The Society of Architectural Historians has awarded the 2012 Spiro Kostof Book Award to Katherine Wentworth Rinne, a member of CCA's Architecture faculty, for her book, The Waters of Rome: Aqueducts, Fountains, and the Birth of the Baroque City.

When in Rome . . .

Rinne’s book is an extraordinary achievement, taking a topographical approach to the urban history of Baroque Rome. In 1992 Rinne went on a four-month walk in Rome. Rather than consider Rome’s iconic fountains as isolated works of art, she looks at them as nodes in a vast network of engineering and project of control between 1560-1630. She shows how access to water and its overt display shaped the lives of all social classes in Rome, from powerful Popes to lowly laundresses.

During her travels, Rinne mapped fountains, drains, flood markings, and all other extant evidence of water management in the contemporary city. Combined with deep archival study, this unique, in-person survey inspires a lucid and detailed explanation to readers of the importance of gravity and topography in the making of Baroque Rome. Rinne then connects the fountains as technological achievements to the better-known story of Counter Reformation urban renewal. Even today Rinne concludes the Trevi Fountain “beats as Rome’s heart.”

About the Spiro Kostof Book Award

Rinne was awarded the Spiro Kostof Book Award at the Society’s Annual Conference in Detroit, MI. Established in 1994, the Spiro Kostof Book Award recognizes the work that, focusing on urbanism and architecture, provides the greatest contribution to our understanding of historical development and change. The Award Selection Committee was chaired by Annmarie Adams, and include Dolores Hayden and Alona Nitzan Shiftan.

About the Society of Architectural Historians

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) promotes the study, interpretation and conservation of architecture, design, landscapes and urbanism worldwide. Founded at Harvard University in 1940, SAH serves everyone touched by architectural history including design professionals, libraries, academics, and the public. Headquartered in the landmark Charnley-Persky House in Chicago, SAH serves its many constituents through its advocacy efforts, its print and online publications, and its local, national and international programs.