February 18, 2010

Three Drexel Architecture students spent a week in Istanbul at the beginning of January researching the Ottoman fountains of the Old City of Jerusalem. Students Anthony Assetto, Cassidy Hobbs and Joshua Lessard and Associate Professor Judith Bing worked at IRCICA (the International Centre for Islamic History Art and Culture), the institution in charge of the Al-Quds/Jerusalem 2015 Program, an initiative for preserving Jerusalem’s  neglected Islamic heritage.

Our students attended presentations on past restoration projects at IRCICA, with speakers from schools in Italy, Austria, the U.S. and Palestine, and the students’ research activities were complemented by visits to Istanbul’s historic sites, Ottoman research archives, and urban planning offices addressing the contemporary city.