History and theory 131disappeared. Its content has set an important test for those
tools and approaches developed and adapted to address new
challenges and expectations posed of knowledge by the
humanities and their many settings.
In the fi nal analysis, the building poses a specifi c challenge
to cultural knowledge to which the research and teaching
of architectural historians has long been addressed. What
knowledge, they ask, is embedded in the building? What
accrues in the building by virtue of where and when it exists?
How does the building shed light on the past? And how
does it exist as a trace of the past? These are persistent ques-
tions that remain at the core of the architectural historian’s
enquiry.
What then?
The picture I have painted of architectural history and histo-
riography is that of a modern disciplinary fi eld and practice.
As much as architectural history assumes the behaviour, form
18 Oath of Offi ce Ceremony (2009) at the US Air Force Academy,
Colorado Springs, Colorado, with the Chapel by Skidmore, Owens
& Merrill (1962) depicted in the background.