Visiting Scholar Christine Macy presents her research:

This paper explores the influence of Benton MacKaye’s contributions to regional planning in the 1920s and 30s, particularly his argument for an Appalachian Trail and the “townless highway”, tracing the sources of these programs in his uniquely social vision for conservation policy, and their influence on the early planning efforts of the Tennessee Valley Authority for the Norris Dam project.

Christine Macy is a Professor of Architecture at Dalhousie University, with research interests in the cultural dimensions of architecture and the intersection of nature and culture at the scale of buildings and landscapes, with a particular focus on large-scale infrastructure. Her books include Architecture and Nature: Creating the American Landscape (Routledge, 2003), Festival Architecture (Routledge, 2008), and Responsive Textile Environments (Tuns/Riverside Press, 2007), co-authored with Sarah Bonnemaison, and Dams (forthcoming, Norton/Library of Congress). Other publications related to the TVA include: “The TVA Architect’s office,” The Tennessee Valley Authority: design and persuasion, ed. Tim Culvahouse (Princeton Architectural Press, 2007); and “Body building: metaphors of masculinity in the architecture of the TVA,” Gendered landscapes, ed. Bonj Sziegel et al. (Center for Studies in Landscape History, Penn State, 2000).

Christine Macy was a Visiting Scholar at the CCA in 2008.