Kenneth Breisch, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor
Teaching Area
Historic Preservation and Architectural History and TheoryEducation
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1982
MA, University of Michigan, 1977
AB, with honors and high distinction, University of Michigan, 1975
Teaching and Administrative Experience
Courses Taught
ARCH 450 - Fundamentals of Historic Preservation
ARCH 214b - History of Architecture: Renaissance to the Present
ARCH 409 - American Architecture and Urbanism
Summer Series of Short Courses in Historic Preservation
Positions
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Architecture, University of Southern California, 1998-present
Professor, Department of History and Theory, Southern California Institute of Architecture, 1987-present
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, The University of Delaware, 1986-87
Lecturer, Art History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, 1985
Lecturer, Cultural History Department, School of Architecture, Lawrence Institute of Technology, 1979
Teaching Assistant, Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, 1976-78
Memberships
The Vernacular Architecture Forum, 1983-present
The American Studies Association, 1983-present
The Society of Architectural Historians, 1975-present
The College Art Association, 1974-present
Academic and Professional Honors
National Endowment for the Humanities Travel to Collections Grant, 1990
University of Michigan Rackham Dissertation Grant, 1980
Publications (Selected)
Books
Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, with Alison K. Hoagland (eds.), vols. ix and x, 1998-2033.Henry Hobson Richardson and the Small Public Library in America: A Study in Typology, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1997.
Articles
"Fountains and Spectacles at International Expositions: 1851-1915," in Fountains: Splash and Spectacle, Water and Design from the Renaissance to the Present, M. Symmes (ed.), New York, Rizolli and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 1998, pp. 105-113."Good Building Stone and a 'Lay of the Land' that Makes for 'Hominess:' Norwegian American Settlement Patterns and Architecture in Bosque County, Texas," Material Culture and People's Art Among the Norwegians in America," M. J. Nelson (ed.), Northfield, MN, The Norwegian-American Historical Society, 1994, pp. 92-117.
"Rome Through the Veil of Time: Parker, Ruskin and the Romantic Vision of Classicism," Visual Resources 8, 1992, pp. 335-342.
"William Frederick Poole and Modern Library Architecture," in Modern Architecture in American: Visions and Revisions, Richard Guy Wilson and Sydney K, Robinson (eds.), Ames, IA, Iowa State University Press, 1991, pp. 52-92.
"New England Mills," in Mills and Factories of New England: Photographs by Serge Hambourg, New York and Hanover, Harry N. Abrams in association with the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, NH, 1988, pp. 22-58 and captions.
"The Ricardsonian Interlude in Texas: A Quest for Meaning and Order at the End of the Nineteenth Century" in The Spirit of Richardson on the Midland Prairies, Ames, IA, The University Art Museum, University of Minnesota and Iowa State University Press, 1988, pp. 87-105.
"The Norwegian 'Rock' Houses of Bosque County, Texas: Some Observations on a Nineteenth Century Vernacular Type," Co-authored with David Moore, in Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, Camille Wells (ed.), Columbia, MO, the University of Missouri Press, 1986, pp. 64-71.
Reviews of work
Richard Longreth, City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, the Automobile and Retailing in Los Angeles, 1920-1950, Cambridge, MA and London, MIT Press, 1997, in fall 1998 Journal of the Society for Commercial Archaeology.Carol Herselle Krinksy, Contemporary Native American Architecture: Cultural Regeneration and Creativity, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, December 1997, pp. 534-536.
Ilene H. Forsyth, The Uses of Art: Medieval Metaphor in the Michigan Law Quadrangle, Ann Arbor, MI, 1993 in The Michigan Law Review, May 1995, pp. 1778-1786.
John Warren Barna, The See-Through Years: Creation and Destruction in Texas Architecture and Real Estate 1981-1991, Houston, TX, 1992; Kenneth Hafertepe, Abner Cook: Master Builder on the Texas Frontier, Austin, TX, 1992; Jay C. Henry, Architecture in Texas: 1895-1945, Austin, TX, 1993; and Elizabeth S. Sasser, Dugout to Deco: Building in West Texas, 1880-1930, Lubbock, TX 1993 in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, March 1995, pp. 81-85.
Research (Selected)
Vernacular Architecture
Rockefeller Foundation Grant for study of American Art.
School
Interim Director of Program in Historic Preservation
Professional
Co-chair, Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Los Angeles, 1998
Chair, Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize Committee, Vernacular Architecture Forum, 1997
Session chair, "History and Theory," ACSA Regional Conference, Los Angeles,1997
Society for American City and Regional Planning History -- 1997 to present
Planning Commissioner, City of Santa Monica -- 1993 to present (Vice Chair 1994-5, Chair 1995-6)
Consultant, J Paul Getty Trust Historic Preservation Grant Program -- 1988 to present
The Vernacular Architecture Forum -- 1983 to present
The American Studies Association -- 1983 to present
The Society of Architectural Historians -- 1975 to present
The College Art Association -- 1974 to present
Professional Experience
Fall 1997 to present, Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Southern California.
Fall 1987 to present -- Professor, Department of History and Theory, Southern California Institute of Architecture.
Fall 1986 and spring 1987, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, The University of Delaware.
Fall 1985, Lecturer, Art History Department, The University of Texas at Austin.
August 1981 to April 1986, Director of Survey and Planning for the State Historic Preservation Office of the Texas Historical Commission, Austin, Texas.
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