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-----Original Message----- From: Ann Keating <[log in to unmask]> 'Portraits of the City': Dublin urban landscape project and volume A project that I think will be of great interest to urban historians has been afoot in Dublin since 2006, the result of an ongoing collaboration between University College Dublin and the Office of Public Works (with the participation of the Dublin City Council). While focused particularly on the transformative power of historically and architecturally significant elements in the Dublin city center, the project also offers itself as a case study that can be "applicable to other urban landscapes." The project has worked within UNESCO's World Heritage Cities Program that was established to assist designated cities with the protection of their historic urban landscape. In 2010, the project sponsored an international conference in Dublin entitled "Portrait of the City." Over several days, scholars from disciplines ranging from art history to architecture to cultural geography to history made presentations on cities around the world. This month, a collection of essays drawn from that 2010 conference has been published by the Four Courts Press, _Portraits of the City: Dublin and the Wider World_. Edited by Gillian O'Brien, Liverpool John Moores University, and Finola O'Kane, University College Dublin, the volume is heavily illustrated and includes eighteen essays that range over time and geography, but center on the ways in urban landscapes are interpreted. Among the essays of particular interest to urban historians are: nineteenth century views of the emerging bourgeois city by Jeffrey A. Cohen, Bryn Mawr College; an exploration of Chicago as Catholic space by Ellen Skerrett, a researcher for the Jane Addams Papers; a consideration of the maps of Baghdad by M. Christine Boyer, Princeton University; and a discussion of the political iconography of Birmingham's Civil Rights District by Dell Upton, UCLA. Gillian O'Brien provides a reflection on commemorating the past in Dublin's future that ends with the observation that "the kaleidoscope that is the constantly evolving city deserves to be a city of all of its people--past, present and future." Gillian O'Brien and Finola O'Kane, eds. _Portraits of the city: Dublin and the wider world_ (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2012) http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/product.php?intProductID=1077 Table of Contents: ------------------------- Foreword, Loughlin Kealy 1 "Portrait of the city: framing the significance of urban landscapes," Gillian O'Brien & Finola O'Kane 2 "A streetscape named desire: long views through the emerging bourgeois city," Jeffrey A. Cohen 3 "Prospects of patrimony: M.s. trench and f.W. trench's projects for Dublin and london 1780-1830," Stephen Daniels & Finola O'Kane 4 "Post-1755 lisbon: two-and-a-half portraits," Joana Cunha Leal 5 "'Give' and 'take': luke Gardiner and the making of the north city," Merlo Kelly 6 "Shaping the city, shaping the subject: honour, affect and agency in John Gwynn's London and Westminster improved (1766)," F. M. Dodsworth 7 "Building dialectics: negotiating urban scenography in late Georgian Dublin," Conor Lucey 8 "Re-figuring urban space: race and ethnicity in printed views of New England, 1800-50," Martha J. McNamara 9 "'Splendour and havoc': the many maps of Baghdad," M. Christine Boyer 10 "Jerusalem: the ultimate pilgrimage city," Naomi Miller 11 "Parish by parish: constructing Chicago as Catholic space," Ellen Skerrett 12 "The significance of the urban waterfronts," Agustina Martire 13 "The ethics of giving and receiving: a study of the Iveagh Markets, Dublin," Samantha L. Martin-McAuliffe 14 "The political iconography of sacred ground: history and redevelopment in Birmingham's Civil Rights District," Dell Upton 15 "Seeing the city from the suburb: Brookline's influence on the Boston metropolitan landscape," Keith N. Morgan 16 "Forest Hills, Queens, Ny, 1920-70: creating and maintaining an urban space," Jeffrey S. Gurock 17 "'And all her ghosts that walk': commemorating the past in Dublin's future," Gillian O'Brien 18 "The significance of cities: current developments and concepts 240," Jukka Jokilehto Foreword, by Loughlin Kealy [Ed: the foreword is reproduced in shortened form below - LF] --------------------------------------- In December 2010 an international conference was held in Dublin castle, 'to advance a portrait of the city which tries to frame not only the physical place of the city, but also the cultural, historic, artistic and intellectual "landscape" that the city redraws over and over again'. Entitled 'Portrait of the city', the conference heard contributions from scholars that presented a range of perspectives on the inherited and contemporary city. Contributions were drawn from the heart and the boundaries of disciplines such as history, literature, geography and heritage conservation - an indication of the complexity of the human habitat and of the intellectual challenge posed in its comprehension. This book arises from that conference and includes papers given there, together with some additional contributions. Portraits aspire to be both depictions of reality and challenges to our perceptions of it. The immediate stimulus for the project was the realization that historically and architecturally significant elements of the city in the possession of the state had transformative potential within the city centre, and that it was important that the value of the urban endowment should be understood, the better to manage the process of change. It was considered that the project would have broader application: for example case studies on Dublin could develop principles applicable to other urban landscapes. The task was to develop a framework through which the cultural significance of the physical environment of the city could be appraised, using the city of Dublin as the locus of study. The structure devised for this exploration was built around a postgraduate programme in urban and building conservation within the school of architecture at UCD. The programme was established in 1989 in recognition of the growing need for expertise in this area, and of its essential interdisciplinary nature. It aims to provide an advanced course of study with an emphasis on methods of recording, researching, analysing and evaluating the heritage of buildings and towns, and on the development of the ability to make considered judgments on the issues involved in their conservation and continuing use. The programme culminates in a thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Urban and Building conservation. In addition to stimulating urban studies centred on the locations of the significant state holdings, the project has provided a focus for a range of topics for masters theses, supported research at doctoral level and has funded a postdoctoral fellowship. The conference, 'Portrait of the city', has been sponsored by the project and was designed to bring a range of international as well as interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on this area of enquiry. The underlying purpose is to situate conservation practice in Ireland in a forward-thinking position in relation to the wider global context. [Kealy, March 2012] Ann Keating North Central College Naperville, IL http://northcentralcollege.edu/academics/faculty/ann-durkin-keating