December 15, 2025.

VAF President-Elect: The committee seeks applications for the position of VAF President-Elect to begin a one-year term starting on June 1, 2026. In the spring of 2027, the President-Elect will rise to the position of VAF President for a two-year term. Candidates for the position of VAF President-Elect should be familiar with the organization’s many programs, have a vision for the future of the group, and possess significant leadership skills. The VAF President-Elect is expected to attend the three annual meetings of the VAF Board of Directors and the monthly Zoom meetings of the VAF Executive Committee. Applications for VAF President-Elect will be accepted until Monday, December 15, 2025.

Please note: The nominating committee welcomes suggestions from VAF members for outstanding candidates. All candidates must submit the application materials listed below by Monday, December 15.

Short Application!

1. Write a paragraph or cover letter (not exceeding one page) that specifies the position for which you are applying (member of the VAF Board of Directors or VAF President-Elect), indicates why you are applying for the position, and states why your qualifications make you particularly suited for the position. Please describe any previous involvement with VAF, such as attending annual conferences, presenting or providing leadership at the conferences, or serving on committees.

2. Please indicate if you would like to be considered for a different position if the one for which you are applying is unavailable (e.g., if you are amenable to being considered for a Board of Directors position if you are not nominated for President-Elect).

3. Include a CV or résumé.

Email your cover letter (or paragraph) and CV/resume as separate Word or PDF attachments to Phil Gruen, Nominating Committee Chair at jpgruen@wsu.edu by Monday, December 15, 2025 at 8:00pm EST/5:00pm PST.

Award Deadlines Nov. 15th -- don't miss them!

Amanda Clark — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 16:45:41 GMT

Award for Advocacy

The Award for Advocacy encourages citizen-based advocacy by recognizing exemplary efforts and achievements on behalf of our vernacular built heritage.

Catherine W. Bishir Prize

The Catherine W. Bishir Prize is awarded annually to the scholarly article from a juried North American publication that has made the most significant contribution to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscape.

Paul E. Buchanan Award

The Paul E. Buchanan Award recognizes contributions to the study and preservation of vernacular architecture and the cultural landscape that do not take the form of books or published work.

Abbott Lowell Cummings Award

The Abbott Lowell Cummings Award, named for the founding president of the VAF, is awarded annually to the newly-published book that has made the most significant contribution to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes of North America.

Fall 2025 issue of the VAN now available

Amanda Clark — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 19:09:51 GMT

The Fall 2025 issue of the VAN is here! We've got essays from Ambassador and Access award winners from the Delaware conference, news from the regional chapters, conference announcements (including our very own annual conference!), and calls for nominations for VAF awards.

You can download the pdf at the link below, or from the publications tab on the VAF website.

VAN_Fall 2025.pdf

The next VAN will be out in late November - send your news and announcements by November 20 for inclusion!

Call for Papers! #VAF2026

Amanda Clark — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 20:29:03 GMT

https://www.vafweb.org/Call-for-Papers-2025

CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS

Vernacular Architecture Forum

2026 Annual Meeting

Columbia River Plateau (Walla Walla, Washington)

May 27-30, 2026

DEADLINE – DECEMBER 1, 2025

The Vernacular Architecture Forum invites paper and poster proposals for its 47th Annual Meeting: Columbia River Plateau: Atomic Space. Native Soil. Geologic Time., which will take place in Walla Walla, Washington, May 27-30, 2026.

Late Summer MiniVAN available now!

Amanda Clark — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 16:32:34 GMT

Late Summer MiniVAN available now!

https://www.vafweb.org/VAN

The Summer 2025 VAN is now available!

Amanda Clark — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 18:18:43 GMT

Read it here, today!

Register for a VAF Webinar with Prof. Amy Finstein!

Amanda Clark — Fri, 02 May 2025 22:18:15 GMT

https://www.vafweb.org/event-6176510

Before Displacement: Finding History through Collective Urban Research by Amy Finstein, recipient of VAF's 2024 Paul E. Buchanan Award

11 Jun 2025
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (EDT)

A VAF ballcap? Yup! You heard right!

Amanda Clark — Fri, 02 May 2025 17:41:50 GMT

A VAF ballcap? Yup! You heard right!

VAF Delaware 2025 is just weeks away, and while there will be conference swag included with your registration, there is an item the Conference Committee wanted to share with you: a VAF Baseball Cap!

We need to order 100 in order to sell the caps for $20 each. If you are interested, please place your order (https://www.vafweb.org/event-6175630) by this Saturday, May 4, 9 am CST.

Note! Do not pay at this time. If the order makes, we will invoice you for payment.

The Spring VAN is now available!

Amanda Clark — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 03:54:33 GMT

À la carte registration available until April 14th!

Amanda Clark — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 16:10:37 GMT

À la carte registration is open now.

All registration closes on April 14, 2025.

#VAF2025 Papers & Posters now posted!

Amanda Clark — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 18:39:31 GMT

You can start planning which papers to attend in Delaware!

https://www.vafweb.org/page-1821970

Early Spring 2025 MiniVAN available now!

Amanda Clark — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 20:28:40 GMT

Early Spring 2025 MiniVAN available now!

https://www.vafweb.org/VAN

Registration for #VAF2025 in Delaware is open!

Amanda Clark — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 19:28:30 GMT

Registration for #VAF2025 in Delaware is open!

https://www.vafweb.org/Delaware2025

Winter 2024/2025 VAN now available!

Amanda Clark — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 16:57:20 GMT

https://www.vafweb.org/VAN

Call for Image Editor of Buildings & Landscapes

Amanda Clark — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:29:14 GMT

Call for Image Editor

The image editor of Buildings & Landscapes works closely with the journal’s two coeditors on all matters related to the illustration program. This includes advising on the selection, sizing, and color of images. In addition, the image editor works with each author to ensure the submittal of images of sufficient resolution and appropriate permissions in advance of submission to the University of Minnesota Press per its guidelines. The image editor also reviews proofs and answers queries from the Press to facilitate publication. The image editor is a three-year (six journal issues) position. The image editor term officially begins with B&L 33.1 (Spring 2026), whose submissions are due to the Press in the Fall 2025. Ideally this new image editor will shadow the current image editor for 32.2 (Fall 2025), whose submissions are due in Spring 2025.

To be considered for the image editor position by the selection committee, to suggest a colleague, or to ask questions, interested parties should send letters of interest and CVs to B&L Co-Editor Margaret Grubiak (margaret.grubiak@villanova.edu) by Monday, February 17, 2025. Applicants should ideally have experience with Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Excel, and familiarity with United States copyright and fair use rules. Those with knowledge of the VAF or who have previously published in Buildings & Landscapes or Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture are especially encouraged to apply.

Published twice a year by University of Minnesota Press, Buildings & Landscapes is the leading source for scholarly work on the vernacular architecture of North America or areas that broaden the context of North American architecture and cultural landscapes. The journal’s contributors include historians and architectural historians, preservationists and architects, geographers, anthropologists and folklorists, and others. All share an interest in documenting, analyzing, and interpreting vernacular forms and approach the built environment as windows into human life and culture, basing their scholarship on both fieldwork and archival research.

Check out the late fall MiniVAN

Amanda Clark — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 20:12:19 GMT

https://www.vafweb.org/VAN

Fall VAN 2024 is now available!

Amanda Clark — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:40:03 GMT

https://www.vafweb.org/VAN

Call for Papers & Posters for #VAF2025

Amanda Clark — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 17:26:03 GMT

The call for papers and posters for #VAF2025 in Delaware has launched!

https://vafweb.org/Call-for-Papers-2024/

Watch for upcoming conference announcements!

Amanda Clark — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 16:17:01 GMT

https://www.vafweb.org/Future-Conferences

Summer VAN now available!

Amanda Clark — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 16:55:49 GMT

Read the Summer VAN today!
https://www.vafweb.org/VAN

Read the Spring 2024 VAN

Amanda Clark — Sun, 05 May 2024 20:22:42 GMT

It's the re-launch!

VAN Spring 2024

Back in PDF form by popular demand!

Featured Dialogue: 50th Anniversary of the Historic Preservation Act

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 19:49:16 GMT

by Gretchen Buggeln, Valparaiso University, VAF President

The Chicago VAF conference this past June began with an excellent and provocative lecture by Professor Davarian Baldwin that centered on the fate of Chicago’s Checkerboard Lounge blues club. In the Q&A following the talk, Louis Nelson, architectural historian at the University of Virginia, raised important questions about the way we think about historic preservation in the United States, the language of the Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and whether VAF members could and should push for a new definition of historic preservation. Nelson's remarks sparked a lively conversation that rippled through the conference.

Professor Baldwin graciously agreed to let us reprint a portion of his June lecture in this issue of the VAN. In addition, I've asked three VAF members to respond. First, Louis Nelson reiterates his questions and critique. Jennifer Baughn, Architectural Historian for the State of Mississippi, responds with a current practitioner's perspective. Finally, Jennifer Cousineau will adds Canadian perspective. We hope that this online conversation will elicit your engagement. Please join in!

Excerpts of Keynote Address: UniverCities and their Implications for Historic Preservation

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 19:40:11 GMT

by Davarian Baldwin, Trinity College

editor's note: Dr. Baldwin’s June 3, 2015 talk is excerpted below. Look for an expanded version to appear in a forthcoming volume of the VAF’s journal Buildings and Landscapes!

In 2003, the University of Chicago (U of C) took notice of its black neighbors to the near north and their struggles to convert the historic Checkerboard Lounge blues club into the centerpiece of Bronzeville’s urban heritage tourism development plan. In a startling turn of events, the U of C went on to not just buy but relocate the Checkerboard from its 43^rd Street location to a university-funded shopping district in the school’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Outraged, Restoring Bronzeville members charged a “theft of culture.” The university retorted that the purchase of the neglected institution was an act of Black Historic Preservation that would, not coincidentally, also anchor an “entertainment district” to benefit university life near campus.

To the casual observer, the “transfer” of the Checkerboard Lounge from Bronzeville to the U of C confines may seem anecdotal at best and trivial at worst. But this struggle over the Checkerboard lounge in fact speaks to a larger battle of competing urban plans for “neighborhood destinations” within the rise of what I am calling “UniverCities.”

My larger project, UniverCities: How Higher Education is Transforming Urban America highlights the larger emergence of colleges, universities and their affiliated medical centers (“the meds and eds”) as the dominant employers, real estate holders, policing agents and health care providers in all of the country’s major metropolitan areas.

On one hand, colleges and universities look for new sources of revenue in the face of shrinking state expenditures for higher education. On the other hand, cities compete with each other to recruit viable “anchor institutions” that can network an attractive urban experience of concerts, coffee shops, and eateries amidst a fully-wired, entertainment-based dense foot traffic collage of consumers and residents. The interests of municipal and urban higher education leaders have converged in the shared quest to capture the consumer dollars of empty nesters, young professionals, and tourists venturing back into cities after decades of divestment.

This reality gives added nuance to Richard Florida’s celebration of the “creative city” whereby cities are serving the interests of the “meds and eds” in exchange for redesigning urban neighborhoods into the model of the university campus. Tax-exempt institutions of higher education become the perfect facilitators of capital in the new urban economy because they are presumed to serve a public good and therefore their expanding non-educational and profit generating investments are rarely subject to the same kinds of public scrutiny and economic oversight as other industries. Colleges and universities are seen as “saving the city.”

Moreover, university-based urban planning is often first tried out on the struggling neighborhoods of color that surround these campuses, largely because a history of racial inequality has rendered the real estate as low in value while the residents struggle to establish political influence.

But the case of Bronzeville, the University of Chicago, and the Checkerboard Lounge also points to competing uses of “historic preservation” as part of various efforts to draw capital into re-designed “neighborhood destinations” as part of the new creative economy. The convergence between higher education, community preservation, and economic development is happening in major cities across the country; including New York, Los Angeles, and Boston alongside Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Providence among others. The best collaborations build new cultural institutions and bolster economic development, from museums and public security to small business incubators and technological innovation. At the same time, such endeavors tend to replace affordable rate with market rate housing, create property tax deserts, build an army of low-wage “creative class” workers (janitors, cooks, groundskeeper), and use public funds for private development with little public oversight.

For the last 100 years, Chicago’s South Side has been at the center of an urban planning model now fully emerging right before our eyes. The U of C has gone as far to use the language of “historic preservation” to justify their practices of land acquisition, campus expansion, and community control. And as the interests of municipal leaders, higher education administrators, and local residents converge, there must be a critical assessment and plan of action that directly engages these UniverCities, their assets and consequences.

I am preparing more detailed thoughts on the larger implications for historic preservation within this creative economy through an essay, “‘It’s not the location; it's the institution’: The Politics of Historic Preservation in the New Creative Economy,” for the VAF journal Buildings and Landscapes. To be sure the consequences of this story are far from simply academic. These observations can lead a new level of coordination between academics, planners, architects, preservationists, and policymakers about current implications of this UniverCities landscape for various community stakeholders.

Responses to Davarian Baldwin's Keynote

Christine R Henry — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 19:33:58 GMT

Below are three thoughtful and thought provoking-responses to Professor Baldwin's keynote address from Louis Nelson, Jennifer Baughn, and Jennifer Cousineau. Please join in the conversation and leave your comments below.

by Louis Nelson, University of Virginia

2016 is the 50^th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act. For many of us in the world of historic preservation, this is a fantastic time to reflect on the great work this legislation has enabled and our part in it as practitioners and academics. But it also presents the opportunity for us to open a dialogue about how we might want to shape historic preservation practice in the coming 50 years. I have one point for consideration that I think demands some thoughtful debate. I am not very well versed in front line preservation practice, but it does seem to me that the parameters set out in the Historic Preservation Act still depend so heavily on architectural/material integrity that it does much to undermine our recognition of marginal communities, those who by choice or by condition do not leave any easily legible mark in the materiality of our built environment. The most poignant examples that come to mind are the spaces of the enslaved on Southern plantations and, after the Civil War, the innumerable free black communities whose landscapes have retained their small building footprints but whose actual houses have been improved through the years. We demand the preservation of the Great House, but the enslaved village is allowed to fall into ruin. We demand the preservation of late nineteenth-century main street facades, but the back alleys, the shadow landscapes, are ignored. If anyone cares about the preservation of these kinds of spaces, it is the membership of the VAF. So to that membership I ask a question: What changes in legislation will attend to these concerns? How can we insist that our Federal Government recognize the dignity of all Americans, not just the privileged?

by Jennifer V. O. Baughn, Chief Architectural Historian, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

The narrative I heard in Davarian Baldwin's thoughtful keynote address was a familiar one to preservationists everywhere: a modest yet significant building and a scrappy local preservation group go up against an institution with money, power, and influence. Modest and scrappy lose. The local group used traditional preservation language and arguments to save their building, while the University of Chicago employed skewed marketing-speak to argue that they were saving an "institution" while knocking down that institution's building. That this kind of spin won the day proves nothing except that money and power and influence will usually win the day.

In my nineteen years at the Mississippi SHPO, I have worked to preserve white-columned mansions, African American schools, country churches, synagogues, civil rights sites, and houses that floated off their foundations in Katrina. In all these cases, and more, the traditional preservation language and standards of the National Preservation Act of 1966 have served well; they have been able to stretch when needed and yet remain focused and detailed to remain useful. Sometimes, I admit, the National Register criteria make me want to beat my head against a wall, but in my more rational moments, I understand that the program will not maintain the level of public respect and acceptance it has if it is seen as flimsy and changeable.

What we need, instead of a change to the criteria, is broader scholarship about marginal communities so that more and better National Register nominations can be developed. VAF could assist in this by sponsoring field schools that return year after year to dig into the history and contexts of our minority places. Importantly, these need to happen not just on the East Coast, but in the under-studied areas of the South and Midwest. In ways that the under-staffed SHPOs cannot, these field schools could delve into why a place is significant, what buildings and culture have been lost and what remains, and develop an integrity standard that would be foundational to National Register listing. A final project would be a completed National Register nomination that we can present to our review boards. Just this year in Mississippi, we hope to consider a nomination for Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Neshoba County, a 1970s church that was rebuilt after two arson fires in the civil rights period. This nomination, which we hope will be just the first of many that recognize the "rebuilding" period after the tumultuous 1960s, will be researched and prepared by students from Delaware State University led by Robin L. Krawitz.

It's important to remember that National Register listing does not equal preservation; it is just the first step in preservation. Like many ideas and programs, preservation struggles in poor and depopulated communities. Even when grants help, buildings can be lost because there is no use for them or no income to maintain them. But I wouldn't be in preservation if I hadn't seen it succeed on the Gulf Coast, in rural communities, and even in struggling Jackson. The traditional criteria, honestly but creatively applied, can provide a spark for, if not racial reconciliation, at least the beginning of a respectful conversation between groups that historically have not been on equal terms.

Some Thoughts on Heritage Practice in Canada

by Jennifer Cousineau, Archeology and History Branch, Heritage Conservation and Commemorations Directorate, Parks Canada:

Having been active on the front lines of federal heritage practice for six years, I can fairly observe that Canada, like the US, is due for a re-think as regards its principal policy instruments. As of this moment, federal heritage professionals use criteria that depend heavily on architectural and material integrity. Large, permanent, architect-designed, relatively intact buildings pass through the system with more ease than places that cannot be so described. Like Jennifer Baughan in Mississippi, I have seen all kinds of sites successfully achieve National Historic Site status in Canada, from immigrant districts to ordnance buildings and from the humble to the fantastical. What remains a challenge, in particular for someone trained in the VAF tradition, is that many of these are designated despite a perceived lack of architectural merit or integrity, even when these are fully present to those trained to recognize them.

The First Baptist Church at Amherstburg, an excellent example of the kinds of buildings designed and treasured by mid-nineteenth-century African Canadians, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada, but not principally on the strength of its architecture. In such a case, a complex and flexible design might appear on first glance humble, unspectacular, and much like many other such churches in the region. A lack of valuation of the vernacular, the typical, the marginal, the ephemeral, and the changed, tends to elicit evaluations based on cultural or associative values, with the result that meaningful elements of the built environment can sometimes be overlooked. This does a disservice not only to proponents, but also to the broader public. Stated another way, the scholarship and fieldwork produced over more than three decades by members of the VAF and other like-minded folks has yet to fully be absorbed in federal heritage practice north of 49^th parallel. While it true that designation should not be the end, but one of many means to achieving a vibrant sense of place, legislation, policies and criteria that reflect both time-tested ideas and pressing new ones can be excellent tools for creating meaningful, sustainable places.

With respect to the various actors in heritage conservation, some important differences between Canada in the US emerge. Canada is a larger country with a much smaller population, strung out, with a few important exceptions, in one long line close to the international border between British Columbia and Nova Scotia. Historically, and often out of necessity, Canadians have relied on the public sector to provide services that have linked them to each other and knit them into a nation. Among these were essential services such as the post-office and the railway but also cultural services that have had the potent effect of disseminating ideas about what it means to be Canadian. With a relatively small private sector, and an increasingly creative third (non-profit) sector, a fruitful approach to the future of heritage might be to ask how we can all work together more effectively. Perhaps the most important question, in light of recessionary economies and reticence to enlarge the public sector, is who will lead?

Message from President about Update to Cummings Prize eligibility

David Bergstone — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 16:01:29 GMT

Dear VAF members,

I wanted to call your attention to a short but important amendment to the description of the Cummings Prize that the VAF Board of Directors approved at its November meeting. The board chose to insert the four underlined words in the last sentence of the prize description: “Edited collections of previously published materials are not eligible.” I quote my thoughts on this question below as background on the issues under discussion.

Remember that if you have a candidate for the Cummings Prize, the deadline for nominations is next Monday, December 15th.

Please let me, or the Cummings Prize committee chair, Matt Lasner, mlasner@hunter.cuny.edu, know if you have any questions.

Regards, Chris Wilson, VAF President

Excerpt from VAF President’s Report, Fall Board Meeting, November 1, 2014, Chris Wilson:

Cummings Prize. Elaine Jackson-Retondo, in her Cummings committee report and our discussions at the Spring [2014] board meeting, raised the question of whether or not multi-authored, edited books should be eligible for the Cummings Prize.

I think there is a distinction to be made between a book that is primarily the conception of the editor(s), often including previously published work (such as the pivotal book, Common Places), and a multi-author book, that is conceived together and executed by a group of authors, even if one or two of those authors coordinate the manuscript preparation and are credited as editors. The former is what is envisioned in the Cummings guidelines, “Edited collections are not eligible.” I suggest that the latter, multi-author books created from scratch, are something else and should not be excluded. Such multi-author, team projects strike me as being vernacular in their collaborative spirit. The increase of collaborative team projects in Digital Humanities will only make this question more important in the future.

So that rather than the current total prohibition of edited books, I suggest we consider amending the guidelines to something like, “While edited collections are not eligible for the prize, a book consisting of predominately new material created by a group of collaborating contributors is eligible. Anyone nominating such an edited book should elaborate in their letter of nomination on the integral nature of the authors’ collaboration.” [The board in its wisdom as noted above, found a briefer, more straightforward way to address this question.]

OpEd: Generational Transitions and the Digital Revolution

Christine R Henry — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 18:03:49 GMT

by Chris Wilson

The Vernacular Architecture Forum is 34 years old--an age in the life of an organization when the presence of the founding generation begins to fade and the torch is passed to younger members. Fortunately for the VAF, a steady stream of new members--fostered by our emphasis on student conference fellowships, the welcoming spirit of those conferences, and our publications--has supported a healthy transition from the founding generation to what are now a second and a third generation of members. As many of us in the founding generation age toward and into retirement from our day jobs, I would like to reflect on how this generational succession--intensified by the digital communications revolution--may be playing out.

Generational theory suggests that the shared formative experiences of each generational cohort help shape the concerns and character of that generation as it moves through life. Those shaped during their youth by the Great Depression and World War II, for instance, focused on education, careers and raising families after the war, while also initiating the social justice movements of subsequent decades. Several VAF founding members belong to a transitional cohort, born in the last years of the Depression and during World War II, which bridges between the experiences of the pre- and post-war generations.

Pop sociology terms the three succeeding generations:

Baby Boomers, born from the mid-1940s into the 1960s, and now in their 50s and 60s.

Gen Xers (from Generation X), born early 1960s to early 1980s, mostly in their 30s and 40s.

Millennials (also known as Gen Y), born since the early 1980s, including our youngest members in their 20s and early 30s, and the key pool of prospective new members in the years to come.

This line of interpretation asks, what have been the formative experiences, changing circumstances, opportunity paths and intellectual concerns of each generation.

Baby Boomers

The rise of the automobile and White Flight fueled the preeminence of the suburbs after World War II, where, I suspect, most VAFers of this generation grew up. The Civil Rights movements, opposition to the Viet Nam War and the anti-establishment Hippie counterculture strongly colored their early adult years. The folk music revival and a back-to-the-land ethic contributed to an interest in folk culture, including traditional construction techniques, which remains strong in the organization to this day.

Social justice concerns contributed to the rise of a New Social History that sought to broaden from elite, economic and political history to include the experiences of all ethnic, gender and racial groups. As many of these groups left few written documents, scholars turned to oral history, and to the study of material culture, vernacular architecture, and cultural landscapes to augment traditional sources. In this egalitarian spirit, our practice of alternating female and male presidents has reflected a commitment both to gender equity in the organization and to gender analysis in our scholarship.

The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, by establishing state preservation offices, and initiating multi-year cultural resource surveys, opened career paths in government and new consulting firms. These inclusive resource surveys, and a shift of focus from house museums to larger districts, put vernacular buildings on a par with elite, architect-designed structures. The establishment of the VAF countered the elite focus of the older Society of Architectural Historians, and many early VAF members carried the vernacular concept into academia, especially history, architecture, American studies and preservation programs.

Vernacular Subjects and Methods

The conception of Vernacular Architecture at the heart of the founding of the organization in 1980undefinedor at least as I came to understand it when I joined in 1988undefinedsought to study, valorize and preserve the work of unschooled builders in contrast to the work of professional architects. Vernacular encompassed both the pre-industrial folk designs of rural and village communities, and the popular generic building types of urban and suburban settings.

To put vernacular buildings on a par with architect-designed buildings, with their already-existing blue prints, for instance, required field work to produce measured drawings. But beyond vernacular subject matter, many members argued that the research methods and analytical frameworks developed for the vernacular should also be applied to elite design. This meant, for instance, the augmentation of a traditional focus on style--so often bound up in elite status displays--with the analysis of the use of spaces within buildings and communities to achieve a deeper history of family and social relationships.

Gen Xers came of age in the era of globalization, initiated in international finance in the mid-1970s. The lowering of trade barriers and the free movement of capital reduced the power of national governments in favor of global corporations. People too moved more freely across international borders. With the loosening of travel regulations and a boom in jet travel, many regions turned to heritage tourism to counter deindustrialization. The number of legal immigrants annually to the U.S. more than doubled from 1977 to 2007. Latino, East and South Asian immigrants energized cities, while Latinos also helped slow the decline of many small towns across the country.

The conservative wave led by Ronald Reagan sought to reduce taxes, and funding for government and education. In 1981, for instance, federal preservation grants, which had been available for all types of properties, were replaced by preservation tax credits reserved for the rehab of income-producing properties. Resources for historic properties surveys, which had encompassed vernacular architecture, shifted to the preparation and review of National Register nominations and tax credit applications, primarily for architect-designed buildings.

At various times since its founding, VAF members have developed an emphasis on vernacular methods in graduate programs; Indiana, Berkeley, Delaware, George Washington, Virginia, Wisconsin and Boston University come quickly to mind. Their Gen X protégés, with newly-minted PhDs, added to the proportion of VAF members finding academic jobs. This second VAF generation shared inclusive, vernacular interests with the founding generation.

But if early issues of Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture favored pre-industrial topics, by the 1990s, members of both generations turned increasingly to 20th century and international topics, to the city and suburbia. The transformation of Perspectives into our current journal, Buildings and Landscapes, in 2007 reflected the growing importance of cultural landscape studies. Its creation and inclusion in JSTOR and various data bases has also been key to attracting and supporting our academic members. The growing numbers of articles on minority and immigrant populations in the U.S., and on international topics parallels a heartening (if incomplete) rise in racial, cultural and ethnic diversity among our members.

The computer and digital communication revolution that typifies Globalization appears to be causing a major cultural paradigm and consciousness shift. The personal computer and video games became common as Gen Xers came of age. Not surprisingly, they have taken the lead in the rise of Digital Humanities since the early 1990s.

Millennials, of course, are the first generation of “digital natives,” for whom the computer, internet and smart phone are second nature. While some people assume that globalization causes a placeless cultural homogenization, it paradoxically has intensified the importance of place. The ubiquitous use of maps as graphic user interfaces serves to geolocate information in a way that makes people more, not less connected to where they are. In other words, we now navigate the world with smartphones in our palms displaying maps linked to remarkable depths of information. The computer has made possible the visualization and geospatial representation of data, while animations and fly-throughs bring historic environments to life. Indeed, the equality of text and visuals that is often cited as a key characteristic of Digital Humanities is something that VAFers have practiced since the founding of the organization.

The Great Recession of 2008 and continuing high levels of unemployment have hit Millennials hardest. Cuts in spending on government and education contributed to fewer full-time government and academic jobs, and to higher levels of student debt. Meanwhile, in these unsettled times, many workers delayed retirement, further exacerbating the job shortage. (This represents a troubling abdication of the responsibility of one generation to the next.)

This generation’s inventiveness in the face of circumscribed opportunities is very heartening. Urban agriculture, farm-to-table restaurants, artisanal food production and a myriad of high tech and local road start-ups reflect the new Do-It-Yourself (DIY) entrepreneurialism. Growing percentages of the young are opting to give up their cars and suburbia in favor of urban living, and to make do with less by biking and taking mass transit, by couch surfing and sharing hot desks, by starting businesses in Maker incubator spaces. Likewise, Tactical Urbanism deploys imagination and a few planters and benches to reclaim pedestrian space from auto dominance.

Moving Forward

The VAF has responded in various ways to the digital revolution and reurbanization. Members maintain VAF Facebook and Twitter accounts, a digital newsletter and a journal on JSTOR. We have developed a strong website, now in the process of migrating to Wild Apricot, which also accommodates membership renewals and various other functions. Annual conference websites, apps and YouTube previews are becoming common. The Chicago organizing committee, led by Virginia Price, will not only publish an eBook to complement the printed field guide, but has also included a wide range of individuals and organizations active in neighborhoods and the revitalization of the city among the speakers and tour stops. (For other possibilities in this vein, take a look at the Congress of the New Urbanism’s NextGen initiative which has put resources in the hands of Gen Xers and Millennials. They have developed a simultaneous and virtual conference parallel to the traditional annual conference. Their use of Twitter, streaming and an evening PechaKucha space has fostered a substantial increase in young members, who increasingly set the tone of that organization.)

The VAF has also begun alternating conferences focused on rural and small town settings, which honor our origins and the interests of many members (Gaspè, Quebec, 2013; South New Jersey, 2014); with others that engage the history and rejuvenation of our cities (Chicago, 2015; Philadelphia, projected for 2018); and still others that mix the two (Durham, N.C., 2016; Salt Lake City, projected 2017).These, of course, are just the musings of one aging Baby Boomer. . . but one who looks forward to seeing where our Gen X and Millennial members will take the Vernacular Architecture Forum in the years to come.

My hope is that these thoughts will foster discussion about the future of our organization. So please add your comments below to the VAF Presidential Blog. If you would like to consider writing a longer, contrasting interpretation, contact VAN editor, Christine Henry to explore this possibility.

Vernacular Architecture Forum Blog

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