Ways of Seeing & Representing Modernism

Kleinman Forum, Fisher Fine Arts Library, 4th Floor

220 S 34th St
Philadelphia, PA

Speakers

Katie Horak

Francesca Sisci

Pablo Meninato

Mark Havens

Image details

This is one of four parallel sessions taking place from 9:50 AM - 11:05 AM on Thursday June 2.

Speakers have been asked to pre-record their presentations and we will be releasing these videos to registrants after the Symposium so that you can watch sessions you weren't able to attend.


Ways of Seeing & Representing Modernism

The four papers presented in this session deal with the many ways of seeing the built environment and their effect on documentation, preservation, and creation. Topics include visual observation as mediated through the camera lens, the use of archival photographs in the renovation of historic sites, the use of the photograph in architectural design, and the changing perceptions of a building through the eyes of what Robert Venturi called “the moving observer.” 

Speakers & Paper titles:

  • Theory Follows Photography: the Evolving Gaze of Denise Scott Brown
    Pablo Meninato, Temple Univeristy

  • With American Eyes. Robert Venturi 1948: Discovering Europe
    Francesca Sisci, Polytechnic of Bari

  • Out of Season: A Decade of Documenting the Wildwoods
    Mark Havens, Thomas Jefferson University

  •  Mid-Century in Color: Using Archives to Reveal a Lost Palette in Palm Springs
    Katie Horak, Principal, Architectural Resources Group

Moderator

Ricki Sablove

Ricki Sablove serves as secretary for Docomomo US/Greater Philadelphia.  A 1970 graduate of Rutgers, she received her doctorate from that institution in 2013. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked for Arch2 in Metuchen, NJ, researching, documenting, and photographing sites throughout the state. For the past nine years, she has been adjunct professor of Art History at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. 

Speakers

Pablo Meninato

Pablo Meninato, Ph.D., is an architect, architectural critic, and educator. A native of Argentina, Meninato has taught and practiced architecture in Philadelphia, Buenos Aires, and Monterrey, Mexico. Before joining Temple University as Associate Professor, Meninato taught at various academic institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, the Universidad de Monterrey, and Universidad de Belgrano at Buenos Aires. Meninato’s essays have been published in various magazines, journals, and books. He is the author of Unexpected Affinities (Routledge, 2018), a book that proposes a historical reassessment of the concept of architectural “type” and its impact on the design process. Meninato has embarked on a multi-year research and publishing project examining how various contemporary architects are developing new and original interventions in informal settlements across Latin America. The first outcome of this project is the co-edited book Informality and the City—Theories, Actions, Interventions (Springer Rotterdam, expected Spring 2022), a multidisciplinary overview of informality in the Global South.

Francesca Sisci

Francesca Sisci undertook her studies in Architecture at the Polytechnic of Bari (Italy) in 2012, and completed her Master's degree in 2018 with the highest honors. In 2019, she enrolled as a Ph.D. student in the Drawing and Survey of Architecture at the Polytechnic of Bari. Her main research project is on Robert Venturi's theoretical work. Her work often combines multiple disciplines, merging the representation of architecture with the study of visual perception and graphic analysis, art history, architecture, and photography. She is also enrolled in postgraduate school in Architectural and Landscape Heritage of the Polytechnic of Bari where she is a graduate teaching assistant in the architectural drawing and survey courses. She has taken part in national and international symposiums where she has presented research in architectural representation and basic design. She has written articles that have appeared in scientific journals and magazines such as Domus.

Mark Havens

Mark Havens is an educator, designer and artist with a dual background in both graphic and industrial design. This broad base of experience has enabled him to partner with a diverse spectrum of clients throughout his career. He is the Associate Director of Undergraduate Industrial Design at Thomas Jefferson University. His artistic practice chronicles the latent meaning in the contrails of human endeavor, exploring the immutable in the ephemeral. Havens’ work has been exhibited internationally and is held in both private and public collections, including The George Eastman Museum and The Library of Congress. Features on his work have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The British Journal of Photography, and many other publications. His first major monograph, entitled Out of Season, is published by Booth-Clibborn Editions and Abrams Books. The book chronicles the rapidly vanishing motels of Wildwood, New Jersey and has been the subject of more than 70 features worldwide. The New York Times described the work as “a decade-long elegy” and Wallpaper Magazine declared it “a revolutionary architectural diary.”

Katie Horak

Katie Horak is an architectural historian and Principal at Architectural Resources Group, an architecture firm specializing in the historic built environment in the Western US. Katie leads the firm’s Los Angeles practice and is a respected authority on national and regional historic preservation standards, policy, and legal frameworks, with particular expertise in treatment and documentation methods. In addition to her work at ARG, Katie teaches graduate-level courses in historic site documentation at USC’s School of Architecture and is a frequent speaker at conferences and universities across the country. Katie’s love of mid- and late-20th century art and architecture has drawn her to a wide range of research projects, including most recently the use of color at Palm Spring’s Ocotillo Lodge, where she has a home. Katie is Founding President of the Docomomo US/Southern California chapter and is currently Secretary of Docomomo US.