May 28, 2019
by
Pauline Saliga, Karen Kingsley, and Gabrielle Esperdy
Obituary Mark Harril Saunders
September 04, 1966–May 19, 2019
It is with great sadness that av¸£ÀûÉç shares news of the death of Mark Saunders, the Director of the University of Virginia Press. Mark was a valued colleague who collaborated with us to shape the future of the Buildings of the United States (BUS) book series and av¸£ÀûÉç Archipedia, its online counterpart.
As av¸£ÀûÉç President Sandy Isenstadt stated, “Mark’s death is a great loss for both av¸£ÀûÉç and the Academy. He has been such a staunch supporter of av¸£ÀûÉç’s publishing program that it will be difficult to move forward without his wise counsel.”
Because Mark was champion of print books, he expanded the BUS state guides by developing a new BUS City Guide series, with Savannah and New Orleans as the first releases. In response to requests from av¸£ÀûÉç for more user-friendly state guides, Mark and his staff recently completed development of a new design that will include the same scholarly content in a user-friendly, lower-cost, color guidebook format. Similarly, in response to av¸£ÀûÉç’s requests for open access for av¸£ÀûÉç Archipedia, Mark and his team created a new mobile-friendly, open-access site that includes more than 20,000 building histories and dozens of new interpretive essays. It will launch this summer. In Mark Saunders and University of Virginia Press, av¸£ÀûÉç found publishing partners willing to invest in BUS and av¸£ÀûÉç Archipedia and to provide the support, expertise, and editorial and technical staffing to help us realize our shared vision for these award-winning print and online publications. It is with gratitude that we note Mark’s conceptual and pragmatic contributions, which stand as a lasting legacy in the evolution of the BUS series and av¸£ÀûÉç Archipedia.
Colleagues at University of Virginia wrote a tribute about Mark’s many achievements and interests, which is .
Pauline Saliga, Executive Director av¸£ÀûÉç
Karen Kingsley, BUS Editor-in-Chief
Gabrielle Esperdy, av¸£ÀûÉç Archipedia Editor
