America Builds

Students in this course will develop empathy by exploring the buildings Americans have lived, worked, learned, and worshipped in across nearly 300 years. The buildings selected for this course and the people who have used them highlight diversity, strength, and resilience. This class asks students to find similarities across difference to move beyond mere tolerance of difference to actively support a thriving "best life" for all. Students will practice deep observation, curiosity, inquiry, and investigation and gain confidence in their ability to make meaning of unfamiliar situations and problem solve through effective communication and team work in preparation for their role as global citizens.

This course will be taught by buildings! Each week we will conduct a detailed exploration of one building to discover what that building can teach us about the history of our nation. We will look at how each building was built including technology, materials, and construction methods. We will explore the building's location and surroundings to illuminate differences across regions and between urban and rural America. We will consider the symbolism and stylistic meaning conveyed by each building. Most importantly we will explore the people who have lived, worked, learned, and worshipped in these buildings to gain insight changes in American life over time. The fifteen buildings we examine during the semester will be organized chronologically to clearly show change over time. Two of the course's fifteen buildings are located in Cincinnati, Ohio and will give us a chance for site visits. Others will be explored through video, primary sources, maps, class visitors, and interviews. Buildings and themes to be explored are:

Santa Fe Pueblo, Santa Fe, NM: Before European Contact
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA: Colonial Subjects
Touro Synagogue, Newport, RI: Religious Tolerance in a New Nation
U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC: How Will We Govern Ourselves?
Chief Vann House, Chatsworth, GA: Slavery
Lowell Mills, Lowell, MA: The Birth of Industry
Over-the-Rhine Museum, Cincinnati, OH: Tenement Life
Langston Hughes House, New York, NY: Rowhouse Life
Biltmore, Asheville, NC: The Age of Industry
Mother Emmanuel AME Church, Charleston, SC: African American Self-Determination
Pauli Murray House, Durham, NC: Rural Life
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, New York, NY: Women and Workers
Terrace Plaza, Cincinnati, OH: Postwar Cities
Mall of America, Bloomington, MN: Cars and Consumers
Walt Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA: The Age of Entertainment