Hannah Brooks Humanities
Sticks and Stones: Reconstructing the Instructional Architecture of the Anna Head School
Scholars Journal
Built in 1892, Channing Hall, the principal edifice of the Anna Head School, was the first building block of the exemplary, early modern educational institution for women as well as Berkeley's first recorded brown shingle structure. Occupying an important place in both the history of progressive education writ large and the legacy of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the Bay Area, the site of the former boarding school has been recognized as historically significant for almost fifty years, yet today is in danger of demolition by neglect. Conducting an interdisciplinary analysis of the architecture using visual semiotics and socio spatial perspective, Hannah will focus on the site, prioritizing the built structures, hoping to draw out latent significance for the purpose of contributing something new to the argument for preservation.
Major: History of Art
Mentor: Margaretta Lovell, History of Art