Homer L. Dodge Lecture Series: ‘The World Comes to the Waterfront’ with Prof. Dennis Earle

The World Comes to the Waterfront: Historic Architecture and Ideas on New York’s Northeastern Shores

Professor Dennis Earle, Assistant Teaching Professor – Environmental and Interior Design & Shaffer Art History Professor at Syracuse University

April 21 | 5:30pm

Youtube Live Stream link: https://youtube.com/live/5sMrpLIMauA

With each wave of settlement that populated northern New York and the eastern Great Lakes, new commerce and new growth was overlaid on old, sometimes rustic foundations, and new identities were crafted for communities and regions moving beyond their rugged beginnings. New York State from the late 18th century up through the 19th, was a showplace for architecture and related cultural ideas for everyone from common farmers and tradespeople to the elite and powerful, and saw important trends and ideas shaping the architecture of early and maturing America adapted to the unique conditions and aspirations of New York’s northeastern edge. The concerns of a population engaged in the heavy work of building the region and the nation included achieving the dignity of up-to-date, well-styled public buildings, as well as handsome and proud residences and businesses, and eventually, recreational architecture to elevate this important industry. This talk will look at the architecture of the region over a long span of years – from pre-colonial beginnings through the end of the gilded age and into the twentieth century – through the lens of styles and trends from beyond northeastern New York, and the ideas and identities they embodied, as they came to the region along with its new inhabitants and enterprises. America’s foundational ideas of democracy and the moral nation, it’s long, inventive journey through romanticism, and the new sense of the nation’s proper place among the great nations of the world at the dawn of the twentieth century took specific, characteristic forms in the streets and along the docks and roads of the region.

Note: All lectures, unless indicated otherwise, will be held in a hybrid in-person/virtual format.  If you are unable to join us in-person, we invite you to join us via Youtube live stream.  The live stream link for each lecture can be found below.