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"Southern Built" Garners Award |
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Each year the Society of Architectural Historians presents the Antoinette Forrester Downing Award for a publication devoted to historical topics in preservation.
This year's winner is Catherine W. Bishir, Senior Architectural Historian for Preservation NC, for her book of collected essays, Southern Built: American Architecture, Regional Practice (University of Virginia Press, 2006).
The Downing Award comes on the heels Bishir's presentation with an
honorary membership in the American Institute of Architects. Given "in
recognition of her distinguished service to the profession of
architecture and the allied arts and sciences," this designation is one
of the highest recognitions the national AIA gives to non-architects.
Citation for the Downing Award
"Taken together, the twelve essays reprinted in Catherine W. Bishir's Southern Built: American Architecture,
Regional Practice, published by the University of Virginia Press in 2006, form a remarkably coherent and
insightful study of the history of Southern building traditions, and admirably reflect and summarize the author's
long and distinguished career as a preservationist and historian. Her work places particular attention on those
who have often been written out of architectural history--women, blacks, craftspeople--and it presents us with an
honest and frank evaluation of the violence and injustice that has at times tormented the South. Bishir's shrewd
analysis of how social and economic status has influenced historic preservation challenges the reader to ponder
many of its basic assumptions, as well as to focus on what is still being lost. Through all of this her fascination
with buildings and places as evidence of history constantly reminds us of the joy and pleasure gained by looking
at, thinking about, and investigating these artifacts of our past. Impeccably researched and written with clarity and
elegance by a professional preservationist who has been active in the field since the 1970s, Southern Built should
serve as model for all students of historic preservation and architectural history."
From JSAH June 2008
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Get a copy
at the
PNC Online Store
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If you're looking to fill your bookshelves with award-winning
preservation titles, you can find two other Downing winners in the Preservation NC online store.
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