Robert Adam speaks: On the Nature of Tradition and Innovation

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Dean Mark Gelernter, architect Robert Adam and Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives director Christine G. H. Franck.

Dean Mark Gelernter, architect Robert Adam and Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives director Christine G. H. Franck.

I was so pleased to have the great British architect Robert Adam come to Denver to deliver a lecture for the Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning this past spring. Many thanks to the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Rocky Mountain Chapter for their generous support!

Watch the video here:

Léon Krier on The Architecture of Community

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ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter President Don Ruggles, Irene Stillman, Leon Krier, Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives director Christine Franck, ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter secretary Tom Matthews on Leon Krier's visit to Denver.

ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter President Don Ruggles, Irene Stillman, Leon Krier, Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives director Christine Franck, ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter secretary Tom Matthews on Leon Krier’s visit to Denver.

This spring, the Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives at the University of Colorado Denver hosted Léon Krier for our inaugural lecture at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning, Many thanks to the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Rocky Mountain Chapter for their generous support in making this lecture possible. A standing room only crowd attended the lecture!

Watch the video here: 

Lecture Video: New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism

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Please enjoy my lecture on New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism, introducing the history and themes of this emerging trend in today’s architecture and urban design. Many thanks to the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Rocky Mountain Chapter for sponsoring my lecture, to the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning for hosting the lecture, and to Students for Classical Architecture CU Denver for their volunteer work at the lecture. Enjoy and please feel free to share!

New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism Lecture.

Franck lectures at the College of Architecture and Planning

Franck lectures at the College of Architecture and Planning

Franck to lecture on New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism in Denver ~ March 4, 2014

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Please join me TOMORROW, Tuesday evening, March 4th, in Denver for my lecture on “New Traditional Architecture and Urbanism” graciously sponsored by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art – Rocky Mountain Chapter and hosted at the CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning in the 2nd floor gallery.

Further information is here: http://classicist-rmc.org/christine-franck. We’ll have a brief reception at 5:30pm with my lecture beginning at 6pm.

Franck Lecture

Columns & Coffee on Colorado & Co.

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It was a pleasure to appear on Colorado & Co., a local magazine-style show that airs live in Denver and across Colorado on Channel 9, KUSA-TV from 10-11am on weekdays to promote the ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter’s Columns & Coffee tours! We’ll be appearing again soon to talk about the chapter’s already sold out tour of the Anschutz Collection at the American Museum of Western Art, led by the museum’s esteemed curator, Darlene Dueck. Tune in, February 18th to learn more about this important collection.

Christine Franck, Chad Cox and host Denise Plante.
Christine Franck on Colorado & Co,

New Initiative on Traditional Architecture Offered at University of Colorado Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning

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Christine G. H. Franck is appointed the first Director of Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives

Christine G. H. Franck

Denver (Sept. 26, 2013) – The University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning is proud to announce the college’s first-ever director of Contemporary Traditional Architecture Initiatives. Award-winning designer, author and educator Christine G. H. Franck has been appointed the first Director.

Dean Mark Gelernter says “this new position will help pull together a number of programs and initiatives in our college around the theme of Enduring Places. This means designing buildings and places that can last longer by adapting to changes over time, rather than wastefully replacing them when functions or tastes change.” Enduring Places partners sustainability with historic preservation, and focuses renewed attention on how buildings in the past adapted more gracefully to change than many of our more recent buildings. This initiative will help today’s practitioners learn important lessons from our traditional settlement patterns, design languages and building practices. Continue reading →

Rocky Mountain Classicism

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“We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.”  Henry David Thoreau[i]

At dawn I jogged up the granite steps of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Reaching the top and turning to face Civic Center Park and its dramatic backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, I succumbed to the awe any Easterner feels in the vast American West. Below me lay a graceful tableau of Beaux-Arts city planning painted in green grass and trees and white marble, purple mountains and Colorado-blue sky. It hardly seemed to contain the uncontainable space and energy of the West.

Figure 1 – My early morning view of Civic Center Park from the steps of the Colorado State Capitol.

Figure 1 – My early morning view of Civic Center Park from the steps of the Colorado State Capitol.

 

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Growth in the ICAA’s Educational Programs

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In 2002, after running the then-named Institute of Classical Architecture’s programs since 1997, I decided it was time for a workshop to discuss the future of our educational programs. 2002 marked the end of our first decade. During that time we had experienced financial, geographic and student growth and were on the cusp of three of our biggest steps forward: merging with Classical America, launching our template for chapters, and hiring our first President, Paul Gunther. Over the course of the following two years we gathered twice, inviting all of our faculty and fellows together to discuss the current and future state of our educational programs. We sought to arrive at a shared vision of future needs and possibilities. Many of those things we identified a decade ago have come to be fulfilled, some have yet to be, and some are no longer relevant. It is interesting to look back on this now, a decade later, after just returning home from the ICAA‘s National Curriculum Conference in Newport.

ICAA Instructors and staff meet at the 2013 National Curriculum Conference

ICAA Instructors and staff meet at the 2013 National Curriculum Conference

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The Use of Precedent in Design

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When designing a new building, how can we use historical precedent to guide us? Which precedents should we select? How should we study and apply them to our designs? Enjoy my powerpoint presentation exploring these issues for the AIBD’s First Tuesday @ 2:00. Full recorded version with audio will be forthcoming from the AIBD.