By Xiu Chen, Yale College ‘20

Upon first glance, the architecture of a built environment appears to be static: the façades seemingly withstand the ticking of time and the structures, solemn and resolute, appear to provide a backdrop to, rather than be an active participant of, the dynamism of life. However, there is interaction between humans and the vernacular spaces and it is only fitting that the richness of these personal encounters, each a little different from the other, is also captured in Yale’s existing New Haven Building Archive (NHBA).

In collaboration with Elihu Rubin, Associate Professor of Architecture and American Studies, the Digital Humanities Lab created NHBA as an online collection of architecture in and around the Yale University campus. The desktop and mobile-friendly website features hundreds of encyclopedia-like entries of researched buildings, a visual map of buildings filterable by style, era, usage, and neighborhood, and a glossary of architectural terms for quick reference.

For my senior project in fulfillment of the Computer Science major, I extended upon the existing codebase with the aim of moving NHBA closer to that of a “living archive.” By allowing users to contribute documents, such as image snapshots, and add comments in the style of a discussion forum, the building entries are now ever-changing collections of personal encounters and experiences with the Yale campus. The flows for image and comment contributions are similar: users can submit a form with their attached documents, which then must be reviewed by the admins via a portal display, and finally, the approved media will be appended to the existing building entry. In addition, I helped visualize the glossary page by embedding an image gallery for each term definition to make the tool more robust and accessible.

I could not have asked for a better opportunity to culminate my Yale experience. Through this project, I could combine my passions for web development without sacrificing my love for the humanities, all the while incorporating the knowledge I’ve gained from two of my favorite courses: Professor Rubin’s ARCH 280: “American Architecture and Urbanism” (whose students contribute to the NHBA every semester) and my advisor Professor Benedict Brown’s CPSC 376: “Digital Humanities.” I hope that my work on creating a “living archive” of the NHBA will bring the Yale community one step closer together and make the campus and the greater New Haven cityscape feel a bit more familiar.

Since graduating from Yale, Xiu Chen has accepted a position as a software engineer at Facebook. To access the New Haven Building Archive, visit the NHBA webpage.