Carmen Fields reports on the restoration of the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill. Fields reports that the Meeting House is the oldest African American church in the nation and that it was gutted by fire in 1973. Fields interviews Philip Hart (Board of Directors, African Meeting House) and Ruth Batson (Director, African Meeting House) for the report. Hart talks about the significance of the Meeting House. Batson talks about plans for music, scholarly debate, and religious services at the Meeting House. Fields notes that a series of rededication programs will begin soon. Fields' report is accompanied by footage of construction workers and staff at the Meeting House and by photographs documenting the history of African Americans in Boston.

Seminar on the history of selected features of the physical environment of urban America. Among the features considered are parks, cemeteries, tenements, suburbs, zoos, skyscrapers, department stores, supermarkets, and amusement parks. Focuses on readings and discussions.

An intensive 9 DAY remote collaborative workshop involving MIT and Miyagi University in Japan. The objective is to develop a small housing project using shape computation as a design methodology. Students will use and test new interactive software for designing, sharing applications with overseas partners, presenting projects on an Internet workspace, and critiquing design proposals through the web and other advanced digital technologies. Students will be expected to do most of their work in class.

In the exploration of ways to use solar energy, students investigate the thermal energy storage capacities of different test materials to determine which to use in passive solar building design.

Seminar on downtown in US cities from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth. Emphasis on downtown as an idea, place, and cluster of interests, on the changing character of downtown, and on recent efforts to rebuild it. Subjects considered include subways, skyscrapers, highways, urban renewal, and retail centers. Focus on readings, discussions, and individual research projects. Meets with graduate subject 11.339, but assignments differ.

explores Charleston's heritage by examining 42 historic places. More than 300 years of history are covered, including the Walled City of the British colony, the growth of the shipping industry and surrounding plantations, the city's role in the events leading up to the Civil War, the resurgence of the community during the late 19th century, and the establishment of one of the most complete and intact historic districts in the country.

Against a background of high-rises and rubble, the image of a young man running across an empty lot is repeated. A sense of urgency builds. Buildings explode and crumble to the ground. A hand-held camera surveys the moving ground. Images are blurred, erased, distorted, replaced, and repeated to create this dramatic short work by Paul Garrin. Dramatic electronic music was composed and performed by Ryuichi Sakamoto.The piece is approximately five minutes in length and was broadcast as a segment of episode 313 (1987) of 'New Television.'

Introduces students to the theory, tools, and techniques of engineering design and creative problem-solving, as well as design issues and practices in civil engineering. Includes several design cases, with an emphasis on built facilities (e.g., buildings, bridges and roads). Project design explicitly concerns technical approaches as well as consideration of the existing built environment, natural environment, economic and social factors, and expected life span. A large design case is introduced which is used in the subsequent specialty area design subjects (1.031, 1.041, 1.051) and the capstone design subject (1.013).

'Design Archives' raw material on the architect O'Neil Ford, consisting of 4-hour interview on five videocassettes. One of the cassettes does not contain interview footage, but 29 raw, unedited minutes of exterior and interior shots of Ford's buildings. Tape 1 (57:00): Introduction by Lacy about Ford's background, contributions, and fame; educational background at International Correspondence School of Scranton, PA; first job experience; inspiration for being an architect; places/countries where he has designed buildings; reasons for his notoriety; dislike of "publicity for publicity's sake" in architecture; his "non-style" of architecture (use of crafts and honesty of materials); childhood experiences and family influences; influences of other architects on him; dislike of egoism in architecture; architects he's fond of; houses he designed in San Antonio; impressions of other architects; disdain for fashion in architecture; works between WWI and WWII; studies in Europe in 1930's; following of a traditional path in architecture; origins of his interest in historical preservation; works in Texas, Georgia, and D.C. in the 1930's; work under Lyndon B. Johnson on the LaVillita Project in the 1930's and his relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960's; relationship with politicians and governments regarding environmental issues. Tape 2 (58:00) (contains some audio problems): The journals he has kept for past 29 years; involvement in education -lecturer, professor at the University of Virginia and lecturer at Harvard; disappointment at high schools' inability to prepare students for college-level engineering and architecture; the need for schools to emphasize the arts; his architecture videos designed for children; fights with governments to preserve nature and parks; views on Pompidou Center in Paris; difficulty with designing new commissions and putting human qualities in buildings; distaste for modern materials; technology in architecture; necessary limitations and seriousness that should exist in architecture; disdain for egoism by young architects whose avant-garde designs are undertaken simply to gain fame; the learning process among architects at his office; treatment of interiors and landscapes as they relate to his firm's architectural plans; age vs. experience in architecture; value of design competitions. Tape 3 (59:00): Fame in and feelings for San Antonio; his knowledge of the city and its people; the need for restraint in architecture; dislike for over-ornamentation; contributions of Bauhaus on architecture; refutes Philip Johnson's idea of monumental architecture; brief views on architecture in London, Rome, Paris, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles; development along San Antonio's river; ugliness of U.S. suburbs; vulgarity of American architecture; ideas of Las Vegas and its architecture; influence of the advertising industry on architecture, especially the use of billboards; damage of parking lots and garages on cityscapes; active social life in downtown San Antonio; beauty of Paris, especially due to the Metro and the use of underground parking; livability of London; award ceremony in his honor in Waxahachie, Texas. Tape 4 (49:30): Business of architecture; how his firm gains clients (corporations, universities, museums, and hospitals); ideas on hospital design, based on his own stays in hospitals; ideas on airport design and university design; regional architecture and its relevance in today's age; the need to respect indigenous materials and characteristics; stresses common sense and simplicity in architecture; dislike of dogma; church design -its simplicities and complexities; disdain for modern architecture and architects who are "primadonnas' simple, sensitive arrangement of ancient buildings at the ruins of Mexican and Central American Indian cultures. Tape 5 (29:00)--MARKED "Reel 1--Building Footage"