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Race and the Built Environment Guide

Resources and Syllabi

House Housing: An Untimely History of Architecture and Real Estate - "A multi-year research project conducted from 2013–2016 by the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University. The initiative seeks to encourage a public, historically informed conversation about the intersection of architecture and real estate development."

Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus - A series of topical articles on historical instances of institutional racism in the U.S. created by JSTOR. 

Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America - A georeferenced map database documenting the grading of neighborhoods in U.S. cities as determined by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation between 1935 and 1940.  The grading system became the basis for the practice of "redlining" (refusing mortgage approvals for homes in areas assigned a substandard risk assessment), a long-lived structurally racist housing policy in the U.S.

A Matter of Truth: The Struggle for African Heritage & Indigenous People Equal Rights in Providence, Rhode Island (1620-2020) - An examination and documentation of the role of the City of Providence and State of Rhode Island in supporting a “Separate and Unequal” existence for African heritage, Indigenous, and people of color. 

Primitive to Postmodern: Theories of Architecture and Race - An architectural history course syllabi created by Irene C. Cheng, California College of Art.

Race, Space and Architecture: Towards an Open-Access Curriculum - An open-access curriculum authored by Huda Tayob and Suzanne Hall, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Renewing Inequality: Urban Renewal, Family Displacements, and Race 1955-1966 - Visualizes the displacements resulting from the federal funding for cities large and small to raze "blighted" or "slum" neighborhoods. Though improved housing opportunities was the ostensible goal, cities used funding to stimulate commercial and industrial redevelopment, displacing hundreds of thousands of families from their homes and neighborhoods. 

Segregated Seattle - Part of the University of Washington's Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, this mapping project illustrates how race-based restrictive covenants resulted in the racial segregation of Seattle from 1900 to the present day.

Talking About Race - National Museum of African-American History & Culture - A set of tools and guidance to empower reflection and inspire conversations on race.