The Sixth Savannah Symposium: World Heritage in Perspective Feb. 19-21, 2009
Pepe Hall, 212 W. Taylor St., Savannah, Ga.
The World Heritage trust was created in 1972 to protect man-made and natural sites deemed invaluable to our common global heritage. Since then, 851 properties have been awarded World Heritage status, and of these, 685 sites embody various legacies of human ingenuity and cultural expression made manifest in built form. The Sixth Savannah Symposium will explore the architectural and spatial elements of cultural properties on the World Heritage list and topics related to heritage designations as a factor in furthering the study of the built environment globally and locally.
Issues addressed will include:
- How are the criteria for designation made manifest in a building, site or city?
- How have contemporary or past international politics bolstered or interfered with a given country's or site's application?
- How does World Heritage designation affect a site's growth and change over time?
- What are the positive and negative consequences of World Heritage designation or other forms of heritage designation for the study and preservation of the built environment?
- How are the national rights of sovereign states balanced against those of the international community in the context of World Heritage sites, and how is this balance negotiated within the differing member states?
- What is the impact of global tourism on World Heritage?
This project is supported by the Georgia Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities and through appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly.
Download or print the call for papers.
The Fifth Savannah Symposium: Building in the Public Realm Feb. 8-10, 2007
Pepe Hall, 212 W. Taylor St., Savannah, Ga.
The 5th Savannah Symposium was directed by professors David Gobel and Celeste Guichard of the SCAD architectural history department. The theme for this symposium was "Building in the Public Realm," allowing consideration not only of the various manners in which architecture and space are and have been constructed for use outside of private contexts, but also of how various "publics" are formed, transformed, sustained and even elided through public buildings.
Approximately 40 speakers from around the nation and abroad presented papers in sessions devoted to issues of building in the public realm. Keynote speakers were Tom Hanchett, staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, N.C.; Christopher Mead, dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico and professor in the departments of art history and architecture; and Jo Noero, internationally acclaimed architect from Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Fourth Savannah Symposium: Architecture and Regionalism Feb. 24-26, 2005
Pepe Hall, 212 W. Taylor St., Savannah, Ga.
Directed by professors Thomas R. Gensheimer and E.G. Daves Rossell, with the assistance of professor Karl Schuler, architectural historians proposed that architecture is inevitably regional. While globalizing trends alter or create entirely new regions, regional identities remain. The symposium explored the ways in which regionalism has been - and continues to be - defined and redefined. What are regional architectural traditions and how are they defined? Can regions be defined through architecture? How do regional spaces shape social identity? What constitutes a regional boundary in space or time? How have popular adoptions of regional form muddied the understanding of region? Is there a regional and time-bound character to popular forms as well? What are some contested identities of regions? How have regional traditions of architecture and cultural landscape been interpreted by artists, authors and scholars?
The Third Savannah Symposium: Commemoration and the City Feb. 20-22, 2003
Pepe Hall, 212 W. Taylor St., Savannah, Ga.
Assyrian kings planted trees from conquered lands in their garden parks; Muslims took sites, forms and materials for buildings such as the Dome of the Rock, the Suleymaniye and the Great Mosque of Qairowan; Venetian crusaders carted away precious statues and relics from Constantinople to adorn their palace church; German excavators carried away entire buildings from the Ancient Near East; contemporary theme parks and entertainment complexes create simulacra of foreign and historical monuments. Do clear distinctions exist between commemoration, appropriation and fabrication? This session will investigate examples of commemorative acts and objects that are appropriated from one city by another.
The Second Savannah Symposium: Authenticity in Architecture
Feb. 15-17, 2001
Pepe Hall, 212 W. Taylor St., Savannah, Ga.
Western society at the end of the 20th century is obsessed with authenticity. Ours is a "culture of authenticity," according to CharlesTaylor. "To thine own self be true," has become the motto of a society in search of the authentic self. It is not surprising,
therefore, to hear the incessant refrain of "authenticity" applied
to contemporary architectural criticism. In the architecture columns of the New York Times, Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times, authenticity has replaced the Vitruvian triad of firmness, commodity and delight as the primary standard of judgment. Likewise, when debates arise regarding the appropriateness of a "modern" versus an "historical" building design for a community, the question often becomes, "Which is more authentic?" Savannah is a city beset with problems of architectural authenticity. Its historic architecture and city plan are admired not only by architects, planners, preservationists and historians, but also by tourists and residents. All seem to be continually searching for "authentic Savannah." Some fear that Savannah is in danger of losing its historic authenticity with the continued introduction of new buildings. Still others fear that imitating anything from the past is inauthentic. The Second Savannah Symposium will bring more than 45 historians, architects, planners, preservationists and humanities scholars from around the globe to explore these questions in a wide range of sessions, tours, keynote addresses and a colloquium. A keynote address will be given by James Howard Kunstler, author of "The Geography of Nowhere." 
Symposium on the City Square Feb. 25-27, 1999
Pepe Hall, 212 W. Taylor St., Savannah, Ga.
The Oglethorpe plan for Savannah is universally admired as a unique contribution to the history of city planning. Admiration for its rational grid plan and neighborhood squares, however, has not been matched by serious, scholarly attention. City squares in general constitute an important but neglected topic. Specific city squares have received attention recently in several controversial cases of urban renewal. The redevelopment of Times Square in New York, Paternoster Square in London, and several projects in Berlin come readily to mind. Still, no major symposium has been held on the general subject of the city square in recent years. Cities around the globe are entering a phase of newfound incomprehensibility. The megalopolis at the end of the millennium has no edge and no center; placelessness is its hallmark. As virtual space threatens urban space, critical discourse and historical investigation on the subject of the city square have never been so important. Savannah is a natural location for a scholarly symposium on this subject, while the recently formed architectural history department at SCAD is a natural host.