Visitors

Susan R. Henderson
Professor

Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design, University of Washington; Master of Architecture, MIT; Ph.D. in architectural history, GSAS, Columbia University


Susan R. Henderson teaches advanced courses in the fields of Islamic and modern architectural history in the School of Architecture. She is an affiliate faculty member of the Middle Eastern Studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Center of European Studies hosted by the Moynihan Institute for Global Affairs at the Maxwell School. She served as a core faculty member of the Renée Crown Honors Program and taught for SU global programs in China and Italy.

Professor Henderson’s research is concentrated in two areas: the Weimar housing and urban planning program called the “New Frankfurt,” and Northern European fin-de-siècle esotericism and its influence on the architecture of that time. Her work has appeared in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, the Architectural Review (AR), Planning Perspectives, the Journal of Architectural Education, the Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Design Issues, Architronic, Housing Studies, and the Journal of Garden History.  Edited volumes including her essays include Architecture and Feminism, Housing and Dwelling, Religion and Modern Architecture, and The Heritage of Iconic Planned Communities. She is a former editorial board member and book review editor for the Journal of Architectural Education.  Her book on the Frankfurt initiative Building Culture: Ernst May and the New Frankfurt, 1926-1932 was published in 2013. She is currently at work on a volume of essays on esoteric and symbolist influences on Northern European architecture and design between the years 1890 to 1914.

Professor Henderson has received fellowships and grants from the Fulbright Scholar Program, the Wolfsonian Museum, the National Endowment for the Arts, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Graham Fund.  She has been a visiting exchange faculty at the Phillipps University, Marburg, Germany and the University of York, Heslington, UK. 

Grants and Awards

Fulbright Fellow, University of York, History of Art Department, 2016

Research Fellow, Wolfsonian Museum, Miami Beach, Florida, Spring 2004

Visiting Professor, Phillipps University, Marburg, Germany, 1996

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), 1983, 1996

Faculty Works Grant, Syracuse University, 1989, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2016, 2019

Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 1988

National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship (NEA) 1985-86 

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), Research Grant, 1983

 

Lectures and Papers

“Reputations: Margarete Schütte Lihotzky,” Sir John Soane Museum co-sponsored by Architectural Review, January 11, 2018

“The Spirit of the Forest: Fairytales and Rustic Fantasy in Architecture. 1890-1925”

—Fulbright Forum, University of Manchester Manchester, UK, January 7, 2016

—Lecture Series, History of Art Department, University of York, UK, February 8, 2016

“Lauweriks, Behrens and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Dusseldorf”

—Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy and the arts in the modern world, University of Amsterdam, September 2013

“The Römerstadt Settlement in Frankfurt am Main:  The ‘New Life,’ 1927/2011”

—S.A.C.R.P.H, annual conference, Baltimore, November 2011

“Evolving forms:  language and dialect in Islamic architecture”

—The Academy of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (U.T.T.) for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs, Port of Spain, Trinidad, March 2010

 Chair-respondent, “Temples and Politics of Place”

—”Place / No Place: Spatial Aspects of Urban Asian Religiosity,” Mellon Conference, Department of Religion, Syracuse University, October 2009

“Römerstadt, Garden City Modern”

—National Meeting of the International Planning History Society (IPHS), Barcelona, 2004

“Works from the Collections,” with Mickey Wolfson, respondent

—Wolfsonian Museum, Miami Beach, Florida, 2004

“Ernst May’s Border Settlements, Silesia, 1919-1925”

—Eighth Conference of the International Association for the Study of            Traditional Environments (IASTE), Hong Kong, December 2002

 “The Pavilion Schools of Frankfurt am Main in the 1920s”

—”Designing Modern Childhoods.  Landscapes, Buildings and Material Culture,” UCLA, Berkeley, May 2002

“Pertaining to Our Understanding of the Rural Landscape:  The Example of Sea Ranch” (alternate title, “The Sea Ranch:  Shaping a Planned Community”)

—National Meeting of the International Planning History Society (IPHS), London, UK, 2002

—”Borderlands,” ACSA Western Regional Meeting, Chico Hot Springs, Montana, 2001

“German Social Housing of the Weimar Republic:  A Revolution in Daily Life”

—”The Politics of Design, 1885-1945,” Inaugural Symposium of the Wolfsonian Museum, Miami Beach, Florida, 1996

 “A Revolution in Woman’s Sphere:  Grete Lihotzky and the Frankfurt Kitchen”

—International Style Architecture Conference, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1994

—International Symposium “Architecture + Culture,” Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada September 1992

—Fine Arts Department Lecture Series, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, February 1992

“Bachelor Culture in the Work of Adolf Loos”:

—National Meeting of the ACSA, March 1993

—National Meeting of the College Art Association, February 1993

—Northeast Regional Meeting of the ACSA, November 1992

—Syracuse University, School of Architecture Lecture Series, September 1992

“A Setting for Mass Culture:  Life and Leisure in the Nidda Valley”

—European Congress of the ACSA, Delft, Netherlands, July 1992

“The Technics of Implementation,” with Jeffrey Hannigan

—ACSA National Technology Conference, San Diego, 1991

“The Architecture of Bernhard Hoetger:  Worpswede and Böttcherstraße”

—National Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Montreal, Canada, 1989

“Weimar in Postmodern Criticism”

—Conference “The Politics of Postmodernism,” The Institute of Advanced Cultural Studies, CUNY Graduate Center, New York City, 1986

“The Architecture of Wall Street”

—Regional Conference of the ACSA, Miami, Ohio, 1986

“A Walk Down Wall Street” on behalf of the New York City History Project with Mike Wallace

—”Past and Present: A Conference on Historical Interpretation,” New York City, 1984

—Annual Meeting, American Historical Association, New York, New York, December 1985

“The History of New York City Housing:  A Tour of the Lower East Side”

—on behalf of “The New York City History Project” Annual Meeting, American Historical Association, New York, New York, December 1985

“The Design Team of Ernst May”

—International Design Participation Conference, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 1985

“Polychromy in the Work of Ernst May”

—National Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1985

“The Work of Ernst May, 1920-30”

—National Meeting of the ACSA, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 1985

“Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, Suburban Idyll”

—Northeast Regional Meeting of the ACSA, Washington, DC, 1983

“Energy Conscious Design in the History of Modern Architecture”

—National Meeting of the ACSA, Sante Fe, New Mexico, 1983

 

Publications

Books

Building Culture: Ernst May and the New Frankfurt, 1926-1932. NY:  Peter Lang, 2013.

Book Chapters

“The Römerstadt Settlement in Frankfurt am Main:  The ‘New Life,’ 1927/2011,” The Heritage of Iconic Planned Communities, ed. Robert Freestone, Isabelle Gournay, Mary Corbin Sies (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019)

“Grete Schütte Lihotzky and Social Reform through Design,” The Responsible Object: A History of Design Ideology for the Future, Marjanne van Helvert, ed. (Amsterdam: Valiz, 2016)

 “The Resilient Community,” From the Ground Up:  Innovative Green House (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012)

“J.L.M. Lauweriks and K.P.C. de Bazel: Architecture and Theosophy,” The Religion Imagination and Modern Architecture, ed. Renate Hejduk and Jim Williamson (New York: Routledge, 2011)

“A Revolution in Woman’s Sphere:  Grete Lihotzky and the Frankfurt Kitchen” (reprint), Barbara Miller Lane, Housing and Dwelling (Routledge, 2006)

“A Revolution in Woman’s Sphere:  Grete Lihotzky and the Frankfurt Kitchen,” ed. Debra Coleman, Architecture and Feminism (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996)

Journal and Magazine Articles

“Reputations. Mart Stam,” AR The Architectural Review (August 2016)

“Reputations. Grete Schütte-Lihotzky,” AR. The Architectural Review (June 27, 2015)

Reissue:  “Architectural Review Reading List 014. The latest instalment of our new series of AR Reading Lists: seven carefully chosen pieces from our archive” (June, 2020)

“Römerstadt:  The Modern Garden City,” Planning Perspectives, no. 3 (2010)

“Housing for Women.  The Frankfurt Experiment,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2009)

“Ernst May and the Campaign to Resettle the Countryside:  Rural Housing in Silesia, 1919-1925,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (June 2002)

“Bachelor Culture in the work of Adolf Loos,” Journal of Architectural Education 55, no. 3 (2002)

“Self-help Housing in the Weimar Republic:  The Work of Ernst May,” Housing Studies. The International Housing Research Journal 14, no. 3 (1999)

“Introduction.” Guest editor for special issue “Architecture and Theosophy,” Architronic 8, no. 1, 1999, arcrs4.saed.kent.edu/Architectronic/.

“J.M.L. Lauweriks and K.P.C. de Bazel:  Architecture and Theosophy,” Architronic 8, no. 1, 1999, arcrs4.saed.kent.edu/Architectronic/.

“New Buildings Make New People:  The Pavilion Schools of Weimar Frankfurt as a Model of Pedagogical Reform,” Design Issues (Spring 1997)

“A Setting for Mass Culture:  Life and Leisure in the Nidda Valley,” Planning Perspectives 10 (1995)

“Böttcherstraße:  The Corporatist Vision of Bernhard Hoetger and Ludwig Roselius,” Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 20 (1994)

“Llewellyn Park, suburban idyll,” Journal of Garden History 7, no. 3 (1987)

“Out of the Ashes:  The Public Markets of London Before and After the Great Fire,”The Radical History Review (Fall 1979)

Encyclopedia Entries

“The Mosque:  Architectural Aspects,” The Encyclopedia of Religion, Volume 10, Mircea Eliade, ed. (New York:  Macmillan Press, 1987)

Authored Book Reviews

Review of Negotiating Domesticity, ed. Hilda Heynan and Gülsüm Baydar, Journal of Design Review 20 (March 2007)

Review of The Gray Room, by Paul Scheerbart, translated by John Stuart, Journal of Architectural Education (May 2003)

Review of Eve Blau, The Architecture of Red Vienna, 1919-1934 and Nancy Stieber, Housing Design and Society in Amsterdam. Reconfiguring Urban Order and Identity, 1900 - 1920 in International Labor and Working-Class History Journal (Spring 2000)

Book Review Column in the Journal of Architectural Education

“Other Publishing News,” (November, 2002)

“Other Publishing News,” (November, 2001)

“Other Publishing News,” (September, 2000)

Conference Proceedings

“Pertaining to Our Understanding of American Rural Landscapes:  The Case of Sea Ranch,” Borderlands, Contested Terrain, Proceedings of the Western Region ACSA Conference (October 2001) (abstract)

“Grete Lihotzky and the Frankfurt Kitchen,” Architecture + Culture. Proceedings of the International Research Symposium (Ottawa:  Carleton University, 1992)

“Reconstruction in Post-War Germany, 1919-1930,” International Conference on the Reconstruction of War-Damaged Areas, Proceedings (Tehran, Iran:  University of Tehran, 1990)

“The Architecture of Wall Street,” Proceedings of the Annual East Central Regional Meeting of the ACSA (October 1986)

“The Design Team of Ernst May,” Design Coalition Team: Proceedings of the International Design Participation Conference, Vol. I, M.R. Beheshti, ed. (Eindhoven: Design Methods Group, 1985)

Editorial

Book review editor, Journal of Architectural Education, May 1999 - 2003. Guest editor for special issue “Architecture and Theosophy,” Architronic 8, no. 1, 1999, arcrs4.saed.kent.edu/Architectronic/

Editorial Board, Journal of Architectural Education, 1993-1996

Collective Member, The Radical History Review, 1978 - 1981

Instructional and Public History Literature and Projects

“Grete Lihotzky and the Frankfurt Kitchen” Diversity in Architectural History, 1996, ACSA Instructional Development Publication compiled by Diane Ghirardo and Barbara Allen.

Co-authors David Rosen and Mike Wallace, Bulls, Bears and Banks:  A Guide to the New York City Public History Project’s Walking Tour on the History of Wall Street (New York City History Project, 1987)