UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 11
November 14, 1996
Making changes: College reorganization spurs center re-design

     If you think moving is tough, try doing it while redefining
your mission, coming up with a better name and incorporating new
people into your operation-all in the middle of the semester.
That's what faculty, staff and students in the Center for
Historic Architecture and Design (CHAD) have been doing.
     "CHAD has emerged as one of the first results of the
integration of interests, talents and resources from the proposed
reorganization of the colleges of Education, Human Resources and
Urban Affairs and Public Policy," David Ames, CHAD director and
professor of urban affairs and public policy, said. "Our move
into Alison Hall symbolizes the greater integration to come."
     In 1984, the Center for Historic Architecture and
Engineering was established in the College of Urban Affairs and
Public Policy to focus on four areas related to historic
preservation-shaping historic preservation planning and policy,
understanding historic landscapes, documenting threatened
historic properties and promoting the preservation of historic
resources in Delaware and the surrounding region.
     Interdisciplinary from its establishment, the center has
close ties with a number of departments and programs in the
College of Arts and Science, including art history, art
conservation, museum studies, history and geography, as well as
with the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the College of
Engineering. The center initiated a graduate concentration in
historic preservation in the master's programs both in urban
affairs and public policy and in art history.
     In the context of the college reorganization, center staff
and faculty began to have discussions with the faculty of the
Department of Textiles, Design and Consumer Economics (TDCE) in
the College of Human Resources. "We were quite impressed with the
department's collection of historic textiles and apparel
pieces-with over 2,500 items, it provides students, faculty,
staff and the community with a tremendous resource for
undertaking research on the material culture of our society,"
Bernard Herman, CHAD associate director and associate professor
of art history, said.
     "Faculty in this department have long had an interest in
material culture and preservation as they relate to apparel
design, dress and culture and contemporary consumer behavior,"
Karen Stein, chairperson of the Department of Textiles, Design
and Consumer Economics, said. "The potential for collaboration
between the center and faculty and staff from TDCE became clear
and offered great opportunities through shared interests and
expertise in historic dress and architecture, in design and
material culture theory and in historic, contemporary and
computer-assisted design."
     "Collaboration with TDCE brings the opportunity to extend
the center's mission beyond historic architecture and the built
environment to broader design issues of land planning and
material culture," Dan Rich, dean of the College of Urban Affairs
and Public Policy, said. "Changing the center's name this past
September formalized an emerging relationship."
     With this collaboration, CHAD will expand its research
capabilities by establishing a laboratory for the study of
historic physical materials, including both fabrics and
architectural materials. Under the direction of Chandra Reedy, an
associate professor of museum studies, doctoral student Elizabeth
Bede is already using this new lab facility to evaluate how well
various conservation techniques protect marble from the effects
of pollutants in the atmosphere.
     CHAD also will develop new capabilities in design-related
advances in computer technology. The technology supporting
documentation of historic structures and design in general is
rapidly advancing and becoming more and more computer-based.
Measured drawings can increasingly be completed with computer-
assisted design. New techniques of photographic documentation
through photogrammetry are heavily computer-dependent.
     CHAD's move to new and larger quarters on the third floor of
Alison Hall, in proximity to TDCE, will facilitate these expanded
activities. "This new space includes improved facilities for
students working on research and public service projects and
gives us the space to organize our collections so that they can
be more readily available to the public," Rebecca Siders, a
research associate in the center, said.
     "Over the long term, we expect that CHAD will involve
interested faculty from across the campus engaged in research
related to design aspects of the historic built environment and
material culture," Ames said. "As a collaborative venture, CHAD
will work to increase the quality, presence and recognition of
the University's contributions in the areas of historic
preservation, design and material culture and to create a strong
connection between graduate and undergraduate programs in these
areas."
                                             -Mary Helen Callahan