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

Edward Hopper House: Nighthawks Teen Leadership Program

By Special Contributor posted 10 hours ago

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By Nina Jean Berlingeri Editor's Note: The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Trustees Emeritus Award for Historic Site Stewardship recognizes success and innovation in historic preservation, management, and programming at historic sites. Want to submit a nomination for this year’s award? Learn more about the criteria and nomination process here . Deadline for 2019 is July 1. The Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center’s Nighthawks Teen Leadership Program (named after ...

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Here, Now: Contemporary Art at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site

By Special Contributor posted 4 days ago

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By Kate Menconeri Imagine visiting Thomas Cole at his house in 1840 and standing eye-to-eye with one of his original paintings such as “The Architect's Dream . ” Cole, who spent years exploring the Catskill landscapes that inspired his art, hung his own paintings, still wet from the studio, on the walls of his home. Patrons and fellow artists traveled from all over just to see the latest work by the artist who would go on to change the face of American painting. It was not until 2016 that the ...

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Rome: An Ancient City in the 21st Century

By Stephanie Meeks posted 8 days ago

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I will admit that walking in the dark on a glass floor suspended 10 feet over an archaeological site several yards underground gave me pause at first. But once the room was illuminated by a multimedia presentation highlighting the ancient mosaic tile floors, columns, swimming pools, baths, and more, I knew that my adventure at Palazzo Valentini was a whole new way of experiencing classical Rome. The palazzo , once the home of an aristocratic family, lay buried for millennia until it was rediscovered ...

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Villa Finale: Museum & Gardens Assumes Management of the Edward Steves Homestead

By Special Contributor posted 11 days ago

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By Jane Lewis When Villa Finale: Museum & Gardens , a National Trust for Historic Preservation Historic Site , opened to the public in San Antonio’s King William Historic District in October 2010, it was literally the new kid on the block: another historic house museum just down the street, the Edward Steves Homestead , had been open since 1952. Exterior of Villa Finale | Credit: Villa Finale Though both were built in 1876, their origins are slightly different. ...

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On the Hill: Strong Start for Preservation as Congressional Appropriations Kick Off

By Tom Cassidy posted 21 days ago

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By Janelle DiLuccia and Tom Cassidy The House Appropriations Committee approved the most preservation-friendly funding bill in memory on May 22. The FY2020 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill and accompanying report include a remarkable number of funding increases and significant policy provisions for which the National Trust for Historic Preservation and our partners advocated. (We have compiled a comprehensive summary of the bill with relevant report ...

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Research & Policy Lab Insight: Percent Locally and Nationally Designated

By Carson Hartmann posted 25 days ago

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The staff of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Research & Policy Lab will be sharing short insights that use the lab’s data analysis and visualization capabilities to demonstrate the power and potential of preservation. We hope you’ll find these insights engaging, dynamic, and fun. We have leveraged data from the Atlas of ReUrbanism to display the percent of all buildings in cities that are either on the National Register of Historic Places or designated locally historic—individually ...

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Art or Awful: The Conservation of Graffiti

By Special Contributor posted 26 days ago

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By Stephanie M. Hoagland Cities such as Los Angeles are spending almost $7 million a year on graffiti removal. At the same time, graffiti artist Banksy’s piece, “Keeping it Spotless,” sold at Sotheby's for almost $1.9 million. In London walking tours showcase the city’s graffiti, and in New York City, Brooklyn neighborhoods with a large street art scene have the fastest rates of gentrification. As graffiti and street art become increasingly acceptable, and even sought after, forms of ...

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Historic Leasing Opportunities in America’s Newest National Park—and Across the Country

By Christine Luthy posted 05-24-2019

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Historic leasing plays an important part in protecting historic assets and increasing community engagement in America’s most recently designated national park. Indiana Dunes National Park —formerly Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore—manages multiple leases for a variety of purposes, including private residences, preschools, and youth camps. For the past several decades, historic leasing has enabled Indiana Dunes to provide for the long-term preservation of underused and underfunded structures, ...

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Imaging Labor History and Worker Spaces at Industrial Heritage Sites

By Sarah Rovang posted 05-22-2019

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Preservation Leadership Forum is presenting a series of posts by Sarah Rovang , the 2017 recipient of the H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship from the Society of Architectural Historians. The fellowship allows its recipients—recent graduates with advanced degrees or emerging scholars—to study by travel for one year, providing them with opportunities to see and experience architecture and landscapes firsthand; think about their profession deeply; and acquire knowledge that will be useful for ...

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Research & Policy Lab Insight: Building Age By Era of Construction

By Carson Hartmann posted 05-17-2019

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The staff of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Research & Policy Lab will be sharing short insights that use the lab’s data analysis and visualization capabilities to demonstrate the power and potential of preservation. We hope you’ll find these insights engaging, dynamic, and fun. We’ve made one of the static charts from the Atlas of ReUrbanism summary report interactive. The chart displays how much of the building stock in each city was constructed during certain ...

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Remembering Dawn Bohulano Mabalon

By Michelle Magalong posted 05-14-2019

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It is my hope that the love, respect, and commitment we feel for our historic community runs deeper than anything that can divide us. Little Manila will always be in our hearts. —Dawn Bohulano Mabalon Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, a passionate activist who dedicated her life to chronicling the rich Filipina/o-American history in California and the United States, died unexpectedly in August 2018. Mabalon was well known as the premiere historian focused on Filipina/o Americans of her generation and ...

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Maryland’s New Flood Mitigation Guide for Historic Buildings

By Anthony Veerkamp posted 05-10-2019

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The devastation caused by this spring’s historic flooding is just the latest reminder of how vulnerable our communities are to extreme weather. As flooding, coastal storms, wildfires, and other climate-related disasters become more frequent and severe, none of the historic places we care about will be immune to climate impacts. Climate change is a threat multiplier that requires preservationists to work hard to protect our heritage and cultural traditions. The U.S. response to climate change ...

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Macon: Revitalization Through Preservation

By Special Contributor posted 05-08-2019

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By Oby Brown and Rachelle Wilson Historic Macon Foundation (HMF) is the winner of the 2018 Trustees' Award for Organizational Excellence , which recognizes a nonprofit organization that has demonstrated sustained and superlative achievement in historic preservation. We asked HMF staff to share some thoughts about the organization’s role in Macon’s revival. The middle Georgia city of Macon has long been known for its architecture, natural landmarks, and accessibility by rail and river. ...

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From Dilapidated to Delectable: How the Passion for Pie Created a District

By Special Contributor posted 05-03-2019

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By Chris Aronson and Mary Gilliland On the morning before Halloween 2015, two architects from Vaught Frye Larson Aronson Architects (VFLA) stood in an abandoned building in Fort Collins, Colorado. Appropriate to the holiday, the cob-webbed interior was cold and musty; it smelled like decay and bird droppings. Whether this was a good day to start field measuring became a point of contention, though they nonetheless agreed that they were doing what they loved. This white brick building started ...

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Heritage Conservation for All Ages

By Sarah Marsom posted 05-01-2019

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Sarah Marsom is the winner of the 2018 American Express Aspire Award, which recognizes an emerging leader who has made significant achievements in the preservation field. We asked Marsom to share some thoughts about her work—and the field overall. Fostering connections to the past and to place from an early age is imperative for the growth of individuals—and seeing those connections through to careers is vital for the future of historic preservation. Think about the moments that made you the ...

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Building Tomorrow’s Heritage: Lessons from Psychology and Health Sciences

By Special Contributor posted 04-25-2019

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By Michael W. Mehaffy and Nikos A. Salingaros This is the second post in a series about recent lessons from the sciences for historic preservation and compatible new development. The authors—a physicist and mathematician, and an urban researcher and philosopher—explore emerging scientific findings about historic structures and discuss lessons for generating more sustainable and resilient human environments. In our previous post , we noted that human heritage represents a kind of evolutionary ...

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Creating a Richer Visitor Experience at Drayton Hall

By Special Contributor posted 04-17-2019

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By Trish Lowe Smith and Sarah Stroud Clarke Preserve as is, never restore—that, in a nutshell, is the preservation philosophy at Drayton Hall , a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Widely believed to be the first and best Palladian house in North America, Drayton Hall—which remained in the Drayton family for seven consecutive generations—is a remarkably intact 18th-century estate on the Ashley River in Charleston, South Carolina. Because of its architectural significance ...

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Forum Webinar: Managing Photography at Historic Sites

By Forum Online posted 04-10-2019

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On March 19 Preservation Leadership Forum and two of the National Trust’s Historic Sites joined forces to host the most recent Forum Webinar —a conversation about DIY photography at historic sites. Panelists Corey Heyward, Wexler Curatorial Fellow at Drayton Hall , and Christa Carr, director of communications at The Glass House , shared their expertise and answered questions from participants. They discussed everything from photographing collections, to capturing complex landscapes, to what makes ...

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Why I Created the Guide to Becoming a Historic Preservationist

By Jeremy Wells posted 04-09-2019

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In the early 1990s, when I was in my 20s, I contemplated a career change from computer systems administration. It was an avocation that had found me—I had never had a desire to keep doing the work long term. I had not yet finished my undergraduate degree and was rigorously investigating various universities and colleges. This was right at the cusp of the popularization of the internet, and one day, I got the chance to use NCSA Mosaic, the world’s first web browser. I remember how excited I was ...

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Action Alert: Comment on Proposed Rule Changes to National Register of Historic Places Nominations

By Special Contributor posted 04-05-2019

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By Sharee Williamson and Elizabeth S. Merritt Editor's Note: Read the National Trust for Historic Preservation's formal comments . The National Park Service (NPS) recently proposed making substantial, troubling changes to the rules that govern nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register is an important repository of information about the nation’s historic places that also serves significant regulatory purposes. Section 106 of the National Historic ...

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