The new iPhone App, Brown FACADES, is an interactive guide to the architectural history of the Brown University Campus.  The App has information about 130 buildings on Brown's Campus, including some 'ghost buildings' that either are not there anymore, or were meant to be built but never were. A text to speech function lets you listen to the text while you look at the building (please wait for 2 seconds for it to begin). The texts were written by the students, all buildings were photographed for this project by Hassan Bagheri, there are many historic photographs from the Brown University Archives, the App design was done by Gokce Kinayoglu, editor in chief: Siri Olson, project director: Dietrich Neumann

Brown’s Campus is a microcosm of American architecture with excellent examples from all periods of its 250 year history. At the same time, its architecture and art, its public and intimate spaces help to tell the rich story of our unique institution, our students, faculty, staff and administrators. The work on this App began with an undergraduate research seminar in the history of architecture in the fall of 2011. Every week the students met in a different space on campus to discuss research methods, review individual entries and conduct a site visit. All entries were written by the students and then edited by Siri Olson and Dietrich Neumann. We hope to continue to develop the App and hope for feedback from students and alumni to add more “Facts About Campus Architecture Design Environment and Spaces.

It can be downloaded from the App Store for free, here.