Features
The 25 – John Tschirch
During his 30-year career in the historic documentation and cultural significance of historic sites, architectural historian, writer, and teacher John Tschirch has played a key role in the identification and restoration and/or the preservation of important buildings and landscapes across the globe.
His work has led him on treks to French chateaux, Italian villas, Austrian palaces, Croatian fortresses, Cotswold cottages, Argentinian mansions, and American Gilded Age residences.
Tschirch, who earned a master’s degree in architectural history and historic preservation from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, is the author of several books, the latest of which include “America’s Eden: Newport’s Landscapes through the Ages” and “Newport: The Artful City.”
Tschirch, who grew up climbing on the stone walls and exploring the old barns and houses of the Rhode Island coast, became fascinated by the natural and built environments at an early age.
“I have always been inspired by two aspects of traditional design and the efforts to preserve and promote it—the detailed study and documentation of the built creations of our past, whether buildings or landscapes, which is our tangible heritage, and the artistic and aesthetic response to those buildings and spaces by writers, painters, poets, photographers, and many others engaged in creative endeavors, for these are the intangible aspects of traditional design … the literature, the paintings, and other images created in response to our world,” he says.
A teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design and at the Cummings School of Architecture at Roger Williams University, and the recipient of the 2013 Frederick C. Williamson Professional Leadership Award from the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission, Tschirchadvises on historic preservation projects.
