Background
Breisch, Kenneth Alan was born on August 20, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Son of Walter Ernest and La Verne (Ahern) Breisch.
(Building Environments: Perspectives in Vernacular Archite...)
Building Environments: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, Volume X, edited by Kenneth A. Breisch and Alison K. Hoagland, is a collection of the best papers presented at recent annual meetings of the Vernacular Architecture Forum. The editors assert that there is no single correct avenue to exploring our built environment. Rather, these essays provide a road map of the various paths of architectural inquiry, illustrating how expansive and interdisciplinary this research quest can and should be. Building Environments features a dialogue among historians, archaeologists, preservationists, architectural historians, and geographers. Because the discussions in this book are so inclusive, the points of view so varied, and the boundaries so expansive, Building Environments breaks down traditional research methodologies and provides new lines of inquiry. Each of the seventeen essays in this collection contributes unique insights to the broader task of interpreting our cultural landscape. In addition to examinations of tobacco barns in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, eighteenth-century townhouses on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay, and slave quarters in Charleston, South Carolina, the papers included stretch the boundaries of the term “architecture” by exploring structures such as rats’ nests, skin boats, wayside shrines, and corn palaces. This diversity and eclecticism encourage a fresh look at what we consider part of the environment. Building Environments is valuable as a research source and a teaching tool. Its brief, accessible essays put the core ideas of vernacular architecture easily within the reach of students at all levels.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572334401/?tag=2022091-20
(One natural outcome of the educational reform movement of...)
One natural outcome of the educational reform movement of the 1840s was the growth of the American public library. Though the first public libraries were housed in post offices and town halls, even in local drug stores, growing book collections soon forced cities and towns to recognize the need for larger, more appropriate buildings. Some 450 public libraries were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The most important and influential architect of the era who built librairies was Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), perhaps best known for his design of Boston's Trinity Church. The primary focus of Kenneth Breisch's Henry Hobson Richardson and the Small Public Library in America is on Richardson's designs for public libraries in Woburn, North Easton, Quincy, and Malden, Massachusetts, as well as an unbuilt proposal for the Hoyt Library in East Saginaw, Michigan. In addition to placing them within the broader history of American library design, Breisch offers a close examination of these buildings as participants in the cultural, political, and economic developments of the period. Since more than 80 percent of the public libraries built in the latter half of the nineteenth century were privately endowed—as were all of Richardson's library commissions—his discussion of the role of philanthropy, in particular, illuminates the perceived meaning and function of public libraries to the monied classes, as well as their function as memorials to deceased family members. Breisch also examines the role played by the library profession in the development of modern library planning theory during this period, a role that often clashed with the goals of the architects commissioned to design the library buildings. Although this conflict eventually led the American Library Association to condemn Richardson's buildings as unsuitable for library work, his designs still had enormous influence on the architectural vocabulary of the institution. The fact remains that Richardson invented and refined a significant prototype for the smaller American public library building.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262024160/?tag=2022091-20
Breisch, Kenneth Alan was born on August 20, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Son of Walter Ernest and La Verne (Ahern) Breisch.
AB, University Michigan, 1975. Master of Arts, University Michigan, 1977. Doctor of Philosophy, University Michigan, 1982.
Director survey and planning Texas Historical Commission, Austin, 1981-1986. Visiting assistant professor University Delaware, Newark, 1986-1987. Professor Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, since 1987.
Adjunct associate professor University Southern California School Architecture, since 1997.
(One natural outcome of the educational reform movement of...)
(Building Environments: Perspectives in Vernacular Archite...)
Chair Planning Commission, Santa Monica, California, 1995-1996, planning commissioner, since 1993. Member American Studies Association, College Art Association, Society Architect Historians, Vernacular Architect Forum (board directors 1985-1988, 96—), National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Married Judith Florence Keller, April 28, 1977. 1 child, William Rush Clinger.