Hidden Histories directs attention to stories, communities, and architectural conditions of the past to shed light on the present. Although history is sometimes hidden in plain sight, not everyone knows the full narrative behind the land and buildings we occupy in the present day. This series is a collaborative project that aims to complicate critical investigations in architecture and design that center people in power by adding different perspectives and research. In response to the notion that “history is written by the victors,” Hidden Histories proves that history can be rewritten and refined to include the struggles and experiences of all communities contributing to the cultural landscape of Virginia.
Upcoming Webinars
Join us in discussing the essay“Constructing Health: Representations of Health and Housing in Charlottesville’s Urban Renewals.” This article examines the co-construction of urban health and blight through architectural representation during urban renewal, exploring how building imagery was used to convey social and epidemiological diagnoses, producing racial othering through depictions of space.
Past Webinars:
Menokin, the home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, has stood in ruins since the late 1960s. The Menokin Foundation has taken up the challenge of interpreting the “hidden histories” of the house, the people, and the land that once formed part of this plantation estate. This process includes the Glass House Project, a revolutionary treatment plan to stabilize the remaining house structure. Join Sam McKelvey, Executive Director of Menokin, and Jorge Silvetti, Principal at Machado Silvetti and lead designer of the Glass House Project and The Menokin Master Plan, as they describe “the most engaging preservation project in America.”
The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center embodies freedom for countless enslaved individuals traveling from south to north. GWWO Architect’s design aims to describe and materialize nineteenth-century political conditions for visitors interested in truth and storytelling in the United States. In this webinar, GWWO Architects will showcase a farmstead vernacular that establishes framed views of liberation and enslavement, north and south.
Sponsors
AIA Continuing Education Provider