Course Description
Introduces and discusses the breadth of cultural resource types (buildings, landscapes, intangible resources, etc.) in three contexts: identification, evaluation, and management. The intent is to expose students to cultural resource types, styles, standards, guidelines, programs, processes, and techniques that create the U.S. and international framework for identification, evaluation, and management.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
All students are required to complete historic landscape
management theory and practice readings and participate in
class discussions. Further, they will complete several
exercises that build upon one another, ultimately leading to a
group final project. Graduate students will additionally be
required to lead two seminar reading discussions and craft a
paper advancing the body of knowledge of historic cultural
resources addressing adaptive management, resilience, and/or
sustainability.
As a part of the course, a community service-learning project
affords the opportunity to interact with real-world sites and
issues, typically in the form of crafting a National Register
nomination for a community-valued site(s).
Athena Title
Cultural Resource Assessment
Non-Traditional Format
Course includes a service-learning project during the semester that either employs skills or knowledge learned in the course or teaches new skills or knowledge related to course objectives. Students will be involved in the planning and implementation of the project(s) and may spend time outside of the classroom. Students will be engaged in the service-learning component for approximately 25-50% of overall instructional time.
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Knowledge: •An understanding of the breadth of cultural resource types, what makes them distinct and what connects them; •An understanding of the common identification, descriptions, and evaluation tools employed for different cultural resource types (e.g., written narratives, photographs, maps, measured drawings, oral histories, analysis drawings, comparative matrices); •An understanding of the breadth of cultural resource identification, evaluation, and management standards and guidelines which work as the framework for the U.S. and internationally. Skills: •An ability to identify and describe different types of cultural resources, including the ability to plan and undertake surveys (windshield, individual property, districts); •An ability to determine relative historic values (evaluate) different types of cultural resources; •An ability to apply basic principles of graphic design and layout to mapping, evaluating, and managing cultural resources; •An ability to develop the various portions of a National Register nomination, via a community service-learning project application. Values: •A sense of the importance of careful and accurate research in documenting and identifying cultural resources; •A sense of the value of all types of cultural resources in reflecting and explaining a range of human activity and relative values; •A sense of responsibility to fairly and completely apply preservation skills to protect and maintain our cultural heritage; •A sense of best practices for community interactions.
Topical Outline
Week: 1. The National Register Program and the State Review Board Process 2. National Register Research and Documentation Methodology and Nomination Factors 3. Survey Methodology, Standards, Application Site, Neighborhood, and Community Levels/Practicum 4. Community Reconnaissance Surveys/Practicum 5. Storefront Facade Evolution, Evaluation of Storefront Change, and Storefront Rehabilitation/Practicum 6. Changes to Historic Buildings and the Secretary's Standards for Evaluation of Change/Practicum 7/8/9 Cultural Landscapes, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Gender/Race/Class, Ethnographic Resources, Archaeology 10. The Two Philosophies of Additions within Historic Areas: Replication vs the Living City Concept 11/12/13/14/15 Application of Skills Learned in Course to a Community Service-Learning Project, Creating/Presenting a National Register Nomination for a Historic Site.
Syllabus