Category Archives: Education

Closing Remarks, Three Generations of Classical Architects: The Renewal of Modern Architecture, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture (2005)

I am charged with offering concluding remarks and answering the questions of what the future holds and what challenges we face to meet that future. Before I do, I would like to thank our hosts and offer a special thanks to Michael Lykoudis for his vision for this conference. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank those people who have been so critical to the path of my own career – Bill Westfall, Thomas Gordon Smith, Rodney Cook, Richard John and my dear friends at the Institute.

Now, what challenges do we face and how do we meet them? Well, to consider this, I am first going to take my gloves off for a moment and succumb to what I would call realism, or what Michael Lykoudis has called pessimism, and then I will put my gloves back on and, hopefully, conclude on a polite, optimistic note.

Three Generations of Classical Architects conference speakers, panelists, and attendees, University of Notre Dame (2005)

Three Generations of Classical Architects conference speakers, panelists, and attendees, University of Notre Dame (2005)

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Windsor Forum on Design Education: The Classical Model

From April 12-14, 2002 architects, urbanists, and educators gathered at the town of Windsor in Florida to discuss an ideal curriculum for architectural education which would address the crisis in architecture and urbanism. Among many distinguished speakers, I was invited to present the programs and philosophy of the Institute of Classical Architecture (today’s ICAA). Here below are my remarks as published in the Windsor Forum on Design Education: Toward an Ideal Curriculum to Reform Architectural Education, edited by Peter Hetzel and Dhiru Thadani (Miami: New Urban Press, 2004).

Christine G. H. Franck demonstrating rendering techniques during ICAA Summer Program

Christine G. H. Franck demonstrating rendering techniques during ICAA Summer Program

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Building Skill in Summer: New Orleans

Tomorrow I head to New Orleans to teach on The Prince’s Foundation’s Summer Program. I look forward to working with my fellow instructors, the students, and to seeing the Big Easy again. My involvement with the Foundation’s programs reaches all the way back to two programs we developed in 1996 and 1997, the first two American Summer Schools of what was then called the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture. Our programs ranged all across the United States, from Asheville to Charlottesville to Richmond, and from Los Angeles to Berkeley.


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Three Glimpses of the Institute: Rome, New York, Florida

[As we approach the twentieth anniversary of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, I thought I would share with you a memoir I wrote for our tenth anniversary.]

ROME

Just before Rosabelli and I walked into the Piazza Navona I asked her to pause for a moment, knowing the thrill that she was about to experience for the first time. Then she walked into the Piazza and with awe she gasped at the beauty of the plashing fountains with their brilliant sunlit sculptures set off in front of the darkly towering San’Agnese in Agone. Large tears welled up in her eyes as she breathed in a small part of what Rome offers an architect. It was Rosabelli’s first trip to Rome from her native Brazil and it was also the Institute’s inaugural Rome Architectural Drawing Tour.

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Palladio as Paradigm for Education and Practice Today

Lecture delivered at the University of Notre Dame’s conference: From Vernacular to Classical: The Perpetual Modernity of Palladio, June 10-12, 2011

Dean Lykoudis, faculty, alumni, students, and colleagues it is a pleasure to be back at Notre Dame for this remarkable conference and exhibition. I offer my sincere thanks to the School of Architecture and Lucien for organizing the conference, to Lucien and Ali for their thoughtful and thought-provoking New Palladians, to the RIBA for their inspirational exhibit celebrating 500 years of Palladio, to Calder Loth for his inimitable contributions to Palladio’s Transatlantic journey, and last to my fellow Institute of Classical Architecture & Art trustee, Anne Kriken Mann, for ensuring that the Palladio made it to America.

Reflecting upon the conference theme of the “Perpetual Modernity of Palladio,” I began to question Palladio’s value today. What lessons can Palladio teach us?

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Franck Speaks at Boston’s Pella Pro Expo

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Speaking at the Pella Pro Expo in Boston yesterday, at the TD Garden was terrific fun. Thanks to Pete Miller at Restore Media for developing this break-out educational content at the 2011 Pella Pro Expos. While I didn’t do a head count we had a packed room that I estimate held about 200 folks, nearly all architects. My lectures focused on the relevance of classical architecture to contemporary American domestic architecture and a second session on marketing tactics with a particular focus on social networking.

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Lecture on Traditional American Rooms, ICAA Texas Chapter

Winterthur Style Sourcebook: Traditional American Rooms
a lecture by Christine G. H. Franck and Brent Hull
Thursday, April 22, 2010, Gilliland Residence, 3720 Beverly Drive, Dallas, TX

978-1-56523-322-5

The lecture will explore the Winterthur Museum’s period rooms, the role of the Colonial Revival throughout America and the South, and their relevance for the best of design and craftsmanship today.

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Designing in Atlanta

Last night at the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in Atlanta, Brent Hull and I lectured on our new book Winterthur Style Sourcebook: Traditional American Rooms. The event was organized by the ICA&CA Southeast Chapter, and sponsored by Randall Brothers. Thank you! Today we’re teaching a seminar on classical design and good practice in millwork at Historical Concepts’ wonderful office. High up on the 4th floor, our students are hard at work on an esquisse for a classical interior. The deadline is an hour away! It’s great to see such talent and focus from these terrific architects and designers.

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Lecture and Booksigning, ICAA Interiors Seminar, Atlanta February 5-6, 2010

Christine G. H. Franck and Brent Hull lecture on The Winterthur Style Sourcebook, Traditional American Rooms: Celebrating Style, Craftsmanship, and Historic Woodwork. 

Friday, February 5

Lecture & Book-signing for Winterthur Style Sourcebook: Traditional American Rooms – Celebrating Style, Craftsmanship, and Historic Woodwork.

The book has been called “an extremely useful design guide and tutorial on the creation of classic interior architecture,” by Period Homes, and the authors’ lecture will present fascinating information about stylistic origins that will be of great interest to architects, design professionals, and the general public.

6:30 P.M. Reception; 7:00 P.M. Lecture

Location: Rhodes Hall – Headquarters for The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, 1516 Peachtree Street, NW Atlanta, GA 30309 

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