THE HISTORICAL STUDY of the American built environment emerged in the 1970s as a multidisciplinary investigation of the social, political, and cultural processes that produce buildings and landscapes. Unlike architectural history, the field does not focus on the evolution of styles, the contributions of individual genius, or the canon of high-art architecture. Rather, it analyzes the complex processes behind construction and reception of ordinary buildings and their settings. This interest in the commonplace rather than the canonical, the many rather than the few, was influenced by similar developments in other disciplines including social and urban history, cultural geography, and material culture. During the 1980s scholars produced seminal works and established a set of methodological principles. More recent contributors to the field have employed the empirical tools of established fields with a contemporary theoretical sophistication.

THIS SITE CONTAINS full text of papers presented at the conference, "Reconceptualizing the History of the Built Environment in North America," which brought together the several generations which have contributed to the field. The conference discussed the current state of built environment studies and set an agenda for future work. Keynote speakers outlined the history and evolution of the field. Three paper sessions followed, each addressing a cutting edge issue in built environment studies. The first panel investigated racial dimensions of the built environment, the second considered the North American built environment in comparative perspective, and the third analyzed how the built environment has been disseminated to public audiences. A final roundtable discussed with the audience the future of built environment studies in the United States.

Conference Proceedings