Cameron Logan

This presentation will introduce the Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project, Locating Giurgola, a life and works study focused on the Italo-American architect Romaldo Giurgola. Giurgola’s biography was inexorably shaped by three cities—Rome, Philadelphia and Canberra. These cities, the Eternal City, the Workshop of the World, and the Bush Capital, seemingly have little in common, and Giurgola’s life and work naturally involved important encounters with other places, and many varied conceptions of architecture and civic life. But in his work and in his reflections on the practice of architecture, the three cities came to embody his artistic and political concerns. This talk will document key moments in this expansive, global itinerary, and suggest that Giurgola was  ultimately interested in addressing the civic implications of three different ideas of the city that broadly correspond with the three cities: the city as an accumulation; the city as an incomplete figure; and the city as an object in the natural field.

Cameron Logan is an urban and architectural historian and director of the postgraduate program in heritage conservation in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney. His work is concerned with the historicity of the built environment and the civic and cultural claims connected with architectural and urban conservation. He is the author of Historic Capital, Preservation, Race and Real Estate in Washington, DC (2017); co-author of Architecture and the Modern Hospital (2019) and co-editor of Adapt: New Lives for Old Buildings (2024).

Full schedule:

5:00 - 6:00pm: Giurgola and drawing: Logan in conversation with William Whitaker at the Architectural Archives
6:15 - 7:00pm: Reception, Kleinman Forum
7:00 - 8:00pm: Lecture, Kleinman Forum

To stream the talk virtually, please register via Zoom.

This event is presented in collaboration with the Philadelphia Chapter of DoCoMoMo

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.