A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

Charles Pipal

Professor, Adjunct

Bio

Education: Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, 1986, and Master of Architecture, 1990, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Concurrent positions: Principal architect, Charles Pipal AIA; Chair, Riverside Preservation Commission.

Personal Statement

Professor Pipal's areas of academic and professional expertise include documentation of historic buildings and sites, historic resource surveys, adaptive reuse of historic buildings, permit review and construction project management. His personal and scholastic interests include historic site interpretation as it applies to tourism and the understanding of the role of social and political history as it is seen and expressed in the built environment.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

The documentation of historic cultural resources is critical to the field of historic preservation. By immersion, students will learn photographic, measuring and drawing methods and subsequently develop a deep understanding of the pattern language of architectural drawing. Collections management and inventory will also be addressed. During the course, we will reference the Historic American Buildings Survey collection at the United States Library of Congress. All relevant standards and guidelines issued by the National Park Service will be referenced, as well as previous projects from the HABS collection. By measuring and drawing extant historic objects and structures to exacting standards, students will become familiar with historic construction techniques, building materials and design principles. Students will develop skills and provide final drawings and notes which will be included in the HABS collection.

Class Number

1619

Credits

3

Description

This studio and lecture course focuses on the restoration design of existing historic buildings (following the Secretary of the Interior's Guidelines) using historic photographs, working drawings, and descriptions; stylistic analysis; and similar building topologies. Historical structural systems, construction methods, and mechanical systems are also studied and researched. Restoration drawings are prepared to document the changes needed for restoration.

Class Number

2259

Credits

6

Description

A selected neighborhood or region is studied, researched, and analyzed. The tools of preservation planning are practiced in the field-including the analysis and history of individual buildings, the study of various building types and their place in the community, the impact of transportation and institutions on the historic fabric, and the history of the community over time. Students conduct surveys of historic resources, prepare a comprehensive report, and present their findings before the community.

Class Number

2310

Credits

3

Description

This studio class will explore and address themes and cultural connections which migrate across geographic boundaries and time. Do sites have memory? When all visible physical traces have disappeared, how can we evoke the past using design? When cultural practices (music, language, art, food, architecture, etc.) and people transplant to another place, what do they leave behind and what do they create a new? What links prevail over space and time?

Class Number

2486

Credits

3

Description

This studio course is a project-based class, offering students the opportunity to engage preservation practice through real-world engagement. In the past, practicum projects have included such topics as 'Construction Project Management', 'Integrating Green Technology into Practice', and 'Rebuilding the White City: A Study of Extant Fabric of the Columbian Expo of 1893'. Depending on the course project, expert guest speakers will be engaged, and site visits and research will be conducted. Typically students have several smaller assignments and one large final project. Since this is a project-based class, students may have the opportunity to work in smaller, multidisciplinary groups.

Class Number

2491

Credits

3

Description

Thesis studio asks students to determine and research an original problem with pertinent issues, and design an innovative response to some aspect of architectural production. Course Goals and Objectives 1) Give individual students the opportunity to discover, define, and research a significant aspect of architectural production in depth. 2) Develop a personal approach to an important issue of contemporary significance to the field of architecture and communicate it concisely. 3) Work with originality, clarity, and high production values at the end of an architectural education.

Class Number

2263

Credits

9