First there was the Depression, then there was Franklin Roosevelt’s answer to it: the New Deal. Many of those who worked for the New Deal believed that they were building a civilization. They left thousands of schools, colleges, bridges, dams, murals, parks and aqueducts. On a smaller scale, similar things happened in this country: in Melbourne, the Shrine of Remembrance was built largely by unemployed workers during the Depression.
Happily, the Shrine of Remembrance is still in good nick, but many of the American products of the New Deal are now falling into ruin, like those of ancient Rome.
They do, though, like ancient Rome, have their historian. Dr. Gray Brechin is an historical geographer and currently a visiting scholar in the U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography. He’s also the founder and project scholar of California’s Living New Deal Project. Today, he tells what the New Deal did for building in America.
In Sydney on November 11, Gray Brechin is delivering a talk, ‘A Dazzling Range of Styles: The Public Architecture of the New Deal in the United States’ at the Australian Institute of Architects.
Guests:
Dr. Gray Brechin, Visiting scholar in the U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography, founder and project scholar of California’s Living New Deal Project.
Further Information: Gray Brechin’s official website (http://graybrechin.net/)
Gray Brechin’s talk at the Australian Institute of Architects (http://graybrechin.eventbrite.com/)