Louis Nelson in the News

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Louis Nelson Wins Accolade at Regional SAH Meeting

Associate Professor and Chair of Architectural History Louis Nelson received the "Article of the Year" Award at last week's annual meeting of the Southeast Society of Architectural Historians. His article, "Sensing the Sacred: Anglican Material Religion in early South Carolina," was published in the "Winterthur Portfolio."

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Louis Nelson's 2009 Diploma Ceremony Speech

[Note: As this presentation was prepared as a speech, the text does not include footnotes as would be customary for a printed article.] "Goodness, Truth and Beauty" by Louis Nelson Faculty Speaker, 2009 Diploma Ceremony UVa School of Architecture Let me begin by recognizing the ten years in which the School of Architecture has flourished under the deanship of Karen Van Lengen. Without her hard work, we would not have the two phenomenal new wings that now shape our work and our lives together. These additions have not only had a profound and positive impact on our school, they have reshaped the place of architecture in our larger university community. She has also launched our Foundation Board and tripled the size of our endowment. These are no minor feats. Karen’s work will have a lasting impact on future generations of architecture here at UVA. As a learning community we all owe a great debt to Karen. Please join me in thanking her for her dedicated service. You are today receiving a degree from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. So does that mean you are all going out to become architects? Of course not. We here at this School understand the term architecture to read far more broadly than that. We are concerned with the design of buildings, yes, but also parks, cities, transportation systems, gardens, neighborhoods, social networks, watersheds, public art, the list goes on and on. Architecture as we understand it encompasses the whole of the built environment. And we are concerned not only with the improvements for the future, but also the conditions of the present, and the lessons of the past. So if we define architecture so broadly, is there anything that lies at the heart of what we do? Besides just a collective interest in built stuff, is there something that binds us together as an intellectual and academic community? As a historian, of course, I’m naturally inclined to reach into the past for answers to present questions. Some have offered the writings of early architects: Corb? even earlier? Alberti? earlier still? Vitruvius? In retrospect I think not. I want you to consider a claim that the foundations of great design were laid centuries before Vitruvius in a scholar who understood much about the nature of the human condition. In his treatise entitled Phaedrus, the Greek philosopher Plato identified three qualities that stood as the highest of all human values: goodness, truth, and beauty. He saw these as inextricably linked one to the other and offered them as the criterion for human flourishing. It now seems to me self-evident that excellence in architecture emerges from scholarship and design that fosters human flourishing, scholarship and design that stands on the firm foundation of goodness truth and beauty. Let’s take each virtue in turn. GOODNESS (Justice) Goodness. For Plato, goodness was the source of knowledge and was best understood through analogy to the sun. For sight, the sun is the source of light, and so makes objects visible and allows the eye to see; for Knowledge, Goodness is the source of Truth, and so makes Forms intelligible and allows the mind to know. Goodness, which for Plato is virtue in action, was the source of truth that resulted in knowledge. We have surely seen that kind of knowledge generation at play in this coterie of graduating students. I have spent much of the last week collecting comments from the faculty about the work of their graduating students and that exercise has been clear evidence that you graduates embody the virtue of Goodness—the pursuit of knowledge through virtues in action. One from among you put your commitment to local sustainability to action by writing an innovative study on local food in an effort to transform local foodways here in Charlottesville. Another wrote a thesis project on the district of Zongo in Cape Coast, Ghana, which currently functions in the unhealthy conditions of open sewers and water systems. This student has proposed a fundamental rethinking of water use as watershed, which could provide a new means of simultaneously resolving issues of sanitation and erosion. One of their peers wrote a thesis on the architecture of nineteenth-century African-Americans in Hampton Virginia, charting the ways architecture played a role in shaping an identity of freedom and independence. Students have also created the university's first community garden, worked for the improvement of informal housing settlements in India and Brazil, volunteered for the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program, and taught indigineous Chilean children about sustainable farming practices, all with an eye toward social justice and equity. Here in the School of Architecture and in the work of our students, Goodness abounds. TRUTH (Integrity) Truth: In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato argues that that which is true is that which has substance. In this dialogue, Plato offers an image of individuals having to choose between the reality of shadows they have always known or the reality of the objects that cast those shadows, but objects they have never seen. In so doing, Plato asserts that truth is that which is tied to reality, to substance, to those things which have integrity. In addition to pursuing goodness in their work, students also demonstrate the pursuit of truth, by which I mean the pursuit of that which has intellectual and ethical substance. One of you argued for the individual and collective design integrity of mobile home parks. Others of you wrote dissertations truthfully balancing the hopeful intentions and the sometimes destructive realities of public housing initiatives and elevated urban highways. Another student developed a design proposal for a public swimming park in Richmond, VA-- across the railroad tracks from a recently-acknowledged slave cemetery. Engaging the difficult historic realities of that place resulted in a dignified, respectful project that articulated a coherent vision for an urbanism that links social justice with access to recreation. Another used digital representation to explore and communicate ideas about form, space and experience, especially the differentiation of experiences by individuals of varying ages and ethnic perspectives. Like many of his peers, this student’s work was attuned to subtle nuances in the patterns of everyday urban life, eager to consider social and ecological issues as a continuum of cultural concerns. Such attention to subtle details of perception is a commitment to truths about architecture. BEAUTY (Beauty) Beauty. Plato was among the very first to argue for beauty as the highest of all values. “If there is anything worth living for,” he argued, “it is to behold beauty.” But beauty for Plato was not only discernable by the eye, as we so often constrain it to mean. That which was beautiful could be anything material but also anything psychological or social that caused admiration, generated delight, or aroused enjoyment. Once again, you graduates have delivered. One of you developed a computerized interactive geo-spatial inventory of the specimen trees on the University Grounds. This inventory will not only serve the preservation of the beauty of the University’s living arboretum on grounds, but will allow students, visitors and others to appreciate the diversity of the ground’s environs. Another proposed new housing and a park that would mimic the form of the South Bronx river, rather than hem it in, and would provide access to the river and play spaces along it for mothers and children. The work reflected not only visible beauty by integrating building and natural landscape but also ethical beauty in attending to social justice and challenging the idea that it is somehow "natural" for poor people to live in ugly places. Another of you designed a Cistercian monastery described by a critic as “absolutely breathtaking in its poetic grace.” Many of you participated in amazing community-investment projects like EcoMod, project ReCover, the Downtown Mall project, the Learning Barge, the Fun Bus, the DIRT studio, the Falmouth Field School in Jamaica among others, projects that all work to integrate visual and ethical beauty. Finally, I am told that there are few that demonstrate these virtues of goodness truth and beauty more clearly that one of our own graduating students who has recently fallen seriously ill: Catherine Brown. Her work has been described by her faculty as highly creative and keenly perceptive, especially her work on a Martha Jefferson Hospital site and for the Charlottesville Community Design Center. They write that she has redefined creativity, and is an inspiration to her classmates and instructors. Together as a community we extend our thoughts and prayers to Catherine and her family in the hope of a full and healthful recovery. Plato identified three qualities that stood as the highest of all human values: goodness, truth, and beauty. For Plato, these were essential criterion for collective human flourishing. If Plato was right, the absence of these values, by contrast, leads to isolation, and withering decay. If we as a nation have learned nothing else from the economic crisis of the past year, we now recognize that the tyranny of the self reaps grim rewards for individuals and undermines the health of community. In architectural terms this new reality profoundly implicates the popular image of the starchitect, the singular designer of trendy buildings working to bring glory to the self. Such a model is deeply disturbing. In the stead of the self-made individual, excellence in architecture should be firmly rooted in that work committed to the health and sustainability of communities. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty all teach us that Architecture is for others. And that is where you as graduates of this School of Architecture shine. In your designs for future improvements, in your assessments of present conditions, and in your lessons from the past, you are already fluent in the language of these virtues. Goodness is the pursuit of knowledge through virtues in action. Truth characterizes things of substance. Beauty causes admiration and generates delight in others. With these tools knit into the very fabric of who you are and what you do, you will stem the tide of placelessness, resist the tyranny of the self, and demonstrate for future generations the way toward a horizon of sustainable, healthy communities. As you graduate from UVA, that is your charge…now go change the world.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Louis Nelson's Book on Religious Architecture in Colonial South Carolina to be Released

"The Beauty of Holiness: Anglicanism and Architecture in Colonial South Carolina" (UNC Press, 2008)contains Chair and Assoc. Professor of Architectural History Louis Nelson's research into the practices, politics, and design of Anglican life and structures. The book is scheduled for release this month. From the publisher: "Nelson begins with a careful examination of the buildings, grave markers, and communion silver fashioned and used by early Anglicans. Turning to the religious functions of local churches, he uses these objects and artifacts to explore Anglican belief and practice in South Carolina. Chapters focus on the role of the senses in religious understanding, the practice of the sacraments, and the place of beauty, regularity, and order in eighteenth-century Anglicanism. The final section of the book considers the ways church architecture and material culture reinforced social and political hierarchies."

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Faculty Receive Grants from Graham Foundation

Four faculty members received grants from the Graham Foundation in the 2008 cycle. Assoc. Professor Cammy Brothers received a publication grant in support of an edited book, "Renaissance Architecture and the Antique: Selected Essays by Howard Burns". Asst. Professor Sheila Crane received a publication grant in support of her monograph, "Mediterranean Crossroads: Marseille and the Remaking of Modern Architecture". Asst. Professor Jason Johnson received a research and development grant in support of his forthcoming book, "Robotic Ecologies". Assoc. Professor and Chair Louis Nelson received a publication grant in support of his monograph, "Pulpits, Piety and Power: Anglicanism and Architecture in Colonial South Carolina".

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Assoc. Professor Louis Nelson Assumes Chairmanship of Architectural History

Louis Nelson, Associate Professor of Architectural History, has been named by Dean Karen Van Lengen as the new chair of the Department of Architectural History. Nelson has taught at the School of Architecture since 2001, primarily in the field of Early American Architecture and related disciplines. ?It is an honor to chair a department that will continue to shape how we understand architecture through the eyes of those who commission, build, design, preserve and occupy buildings and landscapes,? Nelson said. Nelson succeeds as chair Professor Dell Upton, who is now Professor of Art at the University of California at Los Angeles. While at UVa, Upton played a significant role in shaping the goals of the Department of Architectural History and forming the new shared doctoral program with the College of Arts and Sciences. Dean Van Lengen noted, ?Professor Upton?s teaching and research is deeply respected. His national stature as a prominent intellectual leader in cultural and architectural history has added significant breadth to our school ?. I have been personally very grateful for his contributions to the school in so many ways. He will be missed.? During his time at UVa, Nelson has written several articles and two books, American Sanctuary: Understanding Sacred Spaces (2006) and Pulpits, Piety and Power: Anglican Architecture Material in Colonial South Carolina (under contract). He is editor of the journal, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture (Univ. of Minnesota), and the director of the Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation in which students spend a month in Jamaica documenting and preserving historic buildings each summer. Nelson has received several prestigious grants for his work and was the recipient of the University Teaching Award in spring 2007, the highest recognition for excellence in teaching at UVa. Dean Van Lengen said, ?[Prof. Nelson] is a devoted teacher and accomplished scholar and it will be my great pleasure to work with him as the next chair of the department.?

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Asst. Professor Louis Nelson Wins All-University Teaching Award

Asst. Professor of Architectural History Louis Nelson has won one of nine 2006-07 All-University Teaching Awards sponsored by the UVa Teaching Resource Center and administered by the Office of the Provost. School of Architecture Dean Karen Van Lengen noted, "Louis Nelson is a dynamic, articulate and engaged professor, whose complementary excellence in research, writing and teaching give depth and rigor to his role as mentor and teacher. We are all very proud of his accomplishments and look forward to his promising future in our school." And Chair of the Department of Architectural History Dell Upton said, ?Louis Nelson is one of our most effective and popular teachers. His enthusiasm engages students and his rigor pushes them to work at their highest capacity. We are lucky to have him.? Prof. Nelson will receive the prestigious award at the annual ?Celebration of Teaching? banquet this spring.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Falmouth Field School Receives Grant

The Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation, directed by Louis Nelson, Assistant Professor of Architectural History, has received a $10,000 grant from Falmouth Heritage Renewal and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to partially fund ten graduate students? participation this summer. The field school is a three-week, three-credit program in applied historic preservation held on-site in Falmouth, Jamaica (May 23 ? June 15, 2007). Students will learn a variety of skills, ranging from the conservation of historic brick masonry and timber framing, to recording threatened buildings through detailed measured drawings, to learning how to ?read? the historic fabric of a building.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Falmouth Field School Receives Grant for Students

The Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation, directed by Louis Nelson, Assistant Professor of Architectural History, has received a $10,000 grant from Falmouth Heritage Renewal and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to partially fund six graduate students? participation this summer. The field school is a three-week, three-credit program in applied historic preservation held on-site in Falmouth, Jamaica (July 17 ? August 7, 2006). Students will learn a variety of skills, ranging from the conservation of historic brick masonry and timber framing, to recording threatened buildings through detailed measured drawings, to learning how to ?read? the historic fabric of a building.

For more information, visit Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation 2006.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Asst. Prof. Louis Nelson Edits New Book on American Religious Spaces

On March 3rd, Indiana University Press will release Louis Nelson's new book, American Sanctuary: Understanding Sacred Spaces . The volume is a collection of essays, including one by Prof. Nelson. From the publisher: "This volume examines a diverse set of spaces and buildings seen through the lens of popular practice and belief to shed light on the complexities of sacred space in America. Contributors explore how dedication sermons document shifting understandings of the meetinghouse in early 19th-century Connecticut; the changes in evangelical church architecture during the same century and what that tells us about evangelical religious life; the impact of contemporary issues on Catholic church architecture; the impact of globalization on the construction of traditional sacred spaces; the urban practice of Jewish space; nature worship and Central Park in New York; the mezuzah and domestic sacred space; and, finally, the spiritual aspects of African American yard art."

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Faculty Member Listed as Reason to Choose UVa

Assistant Professor of Architectural History, Louis Nelson, has been named as a reason for prospective students to choose to attend UVa in the 2006 edition of Choosing the Right College (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2005).

Mr. Nelson has also recently been selected as a Senior Co-Editor of the journal, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture , the publication of the Vernacular Architecture Forum.

	Home > Faculty > Architectural History > Louis Nelson in the News Wednesday, November 4, 2009 Louis Nelson Wins Accolade at Regional SAH Meeting Associate Professor and Chair of Architectural History Louis Nelson received the "Article of the Year" Award at last week's annual meeting of the Southeast Society of Architectural Historians. His article, "Sensing the Sacred: Anglican Material Religion in early South Carolina," was published in the "Winterthur Portfolio." Sunday, May 17, 2009 Louis Nelson's 2009 Diploma Ceremony Speech [Note: As this presentation was prepared as a speech, the text does not include footnotes as would be customary for a printed article.] "Goodness, Truth and Beauty" by Louis Nelson Faculty Speaker, 2009 Diploma Ceremony UVa School of Architecture Let me begin by recognizing the ten years in which the School of Architecture has flourished under the deanship of Karen Van Lengen. Without her hard work, we would not have the two phenomenal new wings that now shape our work and our lives together. These additions have not only had a profound and positive impact on our school, they have reshaped the place of architecture in our larger university community. She has also launched our Foundation Board and tripled the size of our endowment. These are no minor feats. Karen’s work will have a lasting impact on future generations of architecture here at UVA. As a learning community we all owe a great debt to Karen. Please join me in thanking her for her dedicated service. You are today receiving a degree from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. So does that mean you are all going out to become architects? Of course not. We here at this School understand the term architecture to read far more broadly than that. We are concerned with the design of buildings, yes, but also parks, cities, transportation systems, gardens, neighborhoods, social networks, watersheds, public art, the list goes on and on. Architecture as we understand it encompasses the whole of the built environment. And we are concerned not only with the improvements for the future, but also the conditions of the present, and the lessons of the past. So if we define architecture so broadly, is there anything that lies at the heart of what we do? Besides just a collective interest in built stuff, is there something that binds us together as an intellectual and academic community? As a historian, of course, I’m naturally inclined to reach into the past for answers to present questions. Some have offered the writings of early architects: Corb? even earlier? Alberti? earlier still? Vitruvius? In retrospect I think not. I want you to consider a claim that the foundations of great design were laid centuries before Vitruvius in a scholar who understood much about the nature of the human condition. In his treatise entitled Phaedrus, the Greek philosopher Plato identified three qualities that stood as the highest of all human values: goodness, truth, and beauty. He saw these as inextricably linked one to the other and offered them as the criterion for human flourishing. It now seems to me self-evident that excellence in architecture emerges from scholarship and design that fosters human flourishing, scholarship and design that stands on the firm foundation of goodness truth and beauty. Let’s take each virtue in turn. GOODNESS (Justice) Goodness. For Plato, goodness was the source of knowledge and was best understood through analogy to the sun. For sight, the sun is the source of light, and so makes objects visible and allows the eye to see; for Knowledge, Goodness is the source of Truth, and so makes Forms intelligible and allows the mind to know. Goodness, which for Plato is virtue in action, was the source of truth that resulted in knowledge. We have surely seen that kind of knowledge generation at play in this coterie of graduating students. I have spent much of the last week collecting comments from the faculty about the work of their graduating students and that exercise has been clear evidence that you graduates embody the virtue of Goodness—the pursuit of knowledge through virtues in action. One from among you put your commitment to local sustainability to action by writing an innovative study on local food in an effort to transform local foodways here in Charlottesville. Another wrote a thesis project on the district of Zongo in Cape Coast, Ghana, which currently functions in the unhealthy conditions of open sewers and water systems. This student has proposed a fundamental rethinking of water use as watershed, which could provide a new means of simultaneously resolving issues of sanitation and erosion. One of their peers wrote a thesis on the architecture of nineteenth-century African-Americans in Hampton Virginia, charting the ways architecture played a role in shaping an identity of freedom and independence. Students have also created the university's first community garden, worked for the improvement of informal housing settlements in India and Brazil, volunteered for the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program, and taught indigineous Chilean children about sustainable farming practices, all with an eye toward social justice and equity. Here in the School of Architecture and in the work of our students, Goodness abounds. TRUTH (Integrity) Truth: In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato argues that that which is true is that which has substance. In this dialogue, Plato offers an image of individuals having to choose between the reality of shadows they have always known or the reality of the objects that cast those shadows, but objects they have never seen. In so doing, Plato asserts that truth is that which is tied to reality, to substance, to those things which have integrity. In addition to pursuing goodness in their work, students also demonstrate the pursuit of truth, by which I mean the pursuit of that which has intellectual and ethical substance. One of you argued for the individual and collective design integrity of mobile home parks. Others of you wrote dissertations truthfully balancing the hopeful intentions and the sometimes destructive realities of public housing initiatives and elevated urban highways. Another student developed a design proposal for a public swimming park in Richmond, VA-- across the railroad tracks from a recently-acknowledged slave cemetery. Engaging the difficult historic realities of that place resulted in a dignified, respectful project that articulated a coherent vision for an urbanism that links social justice with access to recreation. Another used digital representation to explore and communicate ideas about form, space and experience, especially the differentiation of experiences by individuals of varying ages and ethnic perspectives. Like many of his peers, this student’s work was attuned to subtle nuances in the patterns of everyday urban life, eager to consider social and ecological issues as a continuum of cultural concerns. Such attention to subtle details of perception is a commitment to truths about architecture. BEAUTY (Beauty) Beauty. Plato was among the very first to argue for beauty as the highest of all values. “If there is anything worth living for,” he argued, “it is to behold beauty.” But beauty for Plato was not only discernable by the eye, as we so often constrain it to mean. That which was beautiful could be anything material but also anything psychological or social that caused admiration, generated delight, or aroused enjoyment. Once again, you graduates have delivered. One of you developed a computerized interactive geo-spatial inventory of the specimen trees on the University Grounds. This inventory will not only serve the preservation of the beauty of the University’s living arboretum on grounds, but will allow students, visitors and others to appreciate the diversity of the ground’s environs. Another proposed new housing and a park that would mimic the form of the South Bronx river, rather than hem it in, and would provide access to the river and play spaces along it for mothers and children. The work reflected not only visible beauty by integrating building and natural landscape but also ethical beauty in attending to social justice and challenging the idea that it is somehow "natural" for poor people to live in ugly places. Another of you designed a Cistercian monastery described by a critic as “absolutely breathtaking in its poetic grace.” Many of you participated in amazing community-investment projects like EcoMod, project ReCover, the Downtown Mall project, the Learning Barge, the Fun Bus, the DIRT studio, the Falmouth Field School in Jamaica among others, projects that all work to integrate visual and ethical beauty. Finally, I am told that there are few that demonstrate these virtues of goodness truth and beauty more clearly that one of our own graduating students who has recently fallen seriously ill: Catherine Brown. Her work has been described by her faculty as highly creative and keenly perceptive, especially her work on a Martha Jefferson Hospital site and for the Charlottesville Community Design Center. They write that she has redefined creativity, and is an inspiration to her classmates and instructors. Together as a community we extend our thoughts and prayers to Catherine and her family in the hope of a full and healthful recovery. Plato identified three qualities that stood as the highest of all human values: goodness, truth, and beauty. For Plato, these were essential criterion for collective human flourishing. If Plato was right, the absence of these values, by contrast, leads to isolation, and withering decay. If we as a nation have learned nothing else from the economic crisis of the past year, we now recognize that the tyranny of the self reaps grim rewards for individuals and undermines the health of community. In architectural terms this new reality profoundly implicates the popular image of the starchitect, the singular designer of trendy buildings working to bring glory to the self. Such a model is deeply disturbing. In the stead of the self-made individual, excellence in architecture should be firmly rooted in that work committed to the health and sustainability of communities. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty all teach us that Architecture is for others. And that is where you as graduates of this School of Architecture shine. In your designs for future improvements, in your assessments of present conditions, and in your lessons from the past, you are already fluent in the language of these virtues. Goodness is the pursuit of knowledge through virtues in action. Truth characterizes things of substance. Beauty causes admiration and generates delight in others. With these tools knit into the very fabric of who you are and what you do, you will stem the tide of placelessness, resist the tyranny of the self, and demonstrate for future generations the way toward a horizon of sustainable, healthy communities. As you graduate from UVA, that is your charge…now go change the world. Wednesday, December 10, 2008 Louis Nelson's Book on Religious Architecture in Colonial South Carolina to be Released "The Beauty of Holiness: Anglicanism and Architecture in Colonial South Carolina" (UNC Press, 2008)contains Chair and Assoc. Professor of Architectural History Louis Nelson's research into the practices, politics, and design of Anglican life and structures. The book is scheduled for release this month. From the publisher: "Nelson begins with a careful examination of the buildings, grave markers, and communion silver fashioned and used by early Anglicans. Turning to the religious functions of local churches, he uses these objects and artifacts to explore Anglican belief and practice in South Carolina. Chapters focus on the role of the senses in religious understanding, the practice of the sacraments, and the place of beauty, regularity, and order in eighteenth-century Anglicanism. The final section of the book considers the ways church architecture and material culture reinforced social and political hierarchies." Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Faculty Receive Grants from Graham Foundation Four faculty members received grants from the Graham Foundation in the 2008 cycle. Assoc. Professor Cammy Brothers received a publication grant in support of an edited book, "Renaissance Architecture and the Antique: Selected Essays by Howard Burns". Asst. Professor Sheila Crane received a publication grant in support of her monograph, "Mediterranean Crossroads: Marseille and the Remaking of Modern Architecture". Asst. Professor Jason Johnson received a research and development grant in support of his forthcoming book, "Robotic Ecologies". Assoc. Professor and Chair Louis Nelson received a publication grant in support of his monograph, "Pulpits, Piety and Power: Anglicanism and Architecture in Colonial South Carolina". Tuesday, January 8, 2008 Assoc. Professor Louis Nelson Assumes Chairmanship of Architectural History Louis Nelson, Associate Professor of Architectural History, has been named by Dean Karen Van Lengen as the new chair of the Department of Architectural History. Nelson has taught at the School of Architecture since 2001, primarily in the field of Early American Architecture and related disciplines. ?It is an honor to chair a department that will continue to shape how we understand architecture through the eyes of those who commission, build, design, preserve and occupy buildings and landscapes,? Nelson said. Nelson succeeds as chair Professor Dell Upton, who is now Professor of Art at the University of California at Los Angeles. While at UVa, Upton played a significant role in shaping the goals of the Department of Architectural History and forming the new shared doctoral program with the College of Arts and Sciences. Dean Van Lengen noted, ?Professor Upton?s teaching and research is deeply respected. His national stature as a prominent intellectual leader in cultural and architectural history has added significant breadth to our school ?. I have been personally very grateful for his contributions to the school in so many ways. He will be missed.? During his time at UVa, Nelson has written several articles and two books, American Sanctuary: Understanding Sacred Spaces (2006) and Pulpits, Piety and Power: Anglican Architecture Material in Colonial South Carolina (under contract). He is editor of the journal, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture (Univ. of Minnesota), and the director of the Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation in which students spend a month in Jamaica documenting and preserving historic buildings each summer. Nelson has received several prestigious grants for his work and was the recipient of the University Teaching Award in spring 2007, the highest recognition for excellence in teaching at UVa. Dean Van Lengen said, ?[Prof. Nelson] is a devoted teacher and accomplished scholar and it will be my great pleasure to work with him as the next chair of the department.? Tuesday, March 20, 2007 Asst. Professor Louis Nelson Wins All-University Teaching Award Asst. Professor of Architectural History Louis Nelson has won one of nine 2006-07 All-University Teaching Awards sponsored by the UVa Teaching Resource Center and administered by the Office of the Provost. School of Architecture Dean Karen Van Lengen noted, "Louis Nelson is a dynamic, articulate and engaged professor, whose complementary excellence in research, writing and teaching give depth and rigor to his role as mentor and teacher. We are all very proud of his accomplishments and look forward to his promising future in our school." And Chair of the Department of Architectural History Dell Upton said, ?Louis Nelson is one of our most effective and popular teachers. His enthusiasm engages students and his rigor pushes them to work at their highest capacity. We are lucky to have him.? Prof. Nelson will receive the prestigious award at the annual ?Celebration of Teaching? banquet this spring. Friday, March 16, 2007 Falmouth Field School Receives Grant The Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation, directed by Louis Nelson, Assistant Professor of Architectural History, has received a $10,000 grant from Falmouth Heritage Renewal and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to partially fund ten graduate students? participation this summer. The field school is a three-week, three-credit program in applied historic preservation held on-site in Falmouth, Jamaica (May 23 ? June 15, 2007). Students will learn a variety of skills, ranging from the conservation of historic brick masonry and timber framing, to recording threatened buildings through detailed measured drawings, to learning how to ?read? the historic fabric of a building. Thursday, May 25, 2006 Falmouth Field School Receives Grant for Students The Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation, directed by Louis Nelson, Assistant Professor of Architectural History, has received a $10,000 grant from Falmouth Heritage Renewal and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to partially fund six graduate students? participation this summer. The field school is a three-week, three-credit program in applied historic preservation held on-site in Falmouth, Jamaica (July 17 ? August 7, 2006). Students will learn a variety of skills, ranging from the conservation of historic brick masonry and timber framing, to recording threatened buildings through detailed measured drawings, to learning how to ?read? the historic fabric of a building. For more information, visit Falmouth Field School in Historic Preservation 2006. Monday, February 20, 2006 Asst. Prof. Louis Nelson Edits New Book on American Religious Spaces On March 3rd, Indiana University Press will release Louis Nelson's new book, American Sanctuary: Understanding Sacred Spaces . The volume is a collection of essays, including one by Prof. Nelson. From the publisher: "This volume examines a diverse set of spaces and buildings seen through the lens of popular practice and belief to shed light on the complexities of sacred space in America. Contributors explore how dedication sermons document shifting understandings of the meetinghouse in early 19th-century Connecticut; the changes in evangelical church architecture during the same century and what that tells us about evangelical religious life; the impact of contemporary issues on Catholic church architecture; the impact of globalization on the construction of traditional sacred spaces; the urban practice of Jewish space; nature worship and Central Park in New York; the mezuzah and domestic sacred space; and, finally, the spiritual aspects of African American yard art." Tuesday, November 8, 2005 Faculty Member Listed as Reason to Choose UVa Assistant Professor of Architectural History, Louis Nelson, has been named as a reason for prospective students to choose to attend UVa in the 2006 edition of Choosing the Right College (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2005). Mr. Nelson has also recently been selected as a Senior Co-Editor of the journal, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture , the publication of the Vernacular Architecture Forum.	Profile Courses Publications In the News Contact
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