Joss Kiely awarded Scott Opler Endowment for New Scholars Study Tour Fellowship by SAH

Joss Kiely, a Ph.D. candidate with a research focus in Architectural History and Theory, was awarded the Society of Architectural Historian’s Scott Opler Endowment for New Scholars Study Tour Fellowship in recognition of his scholarly work.

The Scott Opler Endowment for New Scholars Study Tour provides funding to allow for a graduate student or emerging professional to participate in a unique Study Tour. This year’s SAH Study Tour was held in Columbus, Indiana on October 4, 2013.

Left: Interior of Miller House – one of the locations of the Study Tour (Eero Saarinen [Architecture], Alexander Girard [Interior Design], Dan Kiley [Landscape]). Right: Joss Kiely.

In 1991, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) ranked Columbus, IN the sixth most architecturally important city in the United States.

Kiely joined tour leader Henry Kuehn through such sites as the Miller House and Garden, which combines the design genius of Eero Saarinen, Dan Kiley, and Alexander Girard, as well as two sites not open to the public the recently restored Irwin Union Bank by Eero Saarinen and the Cummins headquarters by Kevin Roche. Also included were works by world-renowned architects I. M. Pei, Eliel Saarinen, Gunnar Birkerts, Myron Goldsmith, Edward Bassett, Ralph Johnson, and Fred Koetter, as well as landscape designs by Dan Kiley, Jack Curtis, and Michael Van Valkenburgh.

Kiely’s research interest focuses on defining a latent “aerialism” that developed during the jet age of air travel in the 1950s and 1960s, specifically focusing on a handful of thin shell concrete structures designed by Minoru Yamasaki, Eero Saarinen, and Felix Candela.