PULLMAN, Wash. – An updated walking tour of downtown Pullman is the semester project of students in the architecture spring seminar “Selling the City” taught by Phil Gruen, associate professor at Washington State University.
In conjunction with client representatives from the Pullman Historic Preservation Commission, students will produce a historically-minded draft. The previous walking tour was developed in the 1980s.
Students will tackle issues regarding historic preservation, tourism and urban promotion. They will engage in primary research and consult original drawings, maps and photographs.
Kristen Koenig and Ashley Vaughn from the WSU Center for Civic Engagement are working with the students. So is principal client representative Matthew Root, an adjunct faculty member in anthropology at WSU and owner of the consulting firm Rain Shadow Research in Pullman.
Robert Franklin, an M.A. student in public history at WSU, is assisting with instruction of the course.
Follow the project’s progress on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/402076579928319/.
In spring 2013, Gruen led an interdisciplinary team of students from architecture, history and civil engineering in a WSU civic engagement project to investigate the significance of Pullman’s red brick streets.
After presentations to the university and the Pullman preservation committee, the streets were nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. Franklin worked on the project and was instrumental in forwarding the nomination, which is awaiting state approval.