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Urban Crisis” Concrete Solutions: Architecture of Public High Schools During the “Urban Crisis” By Amber N. Wiley Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, May 2003, Yale University Master of Architectural History, May 2005, University of Virginia A Dissertation Submitted To The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 15, 2011 Dissertation directed by Richard Longstreth Professor of American Studies The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University certifies that Amber N. Wiley has passed the Final Examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of March 11, 2011. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. Concrete Solutions: Architecture of Public High Schools During the “Urban Crisis” Amber N. Wiley Dissertation Research Committee: Richard Longstreth, Professor of American Studies, Dissertation Director Suleiman Osman, Assistant Professor of American Studies, Committee Member James A. Miller, Professor of English and American Studies, Committee Member ii © Copyright 2011 Amber N. Wiley All rights reserved iii Acknowledgements I am truly grateful to my engaged, astute, and supporting committee for continuously pushing me to do my best research and work for this project. Richard Longstreth as committee chair was enthusiastic, available, and rigorous, the absolute model of a generous and benevolent advisor. Suleiman Osman and James Miller provided immeasurable support and valued input. All committee members pressed me to ask the hard questions and maintain focus on the task at hand. Their collective wisdom is beyond comparison. The knowledge and assistance of archivists at the various research institutions were essential to this project, including Nancye Suggs and Kimberly Springle at the Sumner School Museum and Archives, William Whitaker at the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania, William Branch at the District of Columbia Archives, Susan Raposa at the Commission of Fine Arts, Adele McLeor at the Atlanta Public Schools Archives, Marjorie Leon at the Atlanta Public School Board, Nancy Hadley at the American Institute of Architects Archives, as well as the respective staff at the Washingtoniana Division of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Library, the Kiplinger Research Library of Historical Society of Washington, D.C., Gelman Library Special Collections, the Auburn Avenue Research Library, the Atlanta University Center Archives and Special Collections, the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, the Urban Archives at Temple University, the Philadelphia City Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Art and Architecture Libraries at the University of Maryland. My research has been propelled by the generous support of the SRI Foundation which seeks to promote and advance our knowledge of the past and the AERA which is iv committed to improving educational processes through scholarly inquiry. In 2008 I was awarded the SRI Foundation Dissertation Research Scholarship, and in 2010 the AERA’s Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research. I have been blessed with a wonderful friendship these years at George Washington with my cohort Charity Fox, Laurie Lahey, and Joan Fragaszy Troyano. From our first day of orientation we have been a unit inseparable, providing academic, professional, and most importantly personal support to each other as we met challenges head on together. Thank you ladies for the camaraderie. Thanks also go to Joan and Charisse Cecil for reading chapter drafts and giving me important feedback on the project. I am indebted to my cousins Andrea Plater, Lauren Johnson, and Carole Ross for continuously supplying me with shelter, food, and transportation – the essentials! – while conducting research in Atlanta and Philadelphia. This would have been a completely different project if not for their support. Finally, I would like to thank my father Clarence Wiley, stepmother Cindy, brothers Christopher and Roland, Grandma Wiley, Grandpa Dudley, Aunt Jan, Uncle Duane, Cousin Bonita, and countless other cousins, aunts and uncles for their continuous words of encouragement and the love they have shown me through this journey. I am nothing without my family. Thanks to my little brother CJ for always being a welcome diversion. And thank you to my mother Denise Wiley for embedding the spirit of perseverance in me. I wish you could have seen this day. v Abstract of the Dissertation Concrete Solutions: Architecture of Public High Schools During the “Urban Crisis” This dissertation documents and contextualizes the creation of fortified, yet programmatically innovative, high schools designed between 1960 and 1980 in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. The striking nature of the school designs – avant- garde in materiality, scale, programming, and plan – are testaments to the high ideals of education reform for urban cities that were battling the damaging effects of suburbanization, urban unrest, and riots. In addition to examining a building type that has received minimal scholarly attention in discussions of the urban crisis, this dissertation situates architectural expression of the school building within major political, cultural, and educational paradigm shifts that inform how the schools are designed and the ways the built environment is interpreted. During the late 1950s city officials, school administrators and alumni, and educational consultants were confronted with persistent de facto segregation that was exacerbated by the mass exodus of middle-class families to the suburbs. They juggled various approaches to create an encouraging and enlightened environment for students in the post-World War II era. Schools faced crises in the form of deteriorating building stock, declining public image, and limited financial resources in addition to segregation and a shrinking student body. Many of the urban crisis schools, designed by prominent architecture firms, were intended to aid in the social and cultural renewal of economically depressed areas. While local school boards initially championed the construction of large-scale urban schools as harbingers of integration, this rhetoric gave way to the reality of school siting that reified lines of concentrated residential and educational segregation. vi Large-scale urban renewal plans of the 1950s followed by the riots of the 1960s left cities in shambles. Neighborhoods were physically cut off from resources and jobs. School construction attempted to alleviate some of the problems that the riots and urban renewal caused. Community involvement in later renewal plans, administered through the Great Society’s War on Poverty Model Cities program, included schools as important design components. This changed the meaning of urban renewal in African American neighborhoods from “Negro removal” to an opportunity for local non-profit and activist groups to restructure their immediate surroundings in a meaningful way. Ultimately, the design of the schools revealed a sentiment of fear about the urban condition and youth culture as the schools physically turned their backs on the communities they were meant to serve through their inward orientation and lack of contextual response to the street. At that time, however, the schools brought about a new definition of monumental architecture as a result of their Brutalist aesthetic expressed through materiality and massing. The open-plan school, which created interior spaces that lacked walls, conflicted with the sculptural quality of the buildings that attempted to be secure and open simultaneously. The dissertation concludes by challenging the historic preservation and education communities to reassess value systems established for the preservation of African American cultural heritage. Studying these schools creates contextualized records of their histories highlighting, a critical juncture in the Civil Rights-Black Power narrative. This connection melds the milieu of urban upheaval, architectural design, and community politics of empowerment during a period of major paradigm shifts in the historiography of the American city. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ……………………………………................................................iv Abstract of the Dissertation …………………………………………………….……vi Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………..…...viii List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………..ix Introduction …...............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Education: The Panacea of the Ills of a Divided Society……………...32 Chapter 2: Design: Fortresses of the Mind, Rather Than Penitentiaries of the Spirit………………………….………………………………..………………...75 Chapter 3: New Power Dynamics: Community Politics and Urban Renewal……120 Chapter 4: Worthy of Consideration? Challenges to the Preservation of Recent Past Educational Architecture…………....………………………………154 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..204 Bibliography…………..…………………………………………………………….…209 Appendix: Illustrations…..…………………………………………………………...222 viii List of Illustrations Figure 1. Preston Willis Search image of the school park concept. Figure 2. Ideal community school and its related institutions. Figure 3. Philadelphia school construction in relation to city demographics. Figure 4. Metropolitan plan for desegregation. Figure 5. Tudor School, Islington Green, London, England. Figure 6. Charles L. Harper High School, Atlanta, Georgia.
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