Syllabus

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Spring 2016
David Gobel
Eichberg Hall 102
912-525-6079
Mon/Wed 1:30-2:30 pm
Tue/Thu 10:30-11:30 am
dgobel@scad.edu
MUSEUM 216
Monday / Wednesday
11:00 AM - 1:30 PM

School of Building Arts, Department of Architectural History, Savannah

ARLH 309 - Villa and Garden

Section: 02 CRN: 31868

SCAD Mission:
The Savannah College of Art and Design exists to prepare talented students for professional careers, emphasizing learning
through individual attention in a positively oriented university environment.
School of Building Arts Mission Statement:
The mission of the School of Building Arts is to prepare students to be leaders in their professions. With intellectual curiosity,
creativity and technical expertise, we seek to prepare young women and men to be lifelong stewards of the built environment
in a manner sensitive to place, culture, and to environmental impact.
Course Description:
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Alhambra, Versailles, Monticello and Falling Water all are products of a restless
longing for a peaceful and contemplative life in the country, where art and nature coexist in ideal harmony. This course
explores the architectural and social history of country houses, villas and gardens from antiquity to the 21st century. Special
attention is given to garden literature, landscape theory, the rise of public parks and the development of suburbia.
Prerequisite(s): ARTH 110, ENGL 123.
Course Goals: The following course goals articulate the general objectives and purpose of this course:
1. Students will explore famous villas, country houses and gardens in the Western tradition as well as the social and
political contexts in which they flourished.
Student Learning Outcomes: The following course outcomes indicate competencies and measurable skills that students
develop as a result of completing this course:
1. Students will identify representative landmark buildings and gardens.
2. Students will become conversant with basic elements and themes common to villas and gardens in Western
history.

Schedule of Classes:
Key events including assignments, projects due dates/exam dates:

Class 1:

Paradise Lost
Pre-quarter reading assignment:
Harrison, Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition, 1-13.

Class 2:

Gardens, Palaces and Houses in the Ancient World

Ackerman, The Villa, 9-34 33
Solomons Song of Songs

Class 3:

Roman Villas
Thacker, History of Gardens, 9-25
Ackerman, The Villa, 35-61
Pliny the Younger, Letters II.17 & V.5 (online Harvard edition Letters 23 & 52)

Class 4:

Medieval Gardens
Thacker, History of Gardens, 81-93
Pietro de' Crescenzi (Crescentiis), excerpts from Ruralia commoda in MacDougall,
Medieval Gardens, 171-173
Derek Pearsall, Gardens as Symbol and Setting in Late Medieval Poetry, in
MacDougall, Medieval Gardens , 236-251

Class 5:

The Villa Revived: Renaissance Florence

Ackerman, The Villa, 33-87
Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, 9-26.

Class 6:

The Villa in Renaissance Rome

Thacker, History of Gardens, 95-111
Pliny Projects Due

Class 7:

Venetian Villas
Ackerman, The Villa, 89-123
Palladio, The Four Books on Architecture, Book 2, Chps. 1-2 & 12-16

Class 8:

The French Chteau

Thacker, History of Gardens, 121-137

Class 9:

French Classicism and the Formal Garden

A.J. Dezallier dArgenville, Theory and Practice of Gardening, in Hunt, Genius of
the Place, 125-131
Thacker, History of Gardens, 139-161

Class 10:

Midterm Exam

Class 11:

Baroque Palaces & Gardens throughout Europe

Thacker, History of Gardens, 163-179

Class 12:

The English Country House

Girouard, Life in the English Country House, 14-80
Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, in Hunt, Genius of the Place, 48-56

Class 13:

Palladianism in England and America

Ackerman, The Villa, 135-211
Thacker, History of Gardens, 181-197

Class 14:

The English Landscape Garden and the Picturesque

Ackerman, The Villa, 213-227
Thacker, History of Gardens, 209-225
Joseph Addison, select passages in Hunt, Genius of the Place, 138-147
Alexander Pope, An Epistle to Lord Burlington, in Hunt, Genius of the Place,
211-214

Class 15:

Romanticism
Thacker, History of Gardens, 199-207
William Chambers, A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening, in Hunt 318-321;
Richard Payne Knight, select passages, in Hunt, Genius of the Place, 342-350
Uvedale Price, An Essay on the Picturesque, in Hunt, Genius of the Place, 351-357
Humphrey Repton, select passages, in Hunt, Genius of the Place, 358-367

Class 16:

The American Home

Ackerman, The Villa, 229-251
Beecher, The American Womans Home, 17-42
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6598

Class 17:

From the Gilded Age to the Prairie Style

Thacker, History of Gardens, 253-265

Class 18:

Modernist Villas & Gardens

Ackerman, The Villa, 253-285
Rowe, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa

Class 19:

Suburban Resorts
Teyssot, "The American Lawn," 1-39

Class 20:

Final Exam

Grading Opportunities:
Your overall course grade will be computed according to the following breakdown:
Assignment

Weight

Pliny's Villa Project

15.00 percent

Research Paper

25.00 percent

Midterm Exam

25.00 percent

Final Exam

25.00 percent

Participation

10.00 percent

Total Weight

100 percent

Grading Standards

Range

Letter grade: A = excellent

90 100 %

Letter grade: B = good

80 89 %

Letter grade: C = *

70 79 %

Letter grade: D = *

60 69%

Letter grade: F = failing

0 59%

*Refer to the student handbooks and departmental standards for minimal acceptance for passing grade.

Course Information:
Field Trip(s):
Friday, April 29, Drayton Hall and Middleton Gardens, near Charleston, South Carolina. Details to follow.

Extra Help Session(s):

Optional review sessions will be offered before the midterm (April 25) and final (May 30) exams.

Extended Learning Opportunities:

April 13, 2016, 5:30 pm, Clarence Thomas Center Chapel
Claudia Rosa-Lopez, Historic Documentation and the Peterson Prize [Architectural history mentor presentation]
April 19, 2016, 5:30 pm, SCAD Museum of Art Theater
Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Women on the Move: Denise Scott-Brown and Zaha Hadid [SBA Lecture series]
April 20, 2016, 5:30 pm, SCAD Museum of Art Theater
Robin Williams, Broadening Savannahs Urban Identity: From the Ideal to the Real part of the Reading the City
public programs in support of the Buildings of Savannah book
April 27, 2016, 5:30 pm, SCAD Museum of Art Theater
Karl Schuler, "The Urban Legacy of Volunteer Militias in Savannah's Bull Street Corridor" part of the Reading the
City public programs in support of the Buildings of Savannah book
April 27, 2016, 6:15 pm, SCAD Museum of Art Theater
David Gobel, Street Smarts: Savannahs Streets as Architecture part of the Reading the City public programs in
support of the Buildings of Savannah book
May 4, 2016, 5:30 pm, SCAD Museum of Art Theater
Daves Rossell, Everyday Places and Spaces part of the Reading the City public programs in support of the
Buildings of Savannah book
May 4, 2016, 6:15 pm, SCAD Museum of Art Theater
Patrick Haughey, Global Savannah: Building Culture and Commerce in the 21st Century City part of the Reading
the City public programs in support of the Buildings of Savannah book
May 11, 2016, 5:30 pm, SCAD Museum of Art
Savannah: Urban Identity and Threatened Heritage Lecture and Panel Discussion part of the Reading the City
public programs in support of the Buildings of Savannah book
Lecture by Richard Longstreth
Featured Panelists:
Richard Longstreth, Director of Historic Preservation and Professor of American Civilization, George
Washington University
Daniel Carey, President and Chief Executive Officer, Historic Savannah Foundation
Vaughnette Goode-Walker, Curator, Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, Savannah

Justin Gunther, Professor of Historic Preservation, SCAD, and member of the Historic District Board of Review,
Savannah

Other Course Information:

Full Citations of Sources for Reading Assignments
Non-textbook reading passages are available as PDFs via Blackboard or via hyperlinks to online sources.
Ackerman, James. S. The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Beecher, Catharine Esther and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The American Womans Home. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 1996. Available at: https://archive.org/stream/americanwomansho00beecrich#page/16/mode/2up
Coffin, David R. The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Girouard, Mark. Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1978.
Harrison, Robert Pogue. Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Hunt, Genius of the Place, John Dixon & Peter Willis. The Genius of the Place: The English Landscape Garden
1620-1820. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1988.
MacDougall, Elizabeth B., ed. Medieval Gardens. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection,
1986.
Palladio, Andrea. The Four Books of Architecture. Trans. Robert Tavernor, et al. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1997.
Pliny the Younger. Letters and Panegyrics. Trans. by Betty Radice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969.
(Bk. 2 17. To Gallus & Bk. 5. 6 To Domitius Apollinaris)
Or, on the internet see:
Ancient History Sourcebook: Pliny the Younger (61/62-113 CE): Selected Letters, c 100 CE.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pliny-letters.html#GenPart VII (letter 23 To Gallus and 52) or,
http://pluto.gsu.edu/WebZ/html/galileo/homeframe.html:sessionid=01-39814-800085065
Rowe, Colin. The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa. In The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays. Cambridge,
Mass. and London: MIT Press, 1976, 1-27.
Solomons Song of Songs (also known as Song of Solomon). The Holy Bible. (any translation will do.) Or, online:
http://www.ccel.org/bible/kjv/Song_of_Solomon/index.html
Teyssot, Georges, ed. The American Lawn. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.
Thacker, History of Gardens, Christopher. The History of Gardens. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

Course Materials:
Required Text(s):
Ackerman, James S. The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
ISBN-10: 0691002959 (Reprint edition available at Ex Libris)
Thacker, Christopher. The History of Gardens. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. ISBN-10: 0520056299

Recommended Text(s):
none

Required Material(s):
Blue books (available at Ex Libris) are required for the exams.

University Policies:
Academic Integrity:
Under all circumstances, students are expected to be honest in their dealings with faculty, administrative staff and other
students.
In class assignments, students must submit work that fairly and accurately reflects their level of accomplishment. Any work
that is not a product of the student's own efforts is considered dishonest. Students must not engage in academic

that is not a product of the student's own efforts is considered dishonest. Students must not engage in academic
dishonesty; doing so can have serious consequences.
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, the following:
1. Cheating, which includes, but is not limited to, (a) the giving or receiving of any unauthorized assistance in producing
assignments or taking quizzes, tests or examinations; (b) dependence on the aid of sources including technology beyond
those authorized by the instructor in writing papers, preparing reports, solving problems or carrying out other assignments;
(c) the acquisition, without permission, of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of the university faculty
or staff; or (d) the use of unauthorized assistance in the preparation of works of art.
2. Plagiarism, which includes, but is not limited to, the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or
unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgment. Plagiarism also includes the unacknowledged
use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.
3. Submission of the same work in two or more classes without prior written approval of the professors of the classes
involved.
4. Submission of any work not actually produced by the student submitting the work without full and clear written
acknowledgement of the actual author or creator of the work.
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Midterm Conference(s):
Each student enrolled in the course will have a midterm conference scheduled outside of class time with the professor.
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Log on to MySCAD
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For more information or questions, contact us at evaluations@scad.edu.

Student Surveys:
The SCAD Student Survey and the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory will both be administered in Week 4 of
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Please refer to the college catalog or the student handbook for all college policies and procedures.
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Students are strongly encouraged to provide feedback on their university experience through SCADs institutional surveys.
The SCAD Student Survey and the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory will both be administered in spring quarter.
SCAD Student Survey will be emailed to every students email account starting in Week 1 and will remain open through
Week 6. The Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory will be administered on paper during Week 4 of spring quarter.
SCADs office of institutional effectiveness is responsible for gathering and delivering survey results to decision-makers on
campus. For more information or questions, contact us at surveys@scad.edu.