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Pencil sketch showing gothic buildings with a chapel at the center and a large fountain in the foreground.
Pencil sketch showing gothic buildings with a chapel at the center and a large fountain in the foreground.

Duke’s Historical Landscape

This course will cover the development of the plan for Duke’s West Campus in 1924-1925. As a project-based course, students contribute historical research, 3D models, maps, and spatial narratives regarding several plans for the construction of Duke University’s new campus to a future digital exhibition related to the Duke Centennial. One of the principal sources for this project is a detailed set of 100 Duke property plats that were surveyed in 1925-1926. In addition to extracting information about the historical landscape from these sources, students will become more familiar with historical circumstances that governed the decision to build west campus in its current location.

This course is part of the Bass Connections project World Building at Duke in an Emerging Durham: 1924-1932.

Image Credit: Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architecture Firm Archive.

Course Code(s): ARTHIST 390S-01

Curriculum Code(s): Seminar

Day(s) & Times(s): TH 10:05AM-12:35PM

Location: Smith Warehouse Bay 11 A233