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Ashley Gardini

Ashley Gardini

Ashley Gardini is an architectural historian based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She teaches art history and architectural history as an adjunct instructor at local community colleges. Her specialization is in twentieth-century architecture. Gardini is also an active member of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) and is currently serving as a member of the SAH Board. Follow her on Twitter and Mastodon.

The Erechtheum
The Where We Were

The Unusual, Unexpected Erechtheion

The Parthenon embodies the ideals of perfection Classical Greeks sought from architecture. The neighboring Erechtheion offers something else.
A diagram for Ebenezer Howard’s To-morrow, 1898
The Where We Were

Urban Planning, Then and Now

Humans have been designing cities for millennia. California Forever is just the newest entry in a long list of planned communities around the world.
Weston Havens House
The Where We Were

Searching for Queer Spaces

The dominant heteroview of architectural history means we may lose our queer spaces and their histories before we even know they exist.
Gourna Mosque
The Where We Were

Hassan Fathy and New Gourna

Fathy rejected European ideas of modernism, arguing that Egypt could draw on its own regional histories to develop a national aesthetic.
An image from the Wasmuth Portfolio drawn by Marion Mahoney
The Where We Were

Marion Mahony Griffin, Prairie School Architect

A founding member of the Prairie School, Mahony defined the movement’s now-familiar aesthetic for a global audience.
Mausoleum of Augustus
The Where We Were

Fascist Architecture in Rome

In Mussolini's Rome, the built environment struck a balance between the romance of the ancient past and the rationalism of avant-garde modernism.
São Paulo Museum of Art
The Where We Were

Lina Bo Bardi: Architect of Brazilian Modernism

A community-oriented architect, Lina Bo Bardi embraced the principles of modernism to design public buildings that remained connected to Brazil’s past.
Hutong in Beijing, China
The Where We Were

China’s Historic Preservation Challenges

Beijing’s hutongs are disappearing quickly. Is there a way create safe housing, preserve historic buildings, and meet the city's financial needs?
Zaha Hadid, 2013
The Where We Were

The Evolution of Zaha Hadid, Architect

An unconventional architect who started her career as an outsider, Hadid became a leading figure in architecture and design in the twenty-first century.
Part of the series La Città Nuova, 1914, by Antonio Sant'Elia
The Where We Were

Exploring the Avant-Garde Architectural Manifesto

More than a century later, the architectural manifesto continues to hold our attention, emphasizing a charged moment when society was breaking with the past.
Photograph of Chinatown YWCA in San Francisco (now used by the Chinese Historical Society). Julia Morgan architect. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinatown_San_Francisco_%2826720090647%29.jpg
The Where We Were

Julia Morgan, American Architect

Morgan, the first licensed woman architect in California, helped bring parity to the built environment, the community, and the profession.
Nakagin Capsule Tower in 2021
The Where We Were

Tearing Down Nakagin Capsule Tower

Japanese Metabolists argued that architecture should be adaptable, changing as a city changed. Why, then, is this icon of Metabolism being dismantled?

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