Rudy Christian
Higher Education, Private Enterprise
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending time at the Preservation Institute Nantucket, a well-respected and established summer field-school program of the University of Florida. The weather wasn’t much to write home about, unless you're one of those people who enjoys cold wind and rain, but the historic architecture was interesting, if you like grey weathered wood shingles and white trim as far as the eye can see.
My wife, Laura, and I had the opportunity to put on a traditional timber-framing demonstration for the Nantucket Preservation Trust, on the grounds of the Athenaeum, which was open to the public. We had more than 40 people brave the elements to learn a little bit about the ancient trade that built most of the historic buildings on the island. I also gave a lecture on the role of trades in preservation work followed by a tour of two historic timber-frame roof systems on two 19th-century churches, where I introduced the students to my method of looking at historic buildings through the eyes of the tradesperson who built them. I helped them understand how looking at buildings from a virtual time machine can help you better understand how and why they were built as they were and what has happened to them between then and now.
In the evening we had some time to chat with Marty Hylton, the program’s current director and a good friend, and the conversation led to trades education. Surprised? Marty was instrumental in PTN’s introduction to summer field schools, and it was his idea to bring tradespeople and trades students together with academic students to create a new education dynamic. Marty agrees that trades educations programs would benefit greatly if it were possible for master tradespeople to actually hold teaching certificates, making it possible for students to receive college credits for taking courses taught by them. It would also be very beneficial if colleges and universities had access to tradespeople with teaching certificates who could act as visiting professors.
The fact that someone has reached master craftsmen status means little or nothing in the academic world.
Tenure in the academic world is gleaned principally through a rigorous process of obtaining the right degrees, actively teaching in a classroom setting, research and publication of that research, research being the principal factor looked at by the provost in evaluating an individual’s qualifications. This has created an environment where publication channels are readily available for academics to present their research and theses, but avenues for publication of the work of the trades are generally not financially supported or readily available.
The heart of the problem seems to rest in the fact that success in the educational world is reached through academic activities that are based on teach-what-you-can-test programs, while success in the world of the trades is reached through experiential activity, which is gauged by cultural or social approval and appreciation. What is common in both worlds is the fact that mastering any field requires acquiring the skills to teach others what you have learned. If this alone were what qualified someone to be certified as an educator, the resource would be both larger and truly interdisciplinary, but as my friend Marty might say, “Don’t hold your breath. Higher education is private enterprise.”
Rudy R. Christian is a founding member and past president of the Timber Framers Guild and of Friends of Ohio Barns and a founding member and executive director of the Preservation Trades Network. He is also a founding member of the Traditional Timberframe Research and Advisory Group and the International Trades Education Initiative. He speaks frequently about historic conservation and also conducts educational workshops. Rudy has also published various articles, including “Conservation of Historic Building Trades: A Timber Framer’s View” in the “APT Bulletin,” Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, and his recent collaborative work with author Allen Noble, entitled “The Barn: A Symbol of Ohio,” has been published on the Internet. In November 2000, the Preservation Trades Network awarded Rudy the Askins Achievement Award for excellence in the field of historic preservation.
As president of Christian & Son, his professional work has included numerous reconstruction projects, such as the historic “Big Barn” at Malabar Farm State Park near Mansfield, OH, and relocation of the 19th-century Crawford Horse Barn in Newark, OH. These projects featured “hand raisings,” which were open to the public and attracted a total of 130,000 interested spectators. He also led a crew of timber framers at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, Masters of the Building Arts program, in the re-creation and raising of an 18th-century carriage house frame on the Mall in Washington, DC. Roy Underhill’s “Woodright’s Shop” filmed the event for PBS, and Roy participated in the raising.
Christian & Son’s recent work includes working with a team of specialists to relocate Thomas Edison’s #11 laboratory building from the Henry Ford Museum to West Orange, NJ, where it originally was built. During the summer of 2006, Rudy; his son, Carson; and his wife, Laura, were the lead instructors and conservation specialists for the Field School at Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village, where the 1838 timber frame grainery was restored. In July and August 2008, Rudy and Laura directed and instructed a field school in the Holy Cross historic district in New Orleans in collaboration with the University of Florida and the World Monuments Fund.
Rudy studied structural engineering at both the General Motors Institute in Flint, MI, and Akron University in Ohio. He has also studied historic compound roof layout and computer modeling at the Gewerbe Akademie in Rotweil, Germany. He is an adjunct professor at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA, and an approved workshop instructor for the Timber Framers Guild.
