The Architecture of Food

Fourteenth Biennial Symposium | April 6-7, 2024
Organized by the SAH Latrobe Chapter & DC Preservation League
Hosted by the CUA School of Architecture and Planning

Boozy brunch, spongy injera dinners, empanada midnight snacks—modern residents of the nation’s capital enjoy a dynamic food center, noted for its variety of culinary experiences and foods authentic to the region, including half smokes, mumbo sauce, and crabcakes. Less explored is how this culinary geography intersects with the built environment, and how those intersections have changed over time. From farms and agricultural homesteads that supplied historic markets to ethnic food enclaves fostered by DC’s role as the capital, the city is an experiment in democracy, architecture and flavor. How has the Washington metropolitan area facilitated the production and dissemination of foodstuffs across the region? How have patterns of work shaped patterns of eating? How does a focus on food generate new types of research methodologies?

Schedule

Saturday, April 6 - Paper Sessions

8:30 a.m. Registration and Coffee
9:00 a.m. Welcome Remarks, Helen Tangires

Keynote Address: Leila Marie Farah, Toronto Metropolitan University - “Insights from the Study of Food and Architecture”

10:00 a.m. Break
10:15 a.m. Session 1

Foodways and the Shaping of Work and Domestic Domains
Session Chair Richard Longstreth, George Washington University

  • “Tools of Reform: Antebellum Domestic Outbuildings in Central Maryland,” Melissa Blair, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

  • “Domestic Food Spaces and Power: Interpreting Amelia Heurich’s Memory at the Heurich House Museum,” Jenna Febrizio, Heurich House Museum

  • “Soft Shell Blue Crabs and Tangier Island’s Watermen Working Landscape,” Lincoln Lewis, University of Virginia

12:00 p.m. Lunch Provided
1:30 p.m. Session 2

Food and Its Impact on Urbanism
Session Chair Nathaniel Robert Walker, Catholic University of America

  • “Block and Table: Buying and Selling People and Food in Antebellum New Orleans,” Theresa McCulla, Mars, Incorporated

  • “Dining in the Modernist Gateway to ‘America’s Most Historic City’ [Fredericksburg, VA],” Christine Henry, University of Mary Washington

  • “Wasn’t Made for These Times: Bad Saint and the Meteoric Rise and Uncertain Future of D.C.’s Independent Restaurants,” Brian Miller, Streetsense

3:00 p.m. Session 3

Preservation and Interpretation of Food-Related Architecture in Washington, DC: Tour Preview
Session Chair Elizabeth Milnarik, National Park Service

  • United States Department of Agriculture Headquarters (Whitten Building), Laura Hughes, EHT Traceries

  • Peirce Mill, Steve Dryden, Friends of Peirce Mill

4:00 p.m. Closing Remarks, Helen Tangires
~ 4:30 p.m. Happy Hour at Brookland Pint

Sunday, April 7, 2024 - Tours

11:00 a.m. United States Department of Agriculture Headquarters (Whitten Building)
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250
Guide: Thomas Hoffman, Director, Facilities Management Division, USDA

Tour participants provide own transportation

2:00 p.m. Peirce Mill
2401 Tilden Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008
Guide: Steve Dryden, Executive Director, Friends of Peirce Mill

About the Biennial Symposium

Over the past two decades, the Latrobe Chapter has hosted over a dozen biennial symposia, typically with one day of paper sessions and day of related tours centered on a specific theme in the historic development of metropolitan Washington, DC. Past symposia have welcomed scholars from across the country to deliver papers on such diverse themes as John Joseph Earley, Mid-Century Modernism, and Wartime Washington.

For more information on prior symposium themes, click the link below: