Forum Blog - Preservation Leadership Forum - A Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Findings from the 2017 Heritage Preservation and Climate Change Survey

By Special Contributor posted 2 days ago

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By January Tavel In 2017, the National Trust for Historic Preservation collaborated with ICF to launch the Heritage Preservation and Climate Change Survey. ICF is an organization with a long history of helping clients and partners overcome big challenges by creatively integrating the diverse expertise of our team in ways that bring new perspectives, engages stakeholders, and challenges the status quo. With guidance from the National Trust and support from the ICF Innovation Fund, we leveraged ...

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A Q&A on Preserving African American Places: Growing Preservation’s Potential as A Path for Equity

By Priya Chhaya posted 3 days ago

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently released Preserving African American Places: Growing Preservation’s Potential as a Path for Equity , a report that seeks to elevate emerging ideas, research, observations, and questions on the critically important issues of equitable development, social justice, and the practice of preservation. At the heart of this report is the central question: How can preservation be a force for advancing equitable development and social justice in African ...

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Reading List: Prepping for Town Halls at PastForward Online 2020

By Forum Online posted 9 days ago

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One of the new features this year at PastForward Online 2020 (October 27-30), are three live Town Halls. Using digital tools, these interactive sessions will provide a forum for open discussion and give you an opportunity to share your own beliefs and ideas for action. Each of these Town Halls are one step in an ongoing conversation about how our movement needs to evolve to be both relevant and resilient. As one of the largest convenings of our nation’s preservation movement, PastForward provides ...

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Building Relevance: What are the Top Challenges Facing Preservation?

By Amy Webb posted 15 days ago

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In the Fall of 2019 the National Trust for Historic Preservation sent out a survey to gain a better understanding of the movement’s core values, challenges being faced, and developing innovations.. In this final post digging into the results of that survey, Amy Webb examines the responses regarding the challenges facing preservation as a field. This three-part series is just one set of pre-reads for the Town Hall on Relevance at the PastForward Online 2020 conference later this month. Read the ...

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Building Relevance: Innovation in Preservation Practice

By Jim Lindberg posted 15 days ago

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In the Fall of 2019 the National Trust for Historic Preservation sent out a survey ato gain a better understanding of the movement’s core values, challenges being faced, and developing innovations. In this second post digging into the results of that survey, Jim Lindberg examines the responses related to the need for innovation in the field. This three-part series is just one set of pre-reads for the Town Hall on Relevance at the PastForward Online 2020 conference later this month. R ead ...

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Building Relevance: A Snapshot of the Preservation Movement

By Renee Kuhlman posted 15 days ago

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In the fall of 2019, before the death of George Floyd and the global pandemic, the National Trust for Historic Preservation circulated the 30-question survey, Challenges and Innovations Occurring in the Preservation Field . A deep desire for relevance—and its positive consequences related to funding, media attention, partnerships and membership—came through loud and clear. Whether or not the aim was to make the preservation case for a mayor, planning agency, developer, legislator, students, or ...

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National Trust Awards $365,600 in Grant Funding to Organizations Nationwide

By Lizzy Barringer posted 17 days ago

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While always a reason for celebration, the announcement of the 2020 June round grantees of the National Trust Preservation Fund (NTPF) is particularly unique. This grant opportunity came at a time when many in the preservation field felt a deep sense of economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, the National Trust temporarily modified the NTPF guidelines to better serve the needs of the field. Modifications included: Allowing staff time as an eligible expense for non-profit ...

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A Response to “Historic Preservation is Great, Except When it Isn’t”

By Donovan Rypkema posted 18 days ago

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A couple days ago, Governing ran a story entitled “ Historic Preservation is Great, Except When it Isn’t ." Written by Scott Beyer who calls himself a “market urbanist,” the piece focused on preservation in New York City. Since PlaceEconomics just finished a study of preservation in New York , I thought we were uniquely situated to respond. Beyer was right on several things. He cited research that showed that properties in historic districts had higher values than similar properties not in ...

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How Mapping the Chesapeake Watershed Will Illuminate African American History

By Kendra Parzen posted 22 days ago

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In recent years, historic preservationists have acknowledged that historic sites and landscapes important to people of color are underrepresented in documentation and conservation priorities—a deficit that has deep repercussions for efforts to tell the full American story . In an often-cited 2014 study, the National Park Service found that less than 8% of National Register and NHL designations reflect the stories of communities considered underrepresented by the NPS, including African American, ...

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Reading List: Working with Your Community

By Priya Chhaya posted 23 days ago

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During the summer, we sent out a reading list intended to encourage our readers to expand how they thought about diversity, inclusion, and equity in the work we do to save historic places. For our next reading list, we take a look at articles and tools about building a more equitable community engagement process. Like the first list, these resources are meant to open up discussion and kick start conversations about how we do our work in towns, neighborhoods, and communities across the country. ...

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What’s New with PastForward Online 2020

By Priya Chhaya posted 24 days ago

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Note: The early bird deadline for PastForward Online 2020 is October 7! Be sure to register before then, rates will increase October 8. Every year the preservation community gathers for PastForward, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual meeting. However, this is not a typical year, and we would like to welcome preservationists and preservation lovers to the nation’s premiere online conference for those who work to save, sustain, and interpret historic places. But what ...

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Preservation Profiles and Value of Podcasting During a Pandemic

By Priya Chhaya posted 30 days ago

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At the start of 2020, the National Preservation Institute (NPI) was looking for ways to mark their 40 th anniversary—and then the pandemic hit. NPI had been providing in-person training in historic preservation and cultural resource management, but found itself needing to pivot in the face of the unexpected. Their resulting two-year plan included the goal of continuing to provide training and the creation of a podcast series to open a conversation about the changing face of the field. The resulting ...

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Update on the Journey to Protect Bears Ears and the Antiquities Act

By Sharee Williamson posted 09-16-2020

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The Antiquities Act of 1906 is the nation’s oldest law intended to protect historic features on federal public lands. Passed to address the problem of looting of archaeological sites and artifacts on public lands , it grants authority to the president to designate federally owned “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest” as national monuments. It was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, who used its authority to designate ...

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Building an Inclusive Preservation Plan in Madison, Wisconsin

By Special Contributor posted 09-10-2020

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By Heather L. Bailey and Amy Loewenstein Scanlon The preservation program in Madison, Wisconsin, began in 1971 after a failed grassroots effort to save an 1853 mansion on the west side of the city. The galvanized new Landmarks Commission set out designating the most iconic architecture and began an effort to survey the city for properties that were architecturally, historically, and culturally significant. The city and the Landmarks Commission expanded its historic preservation program and ...

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Dismantle Preservation: Getting Serious about Building a New Model for the Field

By Priya Chhaya posted 09-02-2020

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In late July 2020, preservationists from across the country gathered for the Dismantle Preservation Virtual Unconference. Organized and sponsored by Sarah Marsom a heritage resource consultant, this conference directly addressed some of the problematic areas of the preservation profession to encourage practitioners to confront and acknowledge systems that hamper equity within the field. With panels that ranged from racial bias to mental health (and a quick project share at the end of the night ...

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RPM (revolutions per minute): A Look at the Role of Sound at Philip Johnson's Glass House

By Special Contributor posted 08-24-2020

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Originally published in Cultured Magazine (September 2018) This post is part of an examination of the role intangible heritage plays in preservation and storytelling. You can learn more in the latest issue of Forum Journal . A curatorial project from the start, the Glass House of architect Philip Johnson and curator David Whitney was a place to experiment with architecture and landscape, display a rapidly evolving art collection (most of which was donated to MoMA), and act as a ...

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Easement Monitoring: How 5 Preservation Organizations Adapted For the Pandemic

By Raina Regan posted 08-18-2020

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How are preservation organizations that hold easements conducting monitoring visits while we are in the midst of a pandemic? We reached out to five different staff members from preservation organizations across the United States to hear how they’ve updated their practices to continue their easement stewardship obligations. These organizations have developed site visit protocols designed with the safety and health of their staff, consultants, and property owners as a priority. Hough Building, ...

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"Doing Women’s History in Public": A Q&A with Heather Huyck

By Priya Chhaya posted 08-13-2020

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All year long organizations across the country have been marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment. Along with that commemoration comes increased time and attention to the telling of women’s stories at historic places. This past spring Rowman & Littlefield (as part of their series with the American Association of State and Local History ) published " Doing Women’s History in Public: A Handbook for Interpretation at Museums and Historic Sites ." Written by Heather Huyck, this handbook, ...

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Forum Webinar (Online Training Course): Advocacy in Focus

By Forum Online posted 08-10-2020

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Cross posted from MainStreet.com Whether making a specific policy ask or maintaining sustained support, community revitalization professionals and historic preservationists need to develop and hone advocacy skills. View recordings of this online course offered in July/August 2020 through the Main Street America Institute and presented by the Preservation Leadership Forum for an in-depth overview of five key advocacy areas. This 5-part series features expert speakers and practitioners ...

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Forty Years of Supporting Main Streets, a Q&A with Main Street America’s Patrice Frey

By Priya Chhaya posted 08-06-2020

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Forty years ago a group of like minded individuals came together to start the National Main Street Center, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Over the years, the program supported communities by building tools, a network, and a strategy for protecting the economic vitality of older and historic downtown and commercial district corridors against the threats of sprawl. Today, Main Street America continues to serve those same communities, supporting small businesses and ...

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