Faculty

Faculty Contact Information

Recent Faculty Publications

Faculty Activities & Accomplishments:

Winter 2013

Tom Gensheimer and Daves Rossell served as judges for the Berkeley Architecture Essay Prize contest.

Daves Rossell served as a member of the Samuel Kress Fellowship Committee for 2013 for the Society of Architectural Historians in February 2013.

Celeste Guichard was appointed as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Virtual World Research.

Robin Williams published an invited newspaper article, “Georgia’s `Co-Founder’ Tomochichi:  Rising from obscurity,” Savannah Morning News, Viewpoints Page, March 3, 2013, 10A and 11A.

Robin Williams delivered an invited public lecture, “Commemorating Tomochichi in Savannah,”on Feb. 20, 2013, at the Learning Center of Senior Citizens, Savannah.

Daves Rossell and Patrick Haughey culminated two years of preparations in directing the 8th Savannah Symposium: Modernities Across Time and Space, held in Savannah in February 7-9, 2013.

Robin Williams delivered an invited public lecture, “Transforming Rome into the Capital of Modern Italy,”on Feb. 4, 2013, at the Learning Center of Senior Citizens, Savannah.

Patrick Haughey presented a paper, “After City Market: Food and the 21^st C. American City,” at the Food and the City Conference 2013 in Austin, Texas, on February 1, where he also served as a panelist in a Roundtable addressing the question “What will our urban food map of the future look like?”

David Gobel co-curated the exhibition “Becoming Savannah: Slow Urbanism, Italian influences and the Ideal city: Urban lessons from Italy and Savannah, Georgia by Students of the Savannah College of Art and Design” at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, on display January 25-February 25, 2013.  He also delivered the introductory address and served as moderator for Theorizing the Slow City: Perspectives from Italy and America, a symposium accompanying the exhibition and featuring students of the University of Bologna and the Savannah College of Art and Design held at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York City, January 25, 2013.

David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, Karl Schuler and Robin Williams all led walking or bus tours of the architecture and urbanism of Savannah and the surrounding area as part of the AIAS Forum 2012 meeting, hosted by SCAD, December 28, 2012 – January 1, 2013.

Fall 2012

Daves Rossell delivered an invited lecture, “The Craft of Architecture and the Craft of Architectural History,” at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, in December 2012.

Robin Williams had his journal article, “The Challenge of Preserving Public Memory: Commemorating Tomochichi in Savannah,” published in Preservation, Education and Research, Vol. 5 (2012): 1-16.

Robin Williams was re-appointed for a new three-year term to the City of Savannah’s Historic District Board of Review.

Daves Rossell presented a paper, “Repetition, Pattern and Significance in Ordinary Architecture,” as an invited speaker at the Becher Houses Symposium, Universität Siegen, Germany, December 7, 2012.

Karl Schuler delivered an invited lecture on the history of Fort Screven to American Legion Post 154 (Tybee Island) on November 24, 2012.

Celeste Guichard presented a paper, “The Appeal of Virtual Spaces,” at the Geekend conference in Savannah in November 2012. See:
http://www.geek-end.com/2012-speakers

Robin Williams was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) as the Georgia representative for a three-year term.

Daves Rossell presented a paper, “Designing the Science of Illuminating Engineering: The Household Lamp and Interior Space,” at the Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2012.

David Gobel presented a paper, “Planned Obsolescence:  Ascertaining the Town Common in Savannah,” at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians in October 2012 in Athens, Georgia.

Daves Rossell presented a paper, “Social Process and the Savannah Plan,” at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians in October 2012 in Athens, Georgia.

Robin Williams presented a paper, “Forest City:  The Historical Role of Trees in Defining Savannah’s Urban Identity,” at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians in October 2012 in Athens, Georgia.

Robin Williams delivered a tour, at the invitation of conference organizers, of historic downtown Roanoke, Virginia, as part of the Cityworks (X)po Conference in October 2012.

Summer 2012

David Gobel delivered a paper, “From Ideal to Real: The Evolution of the Savannah Plan: 1733-1851,” at the biennial meeting of the European Association of Urban Historians (EAUH) at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic on Aug. 30, 2012.

Daves Rossell was appointed to Fellowship Committee for the Sally Kress Tompkins Fellowship for 2013, administered by the Society of Architectural Historians and the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Spring 2012

Thomas Gensheimer published a journal article, “Monument Tomb Architecture of the Medieval Swahili Coast” in Buildings and Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, vol. 19, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 107-114.

Celeste Lovette Guichard gave a paper titled, “Plaque Doctors and Dungeon Strats: the pedagogical value of video games” in a panel entitled Using Simulations and Video Games to Teach History at the Ohio Academy of History Spring Conference  on March 31^st.

David Gobel was an invited speaker at Vitruviana 2012, a two-day symposium on the architecture of colonial Charleston.  His talk was entitled “The Trailblazing Second St. Philip’s Church,” delivered on April 13, 2012.  Here’s a link to the program:
http://www.palladiancenter.org/Vitruviana_2012.html

Karl Schuler presented a lecture on Savannah’s Confederate batteries to the Georgia Battlefields Association meeting in Savannah on March 11, 2012.

Patrick Haughey taught at the SCAD-Lacoste campus in Provence, France, in Spring Quarter.

Daves Rossell published a review of Carl R. Lounsbury, The Courthouses of Early Virginia: An Architectural History (2005) in Material Culture 44:1 (Spring 2012), 92-94.

Daves Rossell authored a review of Louis Nelson, The Beauty of Holiness: Anglicanism and Architecture in Colonial South Carolina (2009) for the Georgia Historical Quarterly (forthcoming).

Robin Williams was an invited speaker at the Cranbrook Schools (K-12 private school) in Bloomington Hills, Michigan, outside Detroit.  He made two presentations to groups of AP History high school students on the topic of the significance of architectural history, April 18, 2012.

Fall 2011

Thomas Gensheimer was appointed to the City of Savannah’s Historic Monuments Commission for a five-year term.

David Gobel chaired a session entitled Drawing and Design Method in Architecture (SESAH Affiliate Session) at the 2011 meeting of the Southeast College Art Conference (SECAC) in Savannah on Friday, November 11, 2011.

Robin Williams led a walking tour of downtown Savannah entitled “City as Text” in support “Text & Texture” theme of the 2011 meeting of the Southeast College Art Conference (SECAC) in Savannah on November 10, 2011.

David Gobel completed his term as Chairman of the Book & Article Awards Committee for the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) at their 2011 annual meeting held in Charleston, SC, Oct. 28, 2011.

Daves Rossell chaired the Roadside Architecture session of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) annual meeting held in Charleston, SC, Oct. 27, 2011.

Robin Williams delivered a paper entitled “A Monument for a Chief: The Origins of Public Commemoration in America and the Evolving Perception of Native Americans” at the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) annual meeting held in Charleston, SC, Oct. 27, 2011.

Tom Gensheimer has published an article, “Monumental Tomb Architecture of the Medieval Swahili Coast” in Buildings and Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Louis Nelson (ed.) in press.

David Gobel has published a review of Sabina De Cavi, Architecture and Royal Presence: Domenico and Giulio Cesare Fontana in Spanish Naples: (1592–1627) in Hispanic Research Journal, 12 (October 2011): 468–69

Daves Rossell helped organize the National Tour day meeting of the Georgia Chapter of Docomomo in Savannah and served on a discussion panel on Oct. 7 and assisted with the day-long tour on Oct. 8.

Robin Williams continues in his role as a board member of the City of Savannah’s Historic District Board of Review, attending monthly meetings, as well as a day-long board retreat on September 23.

Summer 2011

Celeste Guichard served as a symposium panelist at the Pioneer Valley Romanists Forum, Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology, Brown University, Providence, RI, August 2011.

Robin Williams has been appointed to serve on an Ad Hoc K-12 Education Committee for the Society of Architectural Historians.

Spring 2011

David Gobel delivered a paper, “The City Gate as Scaenae Frons: Two Case Studies,” at the annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, New Orleans, April 2011.

Celeste Guichard taught at the SCAD-Lacoste campus in Provence, France, in Spring Quarter.

Daves Rossell was re-appointed to a 4-year term as the architectural historian of the Georgia National Register Review Board, Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, where he served from 2002-2006.

Daves Rossell delivered a public lecture, “In Large Things Discovered: Hidden Treasures Before Our Very Eyes,” in support of the Savannah College of Art and Design Historic Preservation Department Preservation Week lecture, May 4, 2011.

Daves Rossell delivered a paper, “Creolization as a Continuing Process in the Georgia and South Carolina
Lowcountry,” at the Vernacular Architecture Forum 2011 Annual Meeting, Falmouth, Jamaica, June 2011.

Robin Williams published an obituary of “Harold Allen Brooks” in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH), vol. 70 (March 2011): 3-4.

Robin Williams chaired a paper session, “Architecture and Race in the Southern City,” at the annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, New Orleans, April 2011.

Robin Williams continued serving as a member of the Historic District Board of Review for the City of Savannah, attending monthly meetings throughout winter and spring quarters.

Winter 2011

Jeff Eley and Tom Gensheimer co-directed the departmentally sponsored 7^th Savannah Symposium, held in Feb. 2011.  Daves Rossell, Robin Williams, Celeste Guichard and David Gobel chaired sessions.

David Gobel published an article, “Reforming Church Architecture,” in New Horizons (monthly magazine of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church), February 2011

Fall 2010

Thomas Gensheimer delivered a paper entitled “Memory and Eternity: Tomb Architecture and the Medieval Swahili City” at the 2010 Annual Conference of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) in Chattanooga in Oct. 2010.  In light of the positive feedback he received at that presentation, he submitted an article on Swahili monumental tomb architecture for publication by Building and Landscapes: the Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum.

Thomas Gensheimer served as judge for the Berkeley prize, an international essay contest for architecture students on a topic related to the social aspects of architectural design.

David Gobel was an invited guest lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Colorado, Denver, where he delivered a public lecture: “The Architecture of the Savannah Plan”  on September 20, 2010.

David Gobel– Presented a paper entitled: “Modern Architecture and Levitation” at the annual meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) in Chattanooga, Tenn., on October 15, 2010.

David Gobel Served on the Publications Awards Committee of SESAH and presented the awards at the annual meeting.

David Gobel wrote a commissioned article for New Horizons, the monthly denominational magazine of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, entitled: “Reforming Church Architecture.”

Celeste Guichard published five essays on Greek and Roman objects in the Snite Museum collection, Eclectic Antiquity: The Classical Collection of the Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame Press, 2010.

Celeste Guichard was part of a symposium panel for the Pioneer Valley Romanists Forum on August 8th, held at the Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology at Brown University.  The purpose of the symposium was to share and critique new research among a group of 15 Romanists.

Daves Rossell delivered a paper, “Ordinary Distinction: Pine Gardens and Mid-Century Savannah,” at the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians 2010 Annual Meeting, Chattanooga, TN, October 14, 2010.

Daves Rossell delivered a lecture for the Historic Savannah Foundation during their 2011 Tour of Homes, September 28, 2010.

Daves Rossell developed the department’s first online course, History of Modern Architecture, which will be offered at the 500-level, open both to upper-level undergraduates and incoming graduate students.

Daves Rossell submitted a series of essays on aspects of the built environment of eastern Savannah for the City of Savannah Cultural Affairs Office, July 3, 2010 as part of a historical volume on eastern Savannah to be published in 2011.  These essays utilized his archival research as well as fieldwork by him and his students.

Daves Rossell attended the Chatham County Historic Preservation Commission meeting, as board member, July 7, 2010.

Daves Rossell was elected a member of the Advisory Council for the Harrington School Restoration on St. Simon’s Island, GA, August 3, 2010.

Robin Williams authored an obituary, “Harold Allen Brooks,” published in the SAH News: Newsletter of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. LV, no.4 (Dec. 2010), pp.7-8.  A longer version of the obituary will be published in the March 2011 volume of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

Robin Williams chaired the “Savannah” session at the annual meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) in Chattanooga, TN, in Oct. 2010.

Robin Williams continued in his role as a member of the City of Savannah’s Historic District Board of Review for the downtown historic district, attending meetings on June 9, July 14, August 11, September 8, November 10 and December 8.

Spring 2010

Jeff Eley concluded his four year service as a member of the Georgia National Register Review Board at the spring meeting in Atlanta.

Thomas Gensheimer chaired a paper session, “Redefining the Study of African Architecture,” at the Society of Architectural Historians Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, April 2010.

Daves Rossell published a book review of Bryan Clark Green, In Jefferson’s Shadow: The Architecture of Thomas R. Blackburnin the Winterthur Portfolio 44, No. 1 (Spring 2010), pp. 130-132.

Daves Rossell attended the annual Vernacular Architecture Forum conference in Washington DC also chaired a session on cultural landscape entitled “Organizing the Landscape”

Daves Rossell led a tour of Savannah squares for the Historic Savannah Foundation, March 28, 2010.

Robin Williams attended the Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting in Chicago on April 20-24, including his last semi-annual Board of Directors meeting.

Robin Williams delivered a public talk, “A History of Savannah at the Cutting Edge,” jointly sponsored by the Historic Savannah Foundation and the department’s annual lecture series, on May 11.

Robin Williams continued in his role as a member of the City of Savannah’s Historic District Board of Review for the downtown historic district, attending meetings on April 14, May 12 and June 9.

WINTER 2010

Jeff Eley continued his participation as the architectural historian on the Georgia National Register Review Board at its quarterly meeting on January 29 in Atlanta.

David Gobel taught at the SCAD-Lacoste campus in Provence, France, for Winter Quarter.

Robin Williams has been appointed by the Savannah City Council to the 11-member Historic District Board of Review of the City of Savannah for a three-year term (Jan. 2010-Dec. 2012).  The Review Board, which meets monthly, has the responsibility “to protect the values of property associated with history, unique architectural details or relation to a square, park or area within the Landmark Historic District” by voting on whether proposed building projects, signs and fences conform to the city’s Historic District Zoning Ordinance.  He attended his first meeting on January 13.

FALL 2009

Robin Williams authored entries on “Savannah” and the early 19th-century architect “William Jay” for the Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, which will be published by the end of 2010.

On December 8, 2009, Robin Williams served on a panel of for the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, DC, reviewing applications for their Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants. It was the second time Williams was invited to serve as an NEH grant reviewer.

Robin Williams’ 1500-word encyclopedia entry on “Savannah (Georgia)” for the Encyclopedia of Urban Studies, ed. Ray Hutchison (Sage Publications, 2009) was published in mid-November.

On November 13-14, 2009, department chair Robin Williams attended the semi-annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians Board of Directors held in Chicago, where the SAH is based.  This is his third year on the board, which has provided him with tremendous insight into the workings of this professional organization and a sense of its ambitions and goals for future growth.  Defining the strategic direction of the Society was the focus of this meeting, which included the potential growth of the society beyond its traditionally academic research focus to embrace more public outreach in such areas as K-12 education, non-academic professionals, and more international representation.  He was joined by alumnus, Nathan Walker (MA 2006), who attended in an ex-officio (i.e. non-voting) capacity because of his role as the Society’s Listserv Moderator.  He proved himself a worthy contributor in the company of many highly ranked and esteemed academics.  He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Architectural History at Brown University.  While in Chicago, the board met for two receptions at the SAH headquarters at the Charnley-Persky House, designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Daves Rossell On November 14, 2009, led an intrepid group of art librarians from universities and museums throughout the Southeast to a variety of sites just outside downtown Savannah, but often far outside the scope of the typical tourist. The itinerary: Pine Gardens Liberty Ship neighborhood, Gordonston package suburb, Bonaventure Cemetery, Thunderbolt African-American heritage, Victory Drive auto history, Ardsley Park and Chatham Crescent City Beautifulness, Parkside, and the inimitable Carl Edward Helfrich, arch’t Kaminsky House of 1962.

Jeff Eley gave a tour of downtown Savannah for the Skidaway Community Institute on October 31, 2009.  The focus of the walk was to discuss the optimism in Savannah around 1900 by highlighting architects and their works of the last decade or so of the nineteenth century up to the First World War.  They looked at a number of buildings that still stand on or near Johnson and Wright Squares, as well as learning about a number of buildings that have been demolished as depicted in historic images (such as the skyscrapers seen to the right in this historic postcard).

Waiener House, 228 Ridge Drive, Woodland Hills, Jackson, Mississippi, Samuel Wiener and William B. Wiener, arch’ts, 1951, William Wiener, arch’t, 1957. Carport and entrance court.

While attending the 2009 SESAH conference in Jackson, MS, Daves Rossell took advantage of breaks and organized tours to document numerous buildings in that city.  His photos range from high-style public buildings and modernistic houses, to commercial vernacular structures.  Ever committed to excellent documentation, he identified each image with the name of the building, its architect and date.

To see the photos, click here.

Department Faculty participate at SESAH Conference in Jackson, MS

Rossell, Gobel and Williams with SCAD Architectural History students at the Old Capitol Building, Jackson

Daves Rossell, David Gobel and Robin Williams attended the annual meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians in Jackson, Mississippi, on October 28-31.  In addition to attending sessions and tours and seeing our students deliver papers, Rossell attended the SESAH Board of Directors meeting, finished his term as the Georgia representative, Gobel served as the chairman of the “Social Landscapes” paper session, and Williams delivered a paper in the “Urbanism” session (see below).

Robin Williams delivered a conference paper, entitled “The Curious Case of Savannah Pavement,” at the annual meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians held in Jackson, MS, on Oct. 29.  The examined the various experiments undertaken by the City of Savannah as it struggled to pave its streets beginning in 1855, through to the early 20th century.   Using published Mayor’s Reports from the 1850s-1910s, engineering records from the City of Savannah archives and a pavement manual from 1900 found through Google Books, Williams reconstructed the rich story of experiments with pavement in Savannah that in many ways mirrored national trends and in other ways was unique.  The city experimented with wood plank roads, macadam, wood blocks, Belgian blocks, granite blocks, oyster shells, asphalt, vitrified bricks and asphalt blocks.  His field survey of downtown confirmed some of these survive, along with various concrete mixtures (with shells or granite as aggregate), along with some dirt lanes.  Around 1900, pavement was as important as skyscrapers as a symbol of a progressive city, helping reduce disease and mitigate the threat of urban fires (because fire-fighting equipment could move more quickly on paved streets).  His research also uncovered the purpose for curious triangular patterns in the pavement (formed by bricks rotated 45 degrees) that appear in many places throughout downtown, but that have long disappeared from other cities.

Celeste Guichard had the honor of presenting a paper at the Symposium held by Barnard College in honor of Natalie Boymel Kampen on October 24.  Professor Kampen retired from teaching last Spring and former students were invited to share work in a gesture of thanks to this esteemed and well-loved professor who affected so many lives through her scholarship, guidance and friendship.  Guichard presented on the increasing importance of word offerings, in the forms of inscriptions and hymns, at the oracular sanctuary of Klaros during the Roman period while others spoke on a wide range of topics including Roman panoply in relation to the triumphal arch at Rheims, the significance of shoes in Roman relief sculpture and William Frith’s depiction of Victorian Gossip.  For Guichard, “It’s always a treat to see old friends from grad school, but it was especially nice to come together in commemoration of a mentor who helped shape our ideas not only about the Roman world and gender studies, but also about what it means to be a successful professor and a great colleague.”

Daves Rossell spoke to a group of about forty Augustinians in the Morris Museum of Arts “Art at Lunch” series on October 23.  His talk was entitled “William Christenberry’s Vernacular: Documentary and Art” and addressed themes in their current show of his photographs.

William Christenberry, Building with False Brick siding, Warsaw, Alabama, 1974

According to Rossell, “Christenberry and I would be good road-trip buddies–we see eye to eye.”

William Christenberry, Building with False Brick siding, Warsaw, Alabama, 1982

Christenberry grew up in rural Hale County, Alabama, and he has devoted his entire creative career in painting, photography, and sculpture to portraying the county’s simple but eerie architecture and landscape.

Old and decrepit, but never nondescript, Christenberry’s corner of the famous “black belt” is a rich testament to the long, hard history of a major cultural landscape.

His portrayals also speak to the intersection of abstract expressionism and social realism, with a special emphasis on the power of photography as a documentary instrument.

Karl Schuler gave a tour of area fortifications for the Skidaway Community Institute.  The tour addressed the design of Fort Pulaski (1848), which was examined as a classic Third System work by Joseph Totten.  The presentation focused on American coastal fortification strategy and philosophy.  Following this, the tour explored the adjacent demilune fortifications completed by Quincy Adams Gilmore as part of the “Plan of 1870″ that superseded the Third System, and nearby Battery Hambright (1899) as an example of an Endicott Period fortification.

Celeste Guichard and Thomas Gensheimer, who co-directed the Sixth Savannah Symposium: World Heritage and National Registers in Perspective held in February 2009, are currently pursuing publication of over 20 papers from they symposium by the University of Ottawa Press.

SUMMER 2009

For the past two years Professor Daves Rossell and his students in his American Vernacular Architecture classes have helped Evan Thompson, Director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation, document sites in preparation for Beaufort’s tricentennial in 2011. This year we’re focusing on truck farms, agricultural establishments set up to provide fruits and vegetables to urban areas. Goods grown in Beaufort County, South Carolina ripen later than crops from Florida, and earlier than those further north, thus providing a key niche in the growing, and consuming, season.

Photos of their latest visit to Beaufort can be seen through our Flickr Gallery.

This fieldwork is part of a decade-long initiative called SALI to better document and understand our distinct setting on the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. The Savannah and the Lowcountry Initiative (SALI) is an educational effort engaged in uncovering, recording, preserving, and presenting history through archival research, fieldwork, drawing, and writing on the area’s architecture and cultural landscapes.

Robin Williams made a presentation about historic architectural styles to the members of the Historic Review Board at the Metropolitan Planning Commission on Aug. 27.

On August 26, 2009, Daves Rossell lectured and led a tour of the historic north Georgia town of Dahlonega (site of the nation’s first gold rush) for the Lumpkin County Historical Society.  Click the image to read an article about the event.

Daves Rossell participated in the Colonial Williamsburg / College of William and Mary fieldschool held in Beaufort, South Carolina, July 27-31, 2009.

Daves Rossell attended the Vernacular Architecture Forum annual meeting in Butte, Montana, June 10-14, interacting with colleagues from architectural history and historic preservation departments and offices from across the country.

Spring 2009:

Celeste Guichard presented a paper, “Hadrian Panhellenios and the Crafting of Monument as Memory,” at the Midwest Art Historians Conference, Omaha, NE, in April 2009

Jeff Eley, a member of the Georgia National Register Review Board, hosted their spring meeting at SCAD-Atlanta’s Ivy Hall on June 5.  Normally, the Review Board convenes at the Atlanta offices of the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Winter 2009:

Thomas Gensheimer served as a peer reviewer for a new architectural history textbook manuscript by Marylyn Stokstad to be published by Prentice Hall.

Thomas Gensheimer and Celeste Guichard culminated two years of preparations in directing the 6th Savannah Symposium: World Heritage and National Registers in Perspective, held in Savannah in February 2009.

David Gobel delivered four plenary talks at the symposium “The Architectural Setting of Christian Worship: Exploring the Intersection of Architecture, Theology, and Worship” hosted by the Erskine Theological Seminary on February 5-7, 2009, in Savannah:

- Temple or Meetinghouse?  Church Building in Historical Perspective
- Architectural Hermeneutics (An approach to ‘reading’ architecture as a built language)
- The Architectural Setting of Christian Worship
- The City of God in the City of Man

Celeste Guichard chaired a paper session entitled “Armchair Cosmopolites and Worldly Travelers: The Dialogue between Real and Vicarious Travel in the Greco-Roman World,” at the College Art Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, February 2009

Daves Rossell taught at the SCAD-Lacoste campus in Provence, France, in Winter Quarter.

Fall 2008:

David Gobel served as a guest critic for a summer studio at the Institute for Classical Architecture/Classical America in New York on June 7, 2008.

David Gobel presented a paper at the annual Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians conference in Greensboro, NC, titled “Great Expectations: The Puerta de Visagra in Toledo and the Imperial Ideal” on October 2, 2008.

David Gobel was an invited speaker, delivering a talk on “Building Babel: Architecture and Worldview,” at a conference on “The Church, Beauty, and the Arts” at Philadelphia Biblical University on November 8, 2008.

Celeste Guichard published a book review of Tony Spawforth, The Complete Greek Temples (London: Thames & Hudson, 2006) and Alexander Tzonis and Phoebe Giannisi, Classical Greek Architecture: The Construction of the Modern (Paris: Editions Flammarion, 2004) in caa.reviews, December 2, 2008.

Karl Schuler participated in archeological work during fall 2008 at the Savannah Ogeechee Canal historic site, cleaning and cataloguing artifacts from ongoing excavations at the locktender’s complex.

Robin Williams served during fall 2008 as one of three members of the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award Committee for the Society of Architectural Historians to identify the best book in architectural history.  The committee reviewed 15 nominated books.

Robin Williams chaired the paper session Constructing Race Relations in the New South at the annual Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians conference in Greensboro, NC, on October 2, 2008.

Robin Williams served on the Historic District Ordinance Revisions Committee for the City of Savannah’s Metropolitan Planning Commission, attending meetings on October 13 and 27, 2008.

Winter 2008:

David Gobel published in February a short essay, commenting on DR Coffin’s work on Giovanni Battista Aleotti, in David R. Coffin, Magnificent Building, Courtly Gardens, edited by Vanessa Bezemer Sellers (Princeton University Press, 2008).

Karl Schuler continued to provide Charlie Crawford, Director of Georgia Battlefields Association, with information on area batteries for endangered sites survey and National Register nominations.  As a result, the Civil War Preservation Trust has included the defenses of Savannah on its list of ten most endangered battlefields.  See press release:
http://www.civilwar.org/news/PressDetail.php?releaseID=160

Robin Williams served as an outside reviewer of an article for Georgia Historical Quarterly, December 2007.

Robin Williams served as an outside reviewer of an application of a study of Plantation Architecture in South Carolina for a City University of New York (PSC-CUNY) grant on January 3, 2008.

Robin Williams had his book review of Georgia Inside and Out: Architecture, Landscape, and Decorative Arts published at caa reviews on January 29, 2008.  It can be viewed at
http://www.caareviews.org
.

Robin Williams made a presentation on the history of Architectural Styles in Savannah and introduced a discussion of city zoning issues to the Historic Preservation high school students at Early College High School in Savannah on Dec. 6, 2007.  The presentation was part of the Box City Program, an interdisciplinary experience in community planning developed by “The Center for Understanding our Built Environment” (CUBE), based in Prairie Village, KS, that culminated with student projects later in December.

Robin Williams was hired by the Glynn County Board of Education to conduct a historical analysis of a c.1840 school house near Brunswick, GA, in preparation for its restoration, January-March 2008.

Robin Williams was nominated by the Mayor’s office of the City of Savannah to serve on the Historic District Ordinance Revisions Committee, coordinated through its Metropolitan Planning Commission.  The committee meets every Monday for four months from February to June.  The committee is revising the downtown Savannah zoning laws to direct future construction in ways more sympathetic to the city’s historic building patterns.

Fall 2007:

David Gobel chaired a paper session at the 2007 Southeast Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN, Oct. 24-28, titled Language and Tradition.

Celeste Guichard served as an editor for a recent scholarly publication on Novalis.

Daves Rossell was awarded $5,107.39 at the Fall meeting on November 10, 2007, of the Vernacular Architecture Forum Board to support the Savannah and the Lowcountry Initiative, directly to support further student and faculty research, fieldwork, photography, and writing,.  Rossell also received written commendation of his work as director of the meeting, and as co-editor of the Savannah and the Lowcountry guidebook.

Daves Rossell taught at the SCAD-Lacoste campus in Provence, France, for the fall 2007 quarter.

Daves Rossell was appointed in October 2007 to serve another 2-year term as Chair of the Chatham County Historic Preservation Commission.

Daves Rossell delivered a lecture at the architecture school of the Universität Siegen in Siegen, Germany November 21, 2007.

Robin Williams presented a paper at the 2007 Southeast Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN, Oct. 24-28, 2007 titled “Reflections on Urban Change: Patterns of destruction and Preservation in Downtown Savannah”.

Summer 2007:

Jeff Eley has joined a task force to determine the appropriate restoration and use for the Pharmacy Building at the corner of Habersham and Broughton Street.  This project will serve the Davenport House and Historic Savannah Foundation.

Thomas Gensheimer co-curated an African Art exhibition with Dr. Steven Wagner in SCAD’s Art History department at the Pei Ling Chan Gallery held during the summer.  This work included the selection of objects, the organization of the exhibit and labeling works of art.  Thomas Gensheimer also wrote all the substantive explanatory text for the exhibition.

Daves Rossell chaired the all-day board retreat of the Chatham County Historic Preservation Commission meeting, June 15, 2007.

Daves Rossell participated in the Colonial Williamsburg/College of William and Mary Fieldschool in Williamsburg on July 15-21, and in Beaufort and Savannah July 22-27, 2007.  This activity further cemented ties between SCAD’s ARLH department and CW/CWM faculty as well as facilitating in the professional recordation of some dozen historic structures.  Particular benefit was gained through supporting the Historic Beaufort Foundation, which is spearheading the 300^th anniversary of Beaufort in 2008—an effort that will require further SCAD support.  Transportation funds for this venture were provided out of the Savannah and the Lowcountry Initiative.

Daves Rossell facilitated the planning of the next meeting of the Coastal Georgia Archeological Society to be held at the Fife Plantation, a beautiful and historic plantation Rossell had used for the Vernacular Architecture Forum meeting in March, June 16, 2007.

Robin Williams serves as a member of the Society of Architectural Historians Online-SAH Committee and attended a meeting in New York on July 31 to discuss the development of a prototype of the online version of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

Robin Williams had his photograph “Misty Morning in Provence” printed for sale through the online home décor vendor West Elm.