Archives and the City
This course is designed for students to better understand contemporary urban conditions through the study of urban history and hands-on research in the archives.
Civic Arena, aerial photograph. Diapositive with architect’s name, from a contact sheet. Early 1960s. Carnegie Mellon University Architecture Archives.
This new course is designed for students who would like to better understand contemporary urban conditions through the study of urban history and hands-on research in the archives. This first iteration will focus on Pittsburgh, but the same research skills and methods can be applied to other cities.
As a class we will discuss what is an archive and reflect on how the organization, curation, and even the design of archives influence how we make sense of the built environment around us, what histories we learn about the city, and which voices are heard or erased. We will explore different perspectives and ways to work with archives through readings and invited lectures. In visits and hands-on work in a series of local archives, we will engage with primary sources on the built environment, learning to critically analyze and research all sorts of records, from reports and planning documents to maps, drawings and ephemera. We will contribute to a collaborative class project, centered on layered and contested sites in Pittsburgh’s urban core.