Course Descriptions

HIPR 101 Introduction to Historic Preservation
This wide-ranging course introduces students to preservation through observation and practical application. Class lectures and guest speakers discuss the breadth of preservation's interdisciplinary activities. Study trips to sites in Savannah and the region provide behind-the-scenes examination of preservation philosophy and its implementation in real situations.

HIPR 202 Recording and Interpretation for Historical Buildings
Students are introduced to practical field techniques employed in the recording of historical buildings. Students survey selected structures, identify significant features, and receive instruction in preparing records and interpretive drawings. Prerequisite: DRAW 115.

HIPR 203 Preservation Research
This intensive research course introduces students to the sources and methods of investigation used in historic preservation. Thematic and site-specific research problems are examined in shorter research exercises and in a comprehensive term project. Prerequisite: HIPR 101.

HIPR 307 Preservation Technology I
This course offers a comprehensive overview of the physical problems afflicting historical structures. Lectures and illustrations in the field address the history of building technology and the ongoing processes of material deterioration. Prerequisite: HIPR 101.

HIPR 308 Preservation Technology II
This course continues themes from Preservation Technology I, addressing the study of conservation and preservation of materials found in the built environment. Students practice hands-on repair and stabilization methods using traditional and contemporary techniques within a studio environment. Prerequisite: HIPR 307.

HIPR 310 Material Culture
This course introduces the history, theory and method of material culture study???the study of objects as a means of interpreting past human activity. Students are introduced to the parameters of the field and the various methods of analyzing artifacts. The course focuses on analyzing the American home and its furnishings, stylistic evolution and the changes in historic interiors. European influences, religion and technology are addressed through classroom activities, presentations, guest lectures and site visits. Prerequisite: HIPR 101.

HIPR 313 Preservation Law
This course examines in depth the fundamentals of legal protection for and regulation of historic cultural resources. Preservation is addressed in light of political systems that shape contemporary attitudes toward the historic environment. Prerequisite: HIPR 101.

HIPR 322 Preservation Economics
This lecture course addresses the economic underpinnings of continued use of historic buildings and sites. Strategies for historic preservation are considered in terms of the social and cultural attitudes that impact the built environment. Prerequisite: HIPR 101.

HIPR 323 Historic Paint Analysis
This course provides students with a working understanding of the conservation of wall paintings, their decorative reproduction and the process of paint analysis. Students are introduced to the mechanics of paint and associated materials as applied to the field of wall paintings and wood graining. Prerequisite: HIPR 101.

HIPR 331 Preservation Construction
This hands-on course addresses the contractor's relationship to the historic structure and its potential use. The course includes field trips, classroom lectures, projects and on-site work at a college-sponsored preservation work in progress. Prerequisite: HIPR 307.

HIPR 360 International Preservation Technology
This course is traditionally offered as part of a travel study program and is designed to give students a global perspective of historic preservation and conservation practices. Students are introduced to methodologies ???utilized by the international community to conserve the built environment. This course addresses the broader issues of preservation theory and planning, as well as the details of analysis and technical intervention. Students meet preservation professionals and participate in a hands-on practical preservation project. Field trips add additional perspective. The course culminates in written documentation of the international preservation experience. Prerequisite: Permission of the department chair.

HIPR 402 Preservation Planning
This course includes both field and class experiences in preservation planning. Students develop sample preservation plans that address small town or rural issues and the challenges of an urban setting. Prerequisites: HIPR 101, HIPR 203.

HIPR 404 Preservation Management: Nonprofit
This course focuses on the processes for successful nonprofit historic preservation organizations. Students are introduced to organizational management skills, including the roles and responsibilities of the director, the executive committee, the board of directors and other committees. Prerequisites: HIPR 101, HIPR 203.

HIPR 405 Historic Timber Framing
This course surveys styles and materials used in the framing of historic buildings. Framing types include classic timber, balloon and transitional. Students create scale models of typical frame buildings and, when possible, construct full-scale examples of pinned, mortise and tenon joints. Construction is accomplished using traditional and specialty tools. The proper use and care of hand tools is emphasized. Students also survey the pathology of the timber frame. Prerequisite: HIPR 307.

HIPR 407 Adaptive Rehabilitation
In this studio course, students are introduced to specific historic sites in need of rehabilitation for continued use. The students are then responsible for researching the site, conducting feasibility studies, and generating design criteria goals and solutions. Particular emphasis is given to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Structures. Prerequisites: HIPR 203, HIPR 307, HIPR 313, HIPR 322.

HIPR 410 Topics and Techniques in Historic Landscape Preservation
This studio course explores various topics and techniques in historic landscape preservation, with an emphasis on applying The Secretary of the Interior's Guidelines for the Treatment of Historic Properties and Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes to selected sites. Lectures, readings, class discussions and presentations, graphic exercises, site visits and field trips illustrate the issues. Prerequisite: HIPR 101.

HIPR 425 Downtown Revitalization
This course provides a holistic analysis of the process by which downtown areas can be revitalized. The course explores the Main Street 4 Point Approach that combines organization, design, promotion, and economic restructuring to accomplish sustainable revitalization of downtowns. The course also considers the effects of current trends in development such as SmartGrowth and New Urbanism on the process of downtown revitalization. The course uses lectures to explain concepts and case studies to emphasize concepts. Prerequisite: HIPR 313.

HIPR 465 Professional Practices in Historic Preservation
Students are introduced to practical strategies for obtaining employment in their field. Additionally, they develop an understanding of successful and ethical business practices framed in a paradigm of ecologically sustainable preservation. Prerequisite: HIPR 307.

HIPR 499 Special Topics in Historic Preservation
The topic of this course varies from quarter to quarter. Each seminar focuses on various issues in the field of historic preservation and allows students to pursue individual research projects related to the topic of the course. Prerequisites: Vary according to topic.

HIPR 701 Introduction to Preservation
This course is designed to provide graduate students with an understanding of the history, methodology and practice of historic preservation. Practical, legal and philosophical issues are examined.

HIPR 703 Preservation Law and Advocacy
This course examines the evolution of historic preservation laws at the federal, state, and local levels. It begins with an understanding of the legal system in the United States and how laws are made and then explores specific laws that apply to historic preservation and cultural resources, including provisions of the U. S. Constitution. Topics include the Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the Department of Transportation Act of 1966, and the Environmental Policy Act of 1969 as well as more recent and more specific federal and state laws. Specific attention is paid to local land use planning and local historic district control as well as to national mechanisms for the protection of historic and cultural resources. Evolution and application of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards are considered, and the legal basis for the National Register of Historic Properties and National Historic Landmarks is considered. This course also exposes students to historic preservation and cultural resource advocacy groups, their areas of concern, and their effect on historic preservation and cultural resource laws.

HIPR 704 Preservation Economics and Development
This course examines the economic effects of historic preservation activities and strategies for achieving economic viability for rehabilitated historic buildings. The course begins with examination of basic economic concepts that affect the cost of and return from rehabilitated historic buildings, and then allows students to apply those concepts to theoretical rehabilitation projects. The course also explores economic incentives that have special application to historic properties, including tax credits and conservation easements. Topics include valuation of historic properties, financing of historic properties and marketing of historic properties.

HIPR 706 Preservation Research and Survey
This course is designed to give students a thorough understanding of research and survey. Students apply research skills to general and specific research projects and develop historic resource survey skills by examining underlying principles of survey.

HIPR 709 Conservation Science and Preservation Technology
This course presents a fundamental overview of the materials found in the make-up of historic structures???their composition, application and function. The history and evolution of materials, the remedial abatement of deterioration and long-term maintenance are also addressed.

HIPR 716 Building Assessment Strategies I
This course presents methods for the analysis and interpretation of historic building resources. Identification, research, documentation, analysis, and interpretation skills are developed through filed application and projects. This course is required for the Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. When offered online, this course requires a one-week residency to work with the course professor. Prerequisite: HIPR 709.

HIPR 721 Preservation Planning in the Built Environment
This course acknowledges links between rural and urban preservation and addresses issues and planning strategies common to both settings. Through readings and extended project work, students are introduced to the philosophy, problems and practical solutions of preservation planning. Prerequisites: HIPR 703.

HIPR 726 Revitalizing Downtowns
This course incorporates concepts of law, economics and planning to provide a holistic analysis of the process by which downtown areas can be revitalized. The course explores the Main Street 4 Point Approach that combines organization, design, promotion, and economic restructuring to accomplish sustainable revitalization of downtowns. The course also considers the effects of current trends in development, such as SmartGrowth and New Urbanism, on the process of downtown revitalization. The course uses lectures to explain and case studies to emphasize concepts.

HIPR 734 Preservation Rehabilitation
In this course, students undertake and complete a rehabilitation plan for a specific structure, making use of skills acquired in historic preservation and addressing the needs of economic viability. This course is required for the Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. When offered online, this course requires a one-week residency to work with the course professor. Prerequisites: HIPR 701, HIPR 706, HIPR 709, HIPR 716.

HIPR 742 Preservation Management for the Nonprofit
This course focuses on the processes for successful nonprofit historic organizations. The course provides information about roles and responsibilities of the director, the executive committee, the board of directors and committees. Prerequisite: HIPR 701.

HIPR 743 Advanced Conservation Science
This course presents the analytical methodology required to understand the characteristics of building materials. Students are involved in various experiments that analyze the chemical and physical mechanisms of materials deterioration and use scientific methods to interpret this data. Prerequisite: HIPR 709.

HIPR 744 Context of Design in Preservation
This course focuses on the role of design in the field of historic preservation within the context of existing historical structures. Students are involved in survey, study and design within an actual historic streetscape. An emphasis on the specifics of the individual buildings of the streetscape contributes to students' ability to discern the uniqueness of each architectural style, the period in which it was built and the overall homogeneity of the particular streetscape. The chosen streetscape includes a single undeveloped site for which students develop criteria to design an infill structure that is sympathetic to the surrounding historical structures, yet representative of and appropriate to the current era.

HIPR 749 Historic Preservation M.A. Final Project
This course focuses on the development and completion of a final, comprehensive M.A. project. Projects are research- or site-based and must be conducted at an advanced level of complexity and challenge. Prerequisite: HIPR 703.

HIPR 751 Building Assessment Strategies II
This course is second in a two-course sequence. The course provides a comprehensive assessment of historic building resources. Prerequisite: HIPR 716.

HIPR 755 Preservation Philosophy and Criticism
This course analyzes critically the cultural and technical basis of the built environment. Based on this analysis, students examine the repertoire of preservation philosophies, both historic and current. Prerequisites: HIPR 701, HIPR 706.

HIPR 757 Preservation Restoration
This course examines the appropriate application of restoration standards in historic buildings. Emphasis is placed on significant structures worthy of total restoration and practical restoration of building fabrics. Restoration standards in this course follow those established by the Secretary of the Interior. Prerequisites: HIPR 701, HIPR 706, HIPR 716.

HIPR 762 Interpreting The Domestic Interior 1830???1930
The period 1830???1930 witnessed a nation that possessed an expanding frontier, a belief in personal upward mobility and the freedom for great geographic and social mobility. Supported by the innovations in technology, communications and science the built environment and material culture of the nation changed dramatically between 1830 and 1930. Apart from examining the stylistic changes occurring in architecture and domestic fashion, students are encouraged to examine and consider the evolution of issues such as comfort, domesticity, hygiene, privacy, gender and the technology of the domestic interior. Source material includes trade catalogues novels, films, house plans and other period and contemporary resources. Prerequisite: HIPR 701.

HIPR 765 Preservation Seminar
This second-year graduate lecture series prepares students for entry into the field of historic preservation. Classroom activities are augmented by guest lectures by professionals and field trips to successful preservation organizations in the Southeast. Prerequisites: HIPR 701, HIPR 706, HIPR 709.

HIPR 780 Special Topics in Historic Preservation
This course examines topical issues in preservation. Issues vary from term to term.

HIPR 791 Historic Preservation M.F.A. Thesis I
This course serves as the first of a two-course sequence dedicated to the development and production of the historic preservation thesis and the culmination of the M.F.A. course of study. Following committee approval of the thesis proposal, research begins on the integral concerns of the thesis including problem definition, process inquiry, critical thinking synthesis and communication with the advice and guidance of faculty. Emphasis is placed on a high degree of complexity and challenge within the thesis project. Prerequisite: HIPR 765.

HIPR 792 Historic Preservation M.F.A. Thesis II
This course serves as the second part of a two-course sequence dedicated to the development and production of a major historic preservation thesis as the culmination of the graduate student's course of study. Students continue the thesis through the conventional phases of problem identification, research, synthesis and problem resolution. Prerequisite: HIPR 791.