The built environment both reflects and (re)produces social, economic, and political relationships and indicates cultural values from the smallest lawn ornament to the most ambitious urban plans. Even the most modest individual structures and vernacular building types represent evidence in larger narratives about power, equity, and urban change. We can learn to read common or typical urban landscapes (a streetcar-era residential sub-division; lowrise commercial buildings on Main Street; central city office towers; parks and public spaces, for example) as a palimpsest of agency over time: who has the power to author and to rewrite the built environment, at what scale, and for what purposes? This graduate methods class examines theories and practices of research in the built environment with a focus on interdisciplinary field work and archival documentation in which we interrogate what information can be observed in the field and what must be gleaned from the archives. Mixed methods introduced include walking, durational observation, mapping, drawing, photography, video, sound, oral history, and survey. We learn to interpret historical and contemporary maps, city directories, public records, physical artifacts, and personal and institutional archives. Course readings include guidance on methodology as well as models of contemporary scholarship. Over the course of the semester, students develop a piece of public scholarship or academic journal article that advances a narrative framework drawing on original research.