Events

Event Description

During a period in the 18th and 19th Centuries when American architecture was essentially flammable, the economic imaginary of the United States was reinvented around the material value of timber and of insurance. This talk connects architecture to abundance by describing: the rewards and risks of clear-cutting, quick construction, and town-burning that defined colonial building’s attitude to North America’s Indigenous forests, and the risk cartography that made insurance underwriting possible, with its surprising ties to the valuation of art.

Event Information

Free and open to the public; registration required for online attendance. Guests without an active Columbia University ID who wish to attend in-person should email [email protected]. For more information, please visit the event webpage. 

Hosted by the Buell Center at Columbia University.