FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ADAMS) – ARCH’s 2022 Fun & Free Lecture Series kicks off Feb. 19 by joining the Fort Wayne community’s observance of Black History Month.
The 11 a.m. lecture at The History Center will celebrate “Edwin Gibson: A Distinguished Career Begins.”
ARCH Inc. released the following:
Gibson was Indiana’s first registered black architect who went on to be the Indiana state architect and found his own firm in Indianapolis before serving as Methodist Hospital’s Facilities Department Head and Director of Long Range Facility Plan. He retired in 2002 and died in 2011.
Edwin Gibson’s home designs featured expanses of glass opening to courtyards nestled in the ell of the house’s wings. Learn more February 19 when Connie Has Zuber presents “Edwin Gibson: A Distinguished Career Begins” for ARCH’s Fun & Free Lecture Series. ARCH Photo.
A graduate of Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architectural engineering at the University of Illinois, he spent 17 formative years of his professional career in Fort Wayne as an architectural engineer, designer and eventually partner and treasurer of A.M. Strauss & Associates, Inc., a leading architectural firm here. His resume says he specialized in institutional, religious and healthcare design, but he also leaves a legacy of at least three high-styled homes, which will be featured in the lecture, presented by ARCH Executive Director Connie Haas Zuber.
The 2022 lecture series continues with:
· March 19: “Our Community Album” presented by Randy Harter, the historian who has been instrumental in collecting, contributing and organizing significant parts of the Community Album of historic images made available to all of us through the Allen County Public Library. Harter will introduce the wealth of images and information contained in the Album and share stories connected with them.
· April 16: Tyler Bowers, West Central Neighborhood Association president, will present research he has completed on “The Economics of Historic Preservation and Revitalization in West Central.” With development accelerating at Electric Works, in addition to downtown’s revival and Riverfront development, West Central is a hotspot in the local real estate market. Bowers’s research digs into the data and reveals what is really happening there.
· May 21: Karen Richards, a regular on ARCH’s lecture series and one of our most popular speakers, will close out this year’s series with an exploration of “Urban Farmhouses.” Our neighborhoods are sprinkled with homes that were the homes of the farm families who were there before the neighborhoods were platted, and her lecture will tell the stories of several of them and likely inspire you, too, to start noticing these historic treasures in our midst.
All the lectures will begin at 11 a.m. in the Shields Room at The History Center, 302 E.Berry St., Fort Wayne. Free parking is available at the center. In-person attendance will be available for each lecture, unless public health authorities advise otherwise because of COVID-19 pandemic conditions. ARCH will announce any masking, social distancing and live-streaming recommendations and options on the Thursday before each lecture. The announcement will go out to media, be displayed on our website (archfw.org) and will go out via email to everyone on our mailing list. People attending the lectures are free to wear a mask to any lecture as they see fit. In general, ARCH will ask its guests to wear masks and expect to be seated in a socially distanced fashion for any lecture during times when Allen County is in the red category of COVID case counts and positivity rate.
When ARCH is offering a live-streaming option for its lectures, everyone interested in attending the lectures — virtually — will be invited to send an email to archfortwayne@gmail.com asking for a link to the lecture you are interested in. Please send your request no later than 9 a.m. the day of the lecture. Zoom information will be sent out one hour before each lecture to the email you used to send in your request. For more information, please contact the ARCH office, by email to archfortwayne@gmail.com or by phone (260) 426-5117.
ARCH’s community education programming is supported by funding from Arts United and the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.
For more information about the 2022 Fun & Free Lecture Series, contact ARCH at (260) 426-5117.
