B.A., New York University
M.ArchH., Ph.D., University of Virginia
Specialization
Modern American and European Architecture
Victoria Young is the Director of Graduate Studies for the Master of Arts in Art History program at the University of St. Thomas.
Young's current research focuses on two topics: the relationship between modernism and religious architecture in America and the history of kinetic architecture. Her manuscript in progress on Marcel Breuer and Saint John's Abbey Church in Collegeville, Minnesota (1953-1961) called "Thinking Boldly: Church Design at Saint John's Abbey" explores modern religious space as does her recent article on the mid-century church in the 150th anniversary volume of Saint John's Abbey and University. She will present her research on Saint John's and modern liturgical reforms at the Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting in Pittsburgh in April of 2007. Her recent exhibition and symposia on "Building the Impossible: Architecture in Motion" (spring 2005) explored the role of motion in design. She also chaired a session on kinetic architecture at the 2006 meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians in Savannah, GA and continues to explore the history of kinetic design in future research.
Young has further explored the topic of architecture of the 1950s and 1960s by chairing a session at the Society of Architectural Historians Annual Meeting in 2002 entitled "The Rebirth of Solids": Redefining Mid-Century Modern Architecture. Young's work has focused on religious architecture; she wrote her Master's thesis on Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire, England, a monastic design by the nineteenth-century English architect, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. This project focused on the international aspects of Pugin's design, both architecturally and ideologically. She is included in several publications on modern architecture, including Icons of Architecture (Munich: Prestel, 1998) and the unpublished guide to architecture in Newport, RI on behalf of the Victorian Society in America's Summer School.
Recent and Forthcoming Publications
"A. W. N. Pugin's Mount Saint Bernard Abbey: The International Character of England's Nineteenth-Century Monastic Revival" in Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, February 2002 (http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/articles/youn.html)
"Monasticism and Modernity: St. John's Abbey Church and Marcel Breuer." Casabella vol. 67 no. 715 (October 2003): 28-39.
Book review of Peter Williams, Houses of God (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois, 1997) and Thomas Roma, Sanctuary (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press,
2002) in CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, 2003.
"The Design and Construction of Saint John's Abbey Church, 1953-1961" in Saint John's at 150: This Place called Collegeville (Liturgical Press and Saint John's University Press, 2006).
Recent and Forthcoming Presentations
The Rebirth of Solids: Redefining Mid-Century Modern Architecture. Session Co-chair for the annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians in Richmond, VA, April 2002.
The Selection of Marcel Breuer as Architect for the Abbey of St. John the Baptist. Invited paper given at the Marcel Breuer Centenary Symposium, St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota, June 2002.
The Bauhaus meets God's House: Marcel Breuer and the Benedictines build St. John's Abbey Church, Collegeville, MN (1953-1961). Paper presented at the
(Un) Common Ground: Rethinking American Sacred Space symposium, University of Virginia, School of Architecture, November 2002.
Catholic Sacred Architecture: Traditional and Modern. Invited paper presented at the Liturgical Institute of St. Mary of the Lake/ Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, IL, October 2003.
Building the New St. John's: Marcel Breuer and the Benedictines Define the Mid-Century Monastery and Campus. Paper delivered at the Second Annual ACTC Art History Symposium, April 2004.
Designing the First Abbey Church of St. John the Baptist in Collegeville,
Minnesota: 19th-Century Connections to King Ludwig I, Green Bay's Cathedral, and Assumption Church in St. Paul. Paper given at the 40th Annual Northern Great Plains History Conference, September 30, 2005, in Eau Claire, WI.
Architecture in Motion: Creating a History of Kinetic Structures. Session chair, Society of Architectural Historians Annual Meeting in Savannah, GA, April 2006.
Creating Modern Liturgical Space: Breuer and the Benedictines at Saint John’s. Paper to be delivered at the Society of Architectural Historians Annual Meeting in Pittsburg, PA, April 2007.
Service
October 2006: Member of the state of Minnesota's Historic Review Board for designationg of National Register properties
July 2005: Appointed by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty to a seat on the Governor's Residence Council
2004-2006: Planning Commissioner, St. Anthony Village
2003-present: Director and currently Vice President, the Board of the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.
