More than 1,900 places of historical significance on private college and university campuses have been identified by the CIC Survey of Historic Architecture and Design, and 3,600 images relating to sites of architectural, landscape, and planning interest and significance have been collected. The survey was completed by 362 institutions last fall, representing a return of more than 50 percent of the original list of schools that were invited to participate. This project, funded by a $151,000 grant from The Getty Grant Program to study campus heritage, has been underway at CIC for the past two years.
     Project staff have begun to evaluate the survey data, and a database is being developed that will ultimately be turned into a web-based image archive tool and gallery. The website will make these collected data widely available and provide an interpretive framework for it. CIC is also planning a series of guidebook-type catalogs, according to geographic boundaries suggested by the data.
     Project Director Barbara Christen delivered a presentation on the status
of the project at the Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting in April 2004, and is scheduled to speak at other professional meetings during the coming year.
     “We continue to be surprised at the depth and breadth of places that are deemed to be significant by independent colleges and universities,” Christen said. “Many campuses across the country have buildings and sites that are designed by accomplished architects and landscape designers. Some campuses also have significant places that suggest further study because of the high quality of their design. Other campuses can boast of historically important vernacular buildings that are integral to the missions of their schools. And still others have identified works important in the history of modernism, as well as the histories of education and architectural planning.”
     Institutions that have not yet submitted a survey but are interested in taking part in the project should contact Christen at: bchristen@cic.nche.edu or (202) 466-7230.

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Last updated: August 2004
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