Architectural Field School

College of William and Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Architectural Field School, History 490/590
May 28 — June 28, 2013
Williamsburg, Virginia

Carl Lounsbury, Instructor

The Colonial Williamsburg Architectural Research Department in conjunction with the College of William and Mary’s National Institute of American History and Democracy offers a five-week course this summer that is open to all undergraduate and graduate students as well as those with a special interest in early American architecture. This field school introduces students to the methods used in the investigation and recording of historic buildings. The program is intended to help students distinguish the form, fabrication, and assembly of materials and building elements and understand their chronology. They will learn how to apply field evidence to answer larger questions concerning architectural and social history.

Following several introductory lectures on building technology and architectural features, students will study structures in the Historic Area of Williamsburg and visit buildings in the surrounding Tidewater region. In the last week, students will convert their fieldwork into measured drawings using a CAD program and write reports on their sites.

This class will meet four days a week, Monday through Thursday, from 10:00 to 4:30. It will require travel (in a van) and some physical exercise—mainly climbing ladders, balancing on ceiling joists, and squeezing through crawl spaces. Students must be enrolled for the course through the College of William and Mary. The cost of travel and accommodations in Beaufort will be covered by the program. For more information about the nature of the course, please email Carl Lounsbury at clounsbury@cwf.org or call (757) 220-7654. Registration information is available at the William and Mary website: http://www.wm.edu/as/niahd/summerfieldschool/index.php