Master of Science Degree in Historic Preservation

  
DIRECTOR: Paul S. Byard, Esq., F.A.I.A.

THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION PROGRAM
The Columbia Master of Science Degree in Historic Preservation is the oldest degree of its kind in the United States. The program is comprehensive, providing professional training for those who wish to be leaders in any aspect of the field. The fundamental concerns of the program are for (1) the accurate understanding of the vital contributions of surviving architecture, cityscape, and landscape to human identity, self-knowledge, and well-being; and (2) the protection of these contributions of the past through the conservation of the meanings of old structures and artifacts in their particular, inescapable contexts of change.
The Columbia program is as diverse as preservation itself. It offers training in the identification and protection of the widest range of works of design, from interiors and furnishings to entire urban and rural regions. It considers not only physical acts of protection, but also the development and application of economic and legal structures to support them. It takes a broad view of the kinds of meaning eligible for protection, with a special focus on the meanings of cultural resources and techniques for their management. Whatever the protected structure or artifact, it seeks to devise means to manage the particular effects of change by appropriate acts of conservation, addition, or adaptive use.
Columbia believes that training for the professional practice of preservation must underpin specialization with a sound footing in basic techniques and a firm grasp of theory. The program includes a core curriculum that introduces the broad range of preservation issues and techniques before students move on to a concentration in one of four sectors: design, history, conservation, and preservation planning. Design focuses on the analysis of protected architecture, townscapes and landscapes, to understand their meanings and how they are communicated, and on the development of a capacity to recognize or propose appropriate new design work. History focuses on the understanding, documentation, and communication of the facts that give meaning to significant surviving structures. Conservation explores resources and techniques for the analysis and stabilization of specific materials and assemblies. Preservation planning focuses on the analysis and development of legal and economic protective mechanisms for a wide range of structures, districts, and landscapes. Studio work is an important component of the curriculum in the first year. The Columbia Master’s Program requires the preparation and defense of an original thesis in the second year, exploring and arguing for a proposition of importance for preservation generally based on work in the student’s sector of specialization.

Coursework

 

 60 points are required. During the first year, all degree candidates study methods of documentation and building conservation, American architectural and environmental history, and the theory and practice of historic preservation planning, and participate in two design studios, one of which focuses on preservation planning policy. Before beginning their second term, students are required to select the sector that represents their area of concentration or focus. Submission of a thesis topic is a requirement for registration in the fall of the second year. Research for the thesis in the fall of the second year culminates in a report to the thesis adviser; the completed thesis is presented in the spring term.
The remainder of the work consists of lectures, seminars, preservation studios, and laboratory courses in conservation.

Registration

 

 Students must attend the program on a full-time basis, registering for at least 12 credit points per semester. In unusual circumstances the director will consider petitions for leaves of absence.
Related Activities
 Local community involvement is encouraged whenever appropriate. Special ties are maintained with New York City institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Landmarks Conservancy, the Municipal Art Society, Architectural League of New York, the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, and the Center for Preservation Research and its laboratory. These ties provide additional educational opportunities and further enrich the program.
Field Trips
Second-year students are eligible for a grant from the William Kinne Fellows Traveling Fellowship Fund. These grants are to support travel that will advance a student’s knowledge of architectural history and preservation.
Internships
 All students are required to complete an internship before receiving the degree. Students are individually responsible for securing internships but are assisted in this by a special committee within the program. Internships should be approved in advance by the director and are recognized as completed upon receipt of a letter of evaluation from the internship supervisor sent to the director and a brief report from the student summarizing the work.
Prerequisites

The program is interdisciplinary and expects all students to engage preservation in depth from the perspectives of all its sectors. Students will develop an ability to read buildings through drawing and in that connection will be helped if they have taken a drawing or drafting course. For students who do not hold an architectural degree, a basic architectural drafting course is required. A working knowledge of a computer-based graphic design/visual media program is highly recommended. Courses in CAD or other graphic programs are generally available at a vocational or community colleges. They do not carry credit toward the M.S. degree.
Students in the conservation sector will be aided by prior experience in chemistry, biology, and earth sciences. Design sector students will generally be expected to have a professional or other degree in architecture. Work will require basic computer proficiency (Word, Excel, Photoshop, PowerPoint). Studio work may be enriched by experience with Mac- or PC-based graphic programs.
All students should have had an undergraduate survey in architectural history.
ADMISSIONS
Applications are due February 15. Applicants for admission to the M.S. degree in the Historic Preservation Program must first hold a professional degree in architecture or a bachelor’s degree in art history, American studies, urban studies, history, or another related field. All applicants are required to take the Aptitude Test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Information may be obtained from the Graduate Record Examination, Educational Testing Service, Box 955, Princeton, NJ 08540 (Web site: www.gre.org/atglance.html). Applicants may enter only in the fall term.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
In addition to the general admissions requirements, international students (1) who can understand rapid idiomatic English and can speak, write, and read English with a high degree of facility and (2) who can prove their ability to support themselves financially while in the United States are eligible for admission to Columbia. For a single student, a minimum of $36,000 for living and tuition expenses for each academic year (early September to mid-May), plus travel money, is considered essential. Since an international student holding a student visa (F) or exchange visa (J) is required by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service to carry a full program of study, students should not plan to depend on income from outside employment. Note: All students with non-resident visas will be charged a fee of $50 per term (autumn and spring) to support the University's services to international students. Students whose native language is not English or who did not receive their education in an English-speaking country should make arrangements to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Inquiries about this test, which is administered four times annually throughout the world, should be addressed to TOEFL/TSE Service, P.O. Box 6151, Princeton, NJ 08541-6151, U.S.A.; telephone (609) 771-7100. Applicants are urged to make arrangements to take either the November or the February examination.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
The course requirements in the Historic Preservation Program are divided into three categories: core, sector, and electives. All first-year students share a required ten-course core curriculum. Two of these courses, Studio, I: Understanding and documenting historic architecture; and Studio, II: planning for preservation, focus the work of the core on a common site within the metropolitan region. In the second semester, program specialization begins with enrollment in one course beyond the core sequence. This will consist of a specialized seminar or course in history, design, planning, or conservation. For students concentrating in the conservation sector, this sector specialization will begin with a required 3-point laboratory section connected with the core conservation science course. The second year is primarily committed to specialized course and thesis work within the student’s chosen sector of concentration. Beyond a fourth-semester preservation case study colloquium and the two-semester thesis project, students will enroll in courses totaling a minimum of 12 credit points within their sector during the second year. The courses that meet this threshold requirement for sector concentration must be approved by a member of the full-time faculty.
Requirements for H.P. Program
First Semester
  A4124 Structures, systems + materials I 3 pts
  A4510 Studio, I: understanding and documenting historic architecture 6 pts
  A6740 Theory and practice of historic preservation 3 pts
  A6767 Preservation planning 3 pts
  A4339 American architecture and urbanism before 1876 3 pts
  Second Semester
  A4341 American architecture and urbanism after 1876 3 pts
  A6750 Studio, II: planning for preservation 4 pts
  A6738 Structures, Systems + Materials II 3 pts
  A6764 Conservation science 3 pts
  A6727 Architecture of additions: design and regulation 3 pts
  A6777 Conservation science laboratory
(required for conservation sector)		 3 pts
  Third Semester
  A6751 Thesis, I 1 pt
  A6795 Preservation law
(required for history and planning sectors)		 3 pt
  A6305 Historic building design workshop * 3 pt
  A6727 Planning workshop * 3 pt
  A6741 Conservation workshop * 3 pt
  A6852 History workshop * 3 pt
  AXXXX Courses in sector of specialization and electives 6 - 15 pt
  *All students are required to take at least one third-semester workshop  
  Fourth Semester
  A6753 Thesis, II 6 pts
  A6790 Preservation case study colloquium 3 pts
  A6710 Building systems integration
(required for design sector)		 3 pts
  AXXXX Courses in sector of specialization and electives 6 - 9 pts
 
(for design sector)
 3 - 6 pts

DESIGN SECTOR

This sector provides training in the analysis and appreciation of architectural expression so that students can grasp the meanings old buildings convey and use them as tools to manage change. It engages expression in a wide variety of forms and uses it to help resolve problems of conservation, restoration, adaptive use, and the design of additions at all scales.
Design theses may be analytic, proposing and discussing readings of historic architecture and their meanings, or may be creative, proposing designs or directions for design of new architecture appropriate to the preservation of historic buildings, artifacts, or landscapes. Recent theses have included an analysis of cladding in the history of twentieth-century architecture, proposals for increases to the density of housing in Chandigarh, the conversion of a Hudson River power station into a summer home for the New York Philharmonic, and the conversion of a very large crude carrier into the “Think Tanker,” a mobile global conference venue.

HISTORY / THEORY SECTOR

The history and theory sector provides students with the intellectual tools to reflect critically on the nature of historic preservation practice, its past, and its future. The sector aims to complement the dominant focus of architectural history, which is generally upon the relations among original clients, architects, and forms and their meanings, by investigating the ways in which later generations assign meaning and value to older structures. The School offers a full range of graduate courses and seminars on the history and theory of architecture and on decorative arts, urbanism, and related developments. Courses on the history of architecture and urbanism are also available in the related departments of the University, including, but not limited to, the Departments of Art History and Archaeology, and History. The thesis allows students to pursue original research in the history of architecture and urbanism, the history and theory of preservation, and the interrelation between history and preservation practice.

CONSERVATION SECTOR

This sector provides students with the technical and theoretical knowledge required for the examination, documentation, and analysis of historic structures and materials. It also establishes a background for the diagnosis and treatment of building pathology. These issues are addressed through a synthesis of lectures, laboratory work, field studies, and the trade techniques workshop designed to combine a range of special architectural and scientific skills. These skills, which are required for maintaining the integrity and quality of the built environment, include the history of architecture and building technology, graphic and written documentation, materials science, and analytical laboratory and field techniques.

PLANNING SECTOR

The preservation planning sector combines two strategies. The first stresses the historical and planning analyses, contextual evaluation, and physical design of the built environment. The second focuses on regulatory, legislative, economic, and planning methods used to conserve historic neighborhoods, rural landscapes, or recycled structures. These two strategies are intended to link a historical understanding of land development patterns with the analysis of interventionary methods and also with economic and political contexts where these forms have been determined. Both studio and the thesis emphasize preservation planning issues and allow the student an in-depth opportunity to explore, develop, and criticize preservation strategies.

THESES
A thesis prepared in satisfaction of the degree requirements for the Master of Science in Historic Preservation must address a topic with a clear relationship to the field of historic preservation and building conservation. A thesis topic must also clearly identify the polemical nature of the research and analysis you will conduct. It will expand “knowledge” in the field either by modifying conventional thinking on a subject or by introducing new ideas into the preservation discourse. Topics in each of the sectors are normally differentiated by their subject matter. Interdisciplinary work that bridges over sector limits is strongly encouraged.
Students select a topic and work with an adviser and a reader or readers starting in the second semester. Two presentations proposing and testing the thesis are made to the faculty in the third semester, with a final resentation and defense in the final semester. The defense is scheduled so that revisions can be made if necessary to qualify for graduation.

ELECTIVES

Electives are subject to approval by each student’s adviser and may be chosen from other offerings in historic preservation, from other programs in the School, from the Department of Art History and Archaeology, or from graduate courses offered by other departments of the University.

JOINT DEGREE PROGRAMS
For joint degree options in the Master of Science in the Historic Preservation Program, please consult the Joint Degree Programs section of this bulletin.