Syllabus

LIB 2205ID LEARNING PLACES: UNDERSTANDING THE CITY

1 classroom hour, 4 lab/studio hours, 3 credits
D960 Tuesdays/Thursdays 10:30-12:35 pm, Room A543

Course Description: This Special Topics Course offers an interdisciplinary approach to investigating our built environment using a case study focused on a specific place each semester. This course combines physical examination with information research and data collection using methodologies developed in multiple disciplines. Students from a variety of departments engage in on-site exploration and in-depth research of a location in New York City. Faculty from the Library and Architectural Technology Departments are teaching the course this semester, and will thus focus course material through a lens of architecture, urban studies, and information studies.

Course Context: This Special Topics Course is an Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts and Sciences Course that applies toward the BTech/BS General Education Common Core College Option requirements.

Prerequisites: ENG 1101 and any Flexible Core Course

Course Materials: Unlined notebook and soft pencils for sketching and note-taking. All required reading / viewing / listening can be found here

Recommended Texts:

Crowe, Norman, and Paul Laseau. Visual Notes for Architects and Designers. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2012. Print. On reserve at the City Tech Library: NA 2750 C76 2012

Laseau, Paul. Freehand sketching – An Introduction. New York, London: W.W Norton & Company, 2004. Print. On reserve at the City Tech Library: NA 2708. L37 2004

Attendance Policy: No more than 10% absences permitted during the semester. Students must arrive to class on time or will accumulate absences – two latenesses are considered one absence. Students exceeding this limit are at risk of failing.

Course Structure: This course combines a series of research seminars with fieldwork, site visits and documentation, and on and off campus research. Combinations of individual and team assignments as well as class participation are the basis for the final grade. The culmination of the weekly assignments is the Final Report as well as a podcast. The Final Report will be published on the Open Lab and accessible to the entire City Tech community.

Grading:

  • 5% Blogs
  • 10% In-Class Participation
  • 35% Site Documentation Reports
  • 50% Final Project
    • 10% Project site design, images, and reflection
    • 10% Annotated Bibliography
    • 5% Outline
    • 25% Podcast

Academic Integrity: Students and all others who work with information, ideas, texts, images, music, inventions and other intellectual property owe their audience and sources accuracy and honesty in using, crediting and citation of sources. As a community of intellectual and professional workers, the college recognizes its responsibility for providing instruction in information literacy and academic integrity, offering models of good practice, and responding vigilantly and appropriately to infractions of academic integrity. Accordingly, academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension and expulsion.

Course Schedule

T8.29.2017

Welcome and introductions

TH8.31.2017

GENIUS LOCI – A Sense of Place

Introduction to the Site

Watch and discuss: Characters of the Gowanus

Homework:

T9.5.2017

Preparation for field work: note taking, sketching and visual notation

Research questions

Review Site Reports

Blog Post 1 DUE

Homework:

  • Read: Visual Notes, Introduction, pp. 1-15; Appendix: tools and techniques, pp.181-187 (Handout)

TH9.7.2017

Site Visit 1: Gowanus

T9.12.2017

Gowanus History

Conducting background Research

Evaluating sources

Site Report 1 DUE

Homework:

  • Read: “Prologue,” Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal  (Handout)
  • Prepare questions on reading for guest lecturer

TH9.14.2017

Guest Lecturer: Joseph Alexiou

Homework:

  • Blog Post 2: a 500-word discussion: your reaction to a topic raised by guest lecturer — Due Sept 19

T9.19.2017

Approaches to urban development

Watch and discuss: My Brooklyn

Zoning presentation and discussion

Blog Post 2 DUE

Homework:

  • Blog Post 3: a 500-word discussion: your reaction to a topic raised by the movie due sept 26
  • Read: Visual Notes, Ch. 2, pp. 17-29 (Handout)

TH9.21.2017 NO CLASSES

T9.26.2017

Environmental Context

Watch and Discuss: Cleaning Up a Local Superfund Site

Homework:

TH9.28.2017

Site Visit 2: Gowanus Conservancy

Blog Post 3 DUE

Homework:

Read: “How the Coastline Became a Place to Put the Poor”

T10.3.2017

Newspaper Research

Research questions and Citations

TH10.5.2017

Library Visit 1: Brooklyn Public Library

Site Report 2 DUE

T10.10.2017

Approaches to urban development 2

Watch and discuss Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

Library Report 1 DUE

Homework:

  • Read: “The Uses of Neighborhoods” (Handout)
  • Blog Post 4: a 200-word discussion: your reaction to a topic raised by the movie Citizen Jane: Battle for the City due Oct 17

TH10.12.2017

Site Visit 3: In-Depth Exploration of Gowanus

T10.17.2017

Guest Lecturer: Abby Subak from Gowanus Arts

Blog Post 4 DUE

TH10.19.2017

Intro to Archival Research

Government Documents

Homework:

T10.24.2017

Library Visit 2: NYPL Map Room

Site Report 3 DUE

TH10.26.2017

[Guest Lecturer: Mike Clemow Radio Free Gowanus]

Homework:

Listen: Audio Interference “Radio Free Gowanus”

T10.31.2017

Library Report 2 DUE

Waterfront Renewal lecture and discussion

Final Project Assigned

TH11.2.2016

Guest Lecturer: Susan Phillip Waterfront history and Renewal

T11.7.2017

Group Project Development

TH11.9.2017

Library Visit 3: Interference Archive

T11.14.2017

Thematic Research

Outlines

Library Report 3 DUE

TH11.16.2017

Annotated Bibliographies

Group Project Development

T11.21.2017 / TH11.23.2017 NO CLASSES SCHEDULED

T11.28.2017

Group Project Development

Group Outline Drafts Due

TH 11.30.2017

Group Project Development

T12.5.2017

Group Project Development

Annotated Bibliography Drafts Due

Copyright Discussion

TH12.7.2017

Group Project Development

T12.12.2017

Group Project Development

Group Outline Final Due

TH12.14.2017

Group Project Development

T12.19.2017

Final Presentations / Peer Evaluation

Final Projects posted to OpenLab / Final Podcasts and Annotated Bibliography Due

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