Historic Preservation (HSPV)
HSPV 5210 American Architecture
This course is a survey of architecture in the United States. The organization, while broadly chronological, emphasizes themes around which important scholarship has gathered. The central purpose is to acquaint you with major cultural, economic, technological, and environmental forces that have shaped buildings and settlements in North America for the last 400 years. To that end, we will study a mix of "high-style" and "vernacular" architectures while encouraging you to think critically about these categories. Throughout the semester, you will be asked to grapple with both the content of assigned readings (the subject) and the manner in which authors present their arguments (the method). Louis Sullivan, for instance, gives us the tall office building "artistically considered" while Carol Willis presents it as a financial and legal artifact. What do you make of the difference? Finally, you will learn how to describe buildings. While mastery of architectural vocabulary is a necessary part of that endeavor, it is only a starting point. Rich or "thick" description is more than accurate prose. It is integral to understanding the built environment - indeed, to seeing it at all.
Fall
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5310 American Domestic Interiors
This course will examine the American domestic interior from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries with emphasis on the cultural, economic, and technological forces that determined the decoration and furnishing of the American home. Topics covered include the evolution of floor plans; changes in finish details and hardware; the decorative arts; floor, wall, and window treatments; and developments in lighting, heating, plumbing, food preparation and service, as well as communication and home entertainment technologies. In addition to identifying period forms and materials, the course will offer special emphasis on historic finishes. The final project will involve re-creation of a historic interior based on in-depth documentary household inventory analysis, archival research, and study. Students will create a believable house interior and practice making design and furnishing choices based on evidence. Several class periods will be devoted to off-site field trips.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5340 Public History - Theory and Practice
This seminar is required for students wishing to concentrate on the Public History of the Built Environment while pursuing an MS in Historic Preservation. It builds on skills developed in HSPV 5210 (American Architecture), HSPV 6000 (Documentation), and HSPV 6060 (Site Management); only HSPV 6000 is a prerequisite. Unlike many public history courses, this one focuses on interpretation of the built environment. While proficiency in archival research is required, an understanding of form and chronology in American architecture is helpful. Fundamentally, this course is about community, memory, and their relationship to built form. As such, it examines oral history methodology and includes readings in sociology and ethnography. It acknowledges that while buildings and landscapes are in one sense simply larger forms of material culture than furniture or other movable objects, they also "work" differently by dint of being inhabited, occupied, and publicly encountered, forming de facto frameworks for private and public life. More than other courses, this one grapples with interpretation and dissemination- everything from signage and monuments to websites and exhibits. It is not, however, a tutorial in the use of those media so much as a chance to reflect critically on their strengths and weaknesses in different contexts.
Spring
Prerequisite: HSPV 6000
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5380 Cultural Landscapes and Landscape Preservation
The course surveys and critically engages the field of cultural landscape studies. Over the semester, we will explore cultural landscape as a concept, theory and model of preservation and design practice; we will read cultural landscape historiography and creative non-fiction; we will examine a range of types (national parks, community gardens, designed landscapes, informal public spaces), and we will map the alternative preservation, planning and design methods that ground cultural landscape studies practically. Readings, class discussions, and projects will draw on cultural geography, environmental history, vernacular architecture, ecology, art, and writing.
Not Offered Every Year
Also Offered As: LARP 7380
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5510 Building Pathology
This course addresses the subject of deterioration of buildings, their materials, assemblies and systems, with the emphasis on the mechanisms of deterioration and their enabling factors, material durability and functional longevity. Details of construction and assemblies are analyzed for existing and potential deterioration pathologies and the impact on function and performance. Lectures cover: concepts in durability; climate and climate change; psychrometrics; soils and soil moisture; physics of moisture in buildings; systems thinking; wall and roof systems; structural systems; and building services systems. The course concludes with an introduction to diagnostic thinking.
Spring
Prerequisite: HSPV 5550
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5520 Building Diagnostics and Monitoring
Building diagnostics pertain to the determination of the nature of a building's condition or performance and the identification of the corresponding causative pathologies by a careful observation and investigation of its history, context and use, resulting in a formal opinion by the professional. Monitoring, a building diagnostic tool, is the consistent observation and recordation of a selected condition or attribute, by qualitative and/or quantitative measures over a period of time in order to generate useful information or data for analysis and presentation. Building diagnostics and monitoring allow the building professional to identify the causes and enabling factors of past or potential pathologies in a building and building systems, thus informing the development appropriate interventions or corrective measures. In the case of heritage buildings, the process informs the selection of interventions that satisfy the stewardship goals for the cultural resource. In the case of recently constructed buildings, the process informs the identification of envelope and systems interventions for improved performance and energy efficiency.
Fall
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5550 Architectural Conservation
Architectural Conservation is an introduction to the technical study of traditional building materials. This knowledge is essential preparation for any professional engaged in the conservation and adaptive reuse of structures built before the mid 20th century. The course focuses on these materials’ properties, performance, and especially weathering, and the basic laboratory-based methods that can be employed for their study, characterization, and specification for restoration. Lectures and coordinated laboratory sessions introduce the history of use, composition, and deterioration mechanisms of a wide array of traditional building materials including earth, stone, brick, terra cotta, concrete, mortars and plasters, metals, wood, and paints. The course provides a basic knowledge of the major building materials in use before the Second World War in industrialized as well as pre-industrial traditional contexts. Undergraduate level students may enroll. Basic undergraduate level understanding of chemistry recommended
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5720 Preservation Through Public Policy
This course explores the intersection between historic preservation, design and public policy, as it exists and as it is evolving. That exploration is based on the recognition that a challenging and challenged network of law and policy at the federal, state and local level has direct and profound impact on the ability to manage cultural resources, and that the pieces of that network, while interconnected, are not necessarily mutually supportive. The fundamental assumption of the course is that the preservation professional must understand the capabilities, deficiencies, and ongoing evolution of this network in order to be effective. The course will look at a range of relevant and exemplary laws and policies existing at all levels of government, examining them through case studies and in-depth analyses of pertinent programs and agencies at the local, state and federal level.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5840 World Heritage in Global Conflict
Heritage is always political. Such a statement might refer to the everyday politics of local stakeholder interests on one end of the spectrum, or the volatile politics of destruction and erasure of heritage during conflict, on the other. If heritage is always political then one might expect that the workings of World Heritage might be especially fraught given the international dimension. In particular, the intergovernmental system of UNESCO World Heritage must navigate the inherent tension between state sovereignty and nationalist interests and the wider concerns of a universal regime. The World Heritage List has almost 1200 properties has many such contentious examples, including sites in Iraq, Mali, Syria, Crimea, Palestine, Armenia and Cambodia. As an organization UNESCO was born of war with an explicit mission to end global conflict and help the world rebuild materially and morally yet has found its own history increasingly entwined with that of international politics and violence.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: ANTH 5840
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5850 Ruins and Reconstruction
This class examines our enduring fascination with ruins coupled with our commitments to reconstruction from theoretical, ethical, socio-political and practical perspectives. This includes analyzing international conventions and principles, to the work of heritage agencies and NGOs, to the implications for specific local communities and development trajectories. We will explore global case studies featuring archaeological and monumental sites with an attention to context and communities, as well as the construction of expertise and implications of international intervention. Issues of conservation from the material to the digital will also be examined. Throughout the course we will be asking what a future in ruins holds for a variety of fields and disciplines, as well as those who have most to win or lose in the preservation of the past.
Also Offered As: ANTH 5805, CLST 7317, MELC 5950, NELC 5950
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5880 Contemporary Asia and the Historic Built Environment
What place does the historic built environment have in contemporary Asia and what does its enduring care and conservation express about perceptions and values of heritage in daily life? What happens when the historic and the contemporary are treated as separate and distinct categories? This course examines what we will refer to as built heritage in contemporary Asia for what it reveals about the legacies of conservation (indigenous and colonial) and the centrality of heritage to an array of historical and pressing concerns. While heritage conservation in Asia has always been integral to cultural continuity, governance, and spiritual practice, it is increasingly implicated in phenomena of rapid urbanization, rising religious and ethno-nationalism, regional alliance building, the aggressive pursuit of developmental modernism, and resilience strategies in light of climate change. We will investigate how heritage conservation practices in Asia have and continue to shape the built environment and the ways in which they are challenging longstanding conservation discourse erroneously considered as international norms. Through an analysis of regional case studies, a wide array of source materials, and discussions with invited scholars and heritage conservation practitioners from the region, we will address questions such as: What are the genealogies of national heritage legislation and what has been their impact on national prevailing attitudes towards conservation and international best practices? As a practice enacted in the public realm, how are heritage and its conservation leveraged as a form of governance and a medium for public production and subject formation? Who are the principal agents of conservation; what forms of expertise are privileged; and with what outcomes? In what ways are the design philosophies and material building practices of the past resources for contemporary challenges in Asia as outlined above and what can we learn from these experiences?
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 5940 Critical Multimodal Qualitative Research Across the Professions
Created in collaboration with Schools of Design and Law, this course is designed to introduce professional school students to critical, multimodal and experimental ethnographic qualitative research methods. The coverage of the course includes both theoretical and applied components. The course is divided into five modules. The first module explores the theory of critical ethnographic qualitative research and the ethical issues that arise when undertaking collaborative research around the "everyday culture" of communities and institutions with which practitioners in the students' chosen areas of study typically interact. The second module allows students to analyze qualitative research in professional fields of study and engage in dialogue with Penn faculty whose qualitative research addresses significant issues of importance to practitioners in law, business, medicine and planning. This module will also begin a discussion of the tasks of formulating critical qualitative research projects and analyzing data. The third module is devoted to qualitative data collection methods (participant observation, oral histories and in-depth interviews) and the modes and tools used in collecting qualitative data and reporting results (traditional or text-based, multimodal, and experimental). The final module considers in greater depth the role of aesthetics, advocacy and activism in utilizing multimodal approaches for sharing research findings with audiences consisting of academics, collaborators, fellow professionals, and the general population.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6000 Documentation, Research, Recording I
The goal of this course is to help students learn to research and contextualize the history of buildings and sites. In order to gain first-hand exposure to the actual materials of building histories, we will visit our neighborhood research sites and several key archival repositories. Students will work directly with historical evidence, including maps, deeds, the census, city directories, insurance surveys, photographs, and many other kinds of archival materials. After discussing each type of document in terms of its nature and the motives for its creation, students will complete a series of projects that develop their facility for putting these materials to effective use. Philadelphia is more our laboratory than a primary focus in terms of content, as the city is rich in institutions that hold over three centuries of such materials; students will find here both an exposure to primary documents of most of the types they might find elsewhere, as well as a sense of the culture of such institutions and of the kinds of research strategies that can be most effective. The final project is the completion of an historic register nomination.
Fall
2 Course Units
HSPV 6010 Documentation, Research, Recording II
Documentation, Research, Recording II. This course provides an introduction to the survey and recording of historic buildings and sites. Techniques of recording include traditional as well as digitally-based methods including field survey, measured drawings, photography and rectified photography. Emphasis is placed on the use of appropriate recording tools in the context of a thorough understanding of the historical significance, form and function of sites. Required for first-year MSHP students; others by permission.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6060 Historic Site Management
This course focuses on management, planning, decision making, and interpretation for heritage sites, from individual buildings and historic sites to whole landscapes and historic objects. Class projects ask students to analyze historic site operations and interpret objects. Course material will draw on model approaches to management, as well as a series of domestic and international case studies, with the goal of understanding the practicalities and particularities of site management. Topics to be examined in greater detail might include histories of historic sites, collections and conservation policies, interpretation, tourism, social justice, community engagement, strategic planning, in addition to fundraising and financial management. The course emphasizes making historic sites meaningful, relevant and sustainable in the present.
Fall, odd numbered years only
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6200 Topics in Historic Preservation & Public History
These seminars explore ideas related to public history and historic preservation. Themes of the course touch on history, architectural history, art history, cultural landscapes, cultural heritage, and material culture. The course is writing and research heavy. It is open to all interested Weitzman students. Topics vary between semesters, and specific details can be found in the “Section Details” area in course search.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6210 Heritage and Social Justice
This course will explore connections between heritage, historic preservation (and related design, planning and artistic practices) and the pursuit of social justice. How do historic preservation and other design and humanities professionals contribute to more equitable and just societies? How can our work be organized to result in greater equity, access and social justice? The course will focus on conceptual and theoretical work (how we think about built heritage and social change; how we conceptualize social justice) and practical examples of advancing social outcomes through preservation and design (how social justice concerns reorganize projects, practices, and organizations). We'll draw on work by: designers; historians; public intellectuals; geographers, anthropologists and other social scientists; heritage organizations; artists; entrepreneurs; and more. Subjects will include traditional preservation, reparative practices, creative placemaking, public art, memorialization, and organizational-managerial social innovation. Cases will be drawn from the US and abroad. The course will progress through a series of weekly topics, often including guest practitioners and scholars. Students will have significant agency in helping flesh out the topics and cases; final projects (individual and group) will be envisioned as a statement (in the form of an exhibition or publication) of how social justice concerns have reshaped practice and how they could reshape our fields in the future.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6220 Revolutionary Approaches to Philadelphia’s Black Heritage
Surveying Black heritage sites in Philadelphia as the city celebrates its 250th birthday.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6240A Digital Media for Historic Preservation
Part one of a required praxis course designed to introduce students to the techniques and application of digital media for visual and textual communication. Techniques will be discussed for preservation use including survey, documentation, relational databases, and digital imaging and modeling. This course requires a weekly laboratory period (1.5 hours), must enroll in both lecture and lab sections to successfully register. Must register for HSPV6240B in the Spring.
Fall
0-1 Course Unit
HSPV 6240B Digital Media for Historic Preservation
Part two of a required praxis course designed to introduce students to the techniques and application of digital media for visual and textual communication. Techniques will be discussed for preservation use including survey, documentation, relational databases, and digital imaging and modeling. This course requires a weekly laboratory period (1.5 hours), must enroll in both lecture and lab sections to successfully register. Must have completed HSPV6240A in the Fall.
Spring
0-1 Course Unit
HSPV 6250 Preservation Economics
The primary objective is to prepare the student, as a practicing preservationist, to understand the language of the development community, to make the case through feasibility analysis why a preservation project should be undertaken, and to be able to quantify the need for public/non-profit intervention in the development process. A second objective is to acquaint the student with the measurements of the economic impact of historic preservation and to critically evaluate "economic hardship" claims made to regulatory bodies by private owners.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6380 Topics in Historic Preservation
This seminar concentrates on a selected topic in the social and cultural history of the built environment. Past themes have included photography and the American city and the relationship between cities and sound. For our current offering, please visit: https://www.design.upenn.edu/historic-preservation/courses
Spring
Also Offered As: CPLN 6870
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6400 Contemporary Design in Historic Settings
Contemporary design can contribute value and meaning to historic settings of any age or scale, from individual landmarks to landscapes and neighborhoods. In turn, engaging in a rigorous dialogue with history and context enriches contemporary design. This seminar immerses designers, planners and preservationists in the challenges of designing amid existing structures and sites of varying size and significance. Readings of source materials, lectures and discussions explore how design and preservation theory, physical and intangible conditions, and time have all shaped the particular realm of design response to historic context, as well as the political, cultural, and aesthetic environments that influence its regulation. Through sketch analytical exercises set in Philadelphia and outstanding case studies from around the world, students will learn to communicate their understanding of historic places, critique propositions for design intervention, and conceptualize a range of potential design responses. No prerequisites.
Fall
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6500 Material Histories and Ethnographic Methods
What does it mean for students in the spatial disciplines (outside of anthropology, sociology, and history) to engage human subjects as primary sources of evidence? How can students in design, planning, and preservation both learn from the social sciences and transform classic ethnographic and historical methods to address the unique contexts of buildings, landscapes, and cities? This class focuses on how to conduct built environment research that views human subjects as repositories of knowledge and critical sources of primary evidence. We will explore research on the history of the built environment (dependent on maps, plats, documentation of sites) and human centered research as we design—collectively—best practices and spatially oriented interview and observation techniques. We will address multiple scales (sidewalks, commercial store fronts, post offices, neighborhoods) as we problematize human experience, perception, and knowledge of the built world.
Fall
Also Offered As: CPLN 6830
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6510 Migratory Urbanism: The Spaces of Transnational Subjects in US Cities and Beyond
Migration is an inherently spatial phenomenon; the study of migration is the study of places, people, processes, and the state. This course addresses the history of 20th century international migration—with a focus on US-Mexico migration post WWII—through the lens of the built environment. The aim of this course is to bring migration theories and histories into the realm of architecture and planning to equip spatial practitioners with tools for thinking through how contemporary movement interfaces with the production of space. An interdisciplinary approach to the study of migration will incorporate urban and architectural histories, political economy, urban theory, ethnographies of individuals, families, and communities, material culture, and film to explore how U.S. cities and towns (as well as other countries) and border regions are influenced by the continuous flow of people, ideas, dollars, and desire. We will engage concepts such as assimilation, transnationalism, diaspora, spatial practices, ritual infrastructure, spatial hybridity, and urban design from below. We will investigate international remittance development, multi-scalar migrant neighborhoods, and housing.
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6600 Theories of Historic Preservation
Theories of historic preservation serve as models for practice, integrating the humanistic, artistic, design, scientific and political understandings of the field. This course examines the historical evolution of historic preservation, reviews theoretical frameworks and issues, and explores current modes of practice. Emphasis is placed on literacy in the standard preservation works and critical assessment of common preservation concepts. In addition to readings and lectures, case studies from contemporary practice will form the basis for short assignments. Professional ethics are reviewed and debated. The instructor's permission is required for any student not registered in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. Note that the course is organized in two parts; the first half, on the basics of preservation theory, is taught in the fall semester (HSPV660) while the second half (HSPV661) takes place in the spring semester and engages advanced topics. Note: This course continues in the second half of the spring semester for another 0.5 CU. Prerequisite: Instructor's permission required for any student not registered in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation.
Fall
0.5 Course Units
HSPV 6610 Theories of Historic Preservation II
Theories of historic preservation serve as models for practice, integrating the humanistic, artistic, design, scientific and political understandings of the field. HSPV 6610 builds on HSPV 6600, which examines the historical evolution of historic preservation, reviews theoretical frameworks and issues, and explores current modes of practice. HSPV 6610 engages advanced topics such as cultural landscape theory, economics of preservation, sustainability and environmental conservation, social justice, and urban design. In addition to readings and lectures, case studies from contemporary practice will be used to examine theories in practice. Students from outside the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation are welcome; instructor's permission is required for any non-HSPV student. (Note that the course is the second of two parts; the first half, on the basics of preservation theory is taught in the fall semester.)
Spring
0.5 Course Units
HSPV 6710 Historic Preservation Law
This course provides an introduction to the legal mechanisms used to protect historic resources in the built environment, focusing on the legal principles underlaying preservation laws, including constitutional issues related to governmental regulation of real property, as well as federal, state, and local historic preservation laws. Students will gain an understanding of the legal and advocacy tools, strategies, and responsibilities of public and private organizations in the historic preservation field, and will be able to identify legal issues, communicate effectively with attorneys, and be stronger advocates.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 6741 Curricular Practical Training: Academic Year
Course Description This course provides international Master of Historic Preservation students the opportunity for practical training in architecture in the United States (CPT). The course develops critical thinking about the organization, operation, and ethics of professional practice in city planning. This course will allow international HSPV students to work in an internship in the United States during the academic year without shortening their limited OPT time. The course is offered for .20 course units. The employment must relate to the major and the experience must be part of the program of study. Course enrollment is by permit only.
0.2 Course Units
HSPV 7010 Historic Preservation Studio
The Preservation Studio is a practical course making architectural, urban and landscape conservation operations, bringing to bear the wide range of skills and ideas at play in the field of historic preservation. As part of the core MSHP curriculum the Studio experience builds on professional skills learned in the first-year core. The work requires intense collaboration as well as individual projects. The Preservation Studio centers on common conflicts between historic preservation, social forces, economic interests, and politics. Recognizing that heritage sites are complex entities where communities, cultural and socio-economic realities, land use, building types, and legal and institutional settings are all closely interrelated, the main goals of the studio are (1) understanding and communicating the cultural significance of the built environment, (2) analyzing its relation to other economic, social, political and aesthetic values, and (3) exploring the creative possibilities for design, conservation and interpretation prompted by cultural significance. Studio teams undertake documentation, planning and design exercises for heritage sites and their communities, working variously on research, stakeholder consultation, comparables analysis, writing policies and designing solutions. Students work in teams as well as on individual projects. Study sites will be announced in the fall before the semester starts.
Fall
2 Course Units
HSPV 7030 Preservation and Development of Urban Heritage in the Americas
This advanced topic seminar will focus on the challenges confronted by the conservation and urban planning professions in turning the urban heritage into a social and economic development resource for cities in developing countries. The preservation of the urban heritage is moving to a new paradigm of intervention responding to: a growing interest in communities for preserving their intangible and tangible urban heritage; rising development pressures on historic neighborhoods; the generalization of adaptive rehabilitation as a conservation strategy; and recent international agreements calling for expanding the role of the urban heritage in the social and economic development of the communities. This is a problem that is in the cutting edge of the research and practice of heritage conservation and urban planning and has conservation, planning and design implications making it ideally suited to a multi-discipline seminar approach. The course will combine seminar and field study methodologies in ways that they support each other. The knowledge acquired through the seminar work will be put to use in a field study exercise whose objective is to allow the students to work on topics of their interest and pursue research or urban development and heritage conservation interventions related to the semester's specific studio site. For the current site offering, please visit: https://www.design.upenn.edu/historic-preservation/courses
Spring, even numbered years only
Also Offered As: CPLN 7730
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7050 Advanced Preservation Studio
The Advanced Preservation Studio is designed to allow students to integrate knowledge from their core and concentration courses, to gain insight into the meanings of professionalism and professional practice, and to reflect on the norms of a discipline and a profession. Studio topics are selected based on faculty research and contemporary issues and therefore offer a range of subjects and methodologies. By focusing on the unique set of issues and problems associated with specific case studies and a project site, advanced students have the opportunity to learn and apply the knowledge and skills required for their documentation, assessment and evaluation, and intervention and interpretation as an integrated activity. For our current offering, please visit: https://www.design.upenn.edu/historic-preservation/courses.
Spring
1-2 Course Units
HSPV 7070 Historic Preservation Post-Professional Studio
Master of Design Capstone Studio. This intensive on-site studio will explore advanced topics in preservation theory, planning and design as applied to the challenges of a landmark historic site. Readings will focus on background research completed for the site as well as theoretical and local approaches to preservation and site management, supplemented by lectures, workshops, field trips and on-site investigations. Students will prepare a written report as well as design studies. Permission of department required to enroll. Course usually offered in summer term.
Summer Term
2 Course Units
HSPV 7100 Thesis I
The Graduate Program in Historic Preservation's Thesis course is a two semester 2 CU capstone. The goal of the Thesis is demonstrated mastery of the research process by exploring a question of academic/professional relevance to the preservation field and presenting the results of the study in accordance with the highest standards of scholarly publishing. The Thesis spans the academic year, beginning with HSPV 710/Thesis I in the fall semester and continues in the spring with HSPV 711/Thesis II. Students are required to successfully complete 9-10 CUs (the first year of the curriculum) to qualify for Thesis. Dual degree students are expected to enroll in HSPV 710 before undertaking thesis studio in their respective dual program in their final year.
Fall
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7110 Thesis II
The Historic Preservation's Thesis course is a two semester 2 CU capstone required of all MSHP candidates. The goal of the individual Thesis is demonstrated mastery of the research process by exploring a question of academic/professional relevance to the preservation field and presenting the results of the study in accordance with the highest standards of scholarly publishing. The Thesis spans the academic year, beginning with HSPV 7100/Thesis I in the fall semester and pending successful completion, continues in the spring with HSPV 7110/Thesis II. Students are required to successfully complete 9-10 CUs (the first year of the curriculum before beginning the Thesis process. Dual degree students are required to enroll in HSPV 7100 only before undertaking thesis studio in their respective dual program in their final year. Thesis II follows Thesis I with a focus on writing and developing the research methods explored in Thesis I. During Thesis II, students work with their individual academic advisors and come together periodically to present their progress and participate in advanced workshops on publishing and publication, peer-review, and specific methods related to each concentration. Successful completion of HSPV 7100 Thesis I in the fall is required to enroll.
Spring
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7200 Special Topics in Historic Preservation & Landscape Architecture
These seminars explore ideas related to Historic Preservation & Landscape Architecture. It is open to all interested Weitzman students and is cross-listed with HSPV & LARP. Topics vary between semesters, and specific details can be found in the “Section Details” area in course search as well as online.
Spring, even numbered years only
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7210 Historic Preservation Capstone Studio
The Graduate Program in Historic Preservation's Capstone Studio course is a one-semester 2 CU course taken instead of HSPV 710/711 Thesis to fulfill the MSHP capstone requirement. This is a research studio that builds on the core curriculum completed in the first year. The work requires intense collaboration as well as individual projects. A studio topic will be chosen and announced each year.
Spring
1-2 Course Units
HSPV 7380 Conservation Seminar: Wood
Globally, spanning ancient history to present day, most structures found in the built environment rely upon wood as a primary material for both structural and finish components. An understanding of the physical properties as well as the historic application of this organic material provides the basis for formulating solutions for a broad spectrum of contemporary conservation issues. As the scope of preserving wooden structures and wooden architectural elements is continually expanded, new methods and technology available to the conservator together allow for an evolving program – one that is dependent upon both consistent review of treatments and further study of craft traditions. This course seeks to illustrate and address material problems typically encountered by stewards of wooden built heritage; among them structural assessment, bio-deterioration, stabilization, and replication techniques. Through a series of lectures and labs on subjects of wood science, diagnostics, entomology, engineering, and archaeology, theoretical and practical approaches to retaining wooden materials will be examined with the goal to inform the decision-making process of future practicing professionals.
Spring
Prerequisite: HSPV 5550
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7390 Conservation Seminar: Masonry
This seminar will offer an in-depth study of the conservation of masonry buildings and monuments. Technical and aesthetic issues will be discussed as they pertain to the understanding required for conservation practice. Part 1 will address a broad range of materials and masonry construction technologies, and deterioration phenomena; Part 2 will concentrate on conservation methodology as well as past and current approaches for the treatment of masonry structures. The subject will be examined through published literature and case studies. Students will gain practical experience through lab and field exercises and demonstrations. The subject matter is relevant to interested students of conservation and preservation, architecture, landscape architecture, architectural history, and archaeology.
Fall
Prerequisite: HSPV 5550
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7400 Conservation Seminar: Finishes
The seminar will advance students' knowledge of and skills at researching, analyzing and interpreting historic architectural finishes. Lectures, demonstrations, hands-on exercises, case studies, and site visits will consider the history, technology, analysis, deterioration, and treatment of historic finishes. Guest lecturers will enlarge the subject with discussion and demonstrations of archival research of finishes, advanced methods of scientific analysis and presentation of a long-term project to analyze and conserve historic finishes at the US Treasury Building (Robert Mills). The course will also address historic plaster with a guest lecture and demonstration of plaster materials, application, and casting for ornamental plaster. We will make and apply paints and other finishes in class. A visit to the decorative arts studio and Philadelphia sites displaying decorative painting will complement lectures and assignments. Bartram's Garden, the eighteenth-century home of botanist John Bartram in West Philadelphia, will serve as a case study and subject for the final assignment. Successful completion of HSPV 5550 Conservation Science is required to enroll.
Spring
Prerequisite: HSPV 5550
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7410 Topics in Architectural Conservation
This course explores a topic in Architectural Conservation/Preservation Technology. Details for our current offering can be found in the “Section Details” area in course search as well as on the Weitzman Website: https://www.design.upenn.edu/courses
Spring, odd numbered years only
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7470 Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites and Landscapes
This seminar will address the history, theories, principles, and practices of the preservation and interpretation of archaeological sites and landscapes. The course will draw from a wide range of published material and experiences representing both national and international contexts. Topics will include site and landscape documentation and recording; site formation and degradation; intervention strategies including interpretation and display, legislation, policy, and contemporary issues of descendent community ownership and global heritage. Depending on the site, students will study specific issues leading toward the critique or development of a conservation and management program in accordance with guidelines established by ICOMOS/ ICAHM and other official agencies.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: ANTH 5080
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7500 Architectural Conservation Praxis: Traditional Buildings / Traditional Practice
Architectural Conservation Praxis is an intensive 3-week summer course designed for students pursuing studies in architectural conservation and builds on Penn Preservation's core curriculum and the first-year conservation courses. The syllabus is organized around project fieldwork supplemented by lectures, demonstrations, exercises, and site visits that will allow students to experience firsthand the design and construction of vernacular buildings and the application of traditional craft- based methods to preserve them.
Summer Term
Prerequisite: HSPV 5400 AND HSPV 5410 AND HSPV 5550
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7600 Preservation Planning Praxis
Hong Kong will be the venue for this year's HSPV 760-901 Heritage Praxis. Collaborators in Hong Kong have already been signed on including iDiscover, an innovative firm that has been doing citizen-based, bottom-up mapping of heritage precincts throughout Southeast Asia. Other university, NGO, and government collaborators are currently being recruited. The course will run from May 27 through June 6, 2019 and students should plan to arrive on May 25 or May 26 and depart on June 7. The first week will be lectures and tours. During the second week all participants will work in teams to conduct original research in under-recognized historic neighborhoods in Hong Kong. Through individual interviews, focus groups, and other social research tools, participants will first identify the "values" assigned by local residents, business and property owners, and others to the neighborhood. This qualitative information will then be matched with GIS-based quantitative data. Using this qualitative + quantitative approach, participants will attempt to estimate the economic values of non-economic value components. Each of the teams will be made up of PennDesign graduate students, PennDesign alumni, and young professionals from Hong Kong. Course is open to all PennDesign graduate students.
Summer Term
1 Course Unit
HSPV 7900 Historic Preservation Summer Institute
The Summer Institute is a required orientation course designed to prepare incoming, first-year graduate students for the intense coursework of their first semester. Generally, the Institute orients students to the issues and methods of the core MSHP curriculum, begins familiarizing students to the resources of Philadelphia, and begins skill-building exercises, especially in the area of digital media. This non-credit course employs lectures, exercises, and field trips to introduce some of the important skills, questions, and issues that will be at the center of first year's work in the Program. The Summer Institute also constitutes an extended introduction to the Program's faculty and the students in first-year and second-year cohorts. Course enrollment is by permit only.
Summer Term
0 Course Units
HSPV 8200 Readings in Urban & Planning History
Reading and discussion course on selected topics in urban and planning history, with an emphasis on the United States, 1820-2000. We will sample both canonical and more recent scholarship. Interested doctoral students from across the university are particularly welcome. Masters students interested in an intensive reading course are also welcome. All students will read at least one book per week, and the final written assignment can be tailored to individual student interests and needs.
Spring, even numbered years only
Also Offered As: CPLN 8200
1 Course Unit
HSPV 9901 Masters Thesis II
Historic Preservation Masters Thesis
Fall, Spring, and Summer Terms
0 Course Units
HSPV 9990 Independent Study
An opportunity for a student to work on a special project under the guidance of a faculty member.
Fall or Spring
0.5-2 Course Units