March 2007

Chair's Welcome
by Jack Pyburn, FAIA

With the heartiest of thanks to 2006 HRC Chair James J. Malanaphy III, AIA, for his years of leadership, the 2007 HRC Advisory Group has a strong foundation, with plans already under way for exciting events and programs for years to come. Membership value will be its top priority, and we welcome members' contributions and feedback as well as articles and event notices for Preservation Architect, the quarterly eNewsletter you are now reading.

We are entering the fifth year of our Preservation Education Initiative, an ambitious effort to integrate preservation values and knowledge into professional architecture education. To that end, the AIA HRC has developed excellent partnerships on a number of activities and events with architecture-education organizations. Building on this success will remain a particular focus of the HRC—this year and in the long term.

The 150th anniversary of the AIA this year offers still more exciting opportunities to celebrate the successes of architecture as a profession and—just as significantly—the success of preservation over the first 150 years. Most notably, preservation is being recognized as a fundamental part of sustainability in the built environment, and the HRC is an important part of that dialogue as well.

Read the full letter

Call for Submissions to Preservation Architect
This first quarterly issue of Preservation Architect for 2007 stands before you as a high-quality source of information that reaches more than 6,000 HRC members. Countless others browse through our main product with much anticipation and good recognition of new and timely information relative to historic preservation. We strive to be diverse, trendy, and up-to-date with our product, and we certainly need your help in sustaining our goals.

Did you know that you can contribute to our quarterly eNewsletter by submitting an interesting article from your region? Yes, you can! We accept unsolicited articles of interest to the HRC membership. Yes, there is a review process, and yes, we have submission guidelines. You can start by going to the HRC Web site and clicking on “Tips for Submissions.” You may also contact our project manager, Derrick Thomas (DThomas@aia.org), or Don Swofford, FAIA, who is the HRC Communications and Publications Subcommittee chair (Dons@DASAonline.com), if you have any questions or comments. We look forward to receiving your submission!

HRC Programs and Events

The AIA HRC home page runs a regularly updated list of scheduled HRC events. Just look under "HRC Highlights" and click on the links for more details about any HRC-sponsored or related event.

Other Historic Preservation Events

10th US/ICOMOS International Symposium
April 18–21, 2007
San Francisco
"Heritage Tourism: Balancing Culture, Conservation, and Economic Development: Heritage Tourism in and around the Pacific Rim"

First Euro Mediterranean Conference on Traditional Architecture
July 12–15, 2007
Barcelona

The AIA HABS Coordinating Committee: Plans for the Future
by David Woodcock, FAIA

When the late Charles E. Peterson proposed in 1933 to establish a program to employ out-of-work architects and draftsmen, he could never have envisaged that the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) would be the sole surviving New Deal program nearly 75 years later or that the HABS drawings in the Library of Congress (LOC) would be the most-used part of the LOC Prints and Photographs collection and accessible on a world-wide network.

For the last several years, a HABS Coordinating Committee consisting of representatives from the AIA, National Park Service, and LOC has maintained the agreement between the three organizations that administers HABS. When the committee met in January 2007 at the AIA headquarters, it confirmed the charge to maintain open communication and to support, facilitate, and encourage the continuing activity and development of HABS, perceived by many as the single most effective way to attract architects to preservation practice.

Read the full article

HRC Preservation in Architecture Education Initiative Makes Strides

For the past four years, an ad hoc group of educators and historic preservation architects have gathered in January to chart a year's activities focused on integrating historic preservation values into the dialogue of professional degree programs in architecture schools. With support from the National Center for Preservation Technology & Training (NCPTT) of the National Park Service and the AIA, the Preservation in Architecture Education Initiative has made some significant strides:

Contributed to the revision of the criteria for the accreditation of architecture schools
Attended, presented to, and organized preservation tours for, and jointly sponsored events with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
Organized and hosted a summer teachers seminar at the Cranbrook Academy for architecture faculty on historic preservation.
Organized and sponsored the first national student design competition with a preservation focus

Among the current endeavors, a Web site is being developed to help faculty develop course syllabi that integrate preservation values and technology into design course studios. The student design competition has attracted 51 entries and will be judged in June. Representatives remain involved in the next round of accreditation-criteria revisions being considered by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. Most important, the initiative is also engaging architecture students by involving them in AIA HRC activities and events.

Read the full article

Mary Bomar Becomes New NPS Director
The U.S. Senate last fall confirmed the appointment of Mary A. Bomar as director of the National Park Service (NPS). A career NPS employee, Bomar had served as director of the NPS's 13-state Northeast Region since July 2005. Bomar replaced Fran Mainella, who announced her resignation as NPS director last summer.

From 2003 to 2005, Bomar was superintendent of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. During her tenure, both the Liberty Bell Center and the National Constitution Center opened in the park on Independence Mall as part of the largest urban revitalization project in the nation. Also during her tenure, the NPS reopened the park's Second Bank of the United States after a two-year utilities project and installed a new exhibit, "The People of Independence." Concurrently the park managed a $5.2-million rehabilitation of Independence Square, the site of Independence Hall. Spurred by the new construction, park visitation surged by 35 percent.

Previously, Bomar served as the first superintendent at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the first NPS Oklahoma State Coordinator, acting superintendent at Rocky Mountain National Park, and assistant superintendent at the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Before joining the NPS, Bomar worked as a manager at the U.S. Department of Defense. Raised in Leicester, England, Bomar became a U.S. citizen in 1977.

Inside Toronto: An Interview with Sally Gibson
by Martha L. Werenfels, AIA

Inside Toronto: Urban Interiors 1880s to 1920s, by heritage consultant Sally Gibson, may be the first book to extensively document historic interior spaces in a major urban area. Preservation architect Martha Werenfels, AIA, recently engaged Gibson in an interview about the new perspectives she developed on architecture and urban living.

Combing through thousands of photographs of Toronto interiors from the Victorian, Edwardian, and Early Modern periods—as well as other historical documents that put the photos in context—Gibson's work presents a cross-section of city life, some of which is rarely documented. "Right from the beginning, I was determined to investigate not only the movers and shakers but also the moved and shaken," Gibson says.

Read the full interview

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Seeks Candidates for Senior Position

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., seeks a vice president/campus planning, restoration, and development to lead the creation and execution of a master plan for the buildings, land, and infrastructure of both Taliesin and Taliesin West. We are looking for a senior manager with the ability to lead an assessment of the foundation’s stabilization, preservation, and space needs. The ability to lead the subsequent development and realization of a master plan for restoring, managing, and developing new facilities on both campuses is equally important.

The vice president will have a minimum of 20 years’ relevant experience. An advanced architecture, engineering, or other appropriate degree is required; additionally, an MBA or other advanced management degree is preferred. For more information, including salary, see the Web site of the foundation's search consultant, The Himmelfarb Group (www.himmelfarbgroup.com) or call Meghan Strubel at 708-848-0086.

Volunteer Opportunities in New Orleans Available Until June

The Preservationist in Residence program of the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans (PRCNO) has been such an overwhelming success that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has extended funding for the program through June 2007. Help from HRC member volunteers is needed continually. More than 500,000 people were displaced; to date, fewer than 200,000 have returned. Each week, homeowners return to the area seeking assistance and expertise on how to repair, rebuild, and restore their homes.

So far, approximately 50 AIA HRC members have donated at least one week of their time to the Preservationist in Residence program, which gives New Orleans homeowners guidance and a preliminary assessment of the damage to their homes. PRCNO staff schedule site visits, accompany the homeowners during the assessment, and help with formatting of reports (brief, typed property-condition assessments that explain, in layman’s terms, the current condition of the property). Each volunteer will spend four nights in New Orleans, arriving Tuesday and departing Saturday afternoon. Site visits and consultations begin Wednesday and end Saturday morning. PRCNO provides accommodations at a nearby downtown hotel, currently the Queen & Crescent. All additional travel expenses are the volunteers' own responsibility.

To learn more about the Preservationist in Residence program and receive instructions on how to schedule your visit, contact AIA HRC Project Manager R. Derrick Thomas or PRCNO Homeowner Assistance Coordinator David Fields in New Orleans at 504-636-3070. Also see the article in the December 2006 issue of Preservation Architect about one HRC member's experience as a PRCNO volunteer.

Updated: Historic Preservation Book List

AIA HRC members have begun an online bookshelf of recommended reading in the historic preservation field. We hope to keep expanding the list as members contribute their own recommendations of titles. If you know of a book that should be on the list, please contact Raymond Plumey, FAIA, at rplumey@aol.com.

See the full list

AIA Seattle HRC Events

For May 2007—Preservation Month in Seattle—the AIA Seattle HRC will present a lecture series, "Rich Heritage, Bright Future." Each two-hour lecture will be held 4 to 6 p.m., venue TBD. Lecture-series planning, including confirmation of guest speakers, is still in progress, but here is the current topic list:

May 10: "Seattle Area Landscape as Heritage Tourism." Guest speakers and discussion including existing and future landscaping and projects.
May 17: "Historic County Courthouses." Guest speakers discuss the revitalization of these centers of iconic architecture throughout the state, their importance to local identity, and how they attract heritage tourism.
May 24: "The Future of Heritage Tourism." Guest speakers discuss their interest, work, and future possibilities in heritage tourism. This will bring in a broad spectrum of subjects not always associated with preservation or heritage tourism: art and historic modern architecture.

For more information, contact Seattle HRC chair K. Casey Caughie (kc@mka.com) or AIA Seattle managing director/continuing education Carolyn Forbes (cforbes@aiaseattle.org).