Andy Shanken

UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

Andy Shanken publishes on the topic of architecture and memory, the history of preservation, keywords in architecture, and the visual culture of architecture and planning.

War Memorial Trash Can, Richmond, California, photograph by author.

Published March 29, 2023

"Why Memorials Are Strange"

Andy Shanken.

There is nothing in the world as invisible as a monument,” Robert Musil once mused. Yet recent events have brought them into high relief, both as commemorative infrastructure and as sites of political struggle. This lecture inquires into how memorials and monuments get turned on and off, how people use them in their various states, and finally why memorials are a quintessential example of what Henri Lefebvre called bizarrerie.

Shanken is a Professor of Architectural History and the Director of American Studies at U.C. Berkeley. His book, 194X: Architecture, Planning, and Consumer Culture on the American Homefront (2009), examines anticipatory architecture on the American homefront. A second book, Into the Void Pacific (University of California Press, 2015), is an architectural history of the 1939 San Francisco World’s Fair. His new book, The Everyday Life of Memorials (Zone Books, 2022), explores the meaning of memorials as they are enveloped in daily life and their place within the development of modern cities.

Wednesday, March 29

6-7:30 p.m. | 403 Hayes

American Planning Association New York Upstate Chapter Logo.

AICP members can earn Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for this activity: 1.5 CM, 9267628. More information about AICP’s CM program can be found at www.planning.org/cm. AICP members must be in attendance for the duration of the eventin order to receive CM Credit.