It is a pleasure to present to you the accomplishments of the students, faculty and alumni of the GSAPP Historic Preservation Program during the Spring 2021. Let me begin with a heartfelt word of appreciation to all the students, faculty and staff for all the work you have done, for rising up to meet the challenges of working under the dire circumstances of the pandemic, and for helping each other thrive intellectually in the face of adversity. I especially want to recognize the faculty, students and staff volunteers who served on the Preservation Anti-Racism Task Force, for their work has helped us take concrete actions towards our common goal to end structural racism. That each of you was able to complete the work you did speaks volumes about your individual character and the strength of our academic community.

It is a source of collective pride to see especially the high quality of the students’ work. I am struck by the commitment it demonstrates to imagining a new preservation, one that aims to creatively ameliorate the lifeworld. I purposefully use the combined term “lifeworld,” and not “people and built environments” or “tangible and intangible,” because I see this work moving past the binary preservation thinking that has for too long insisted on categorizing life as separate from the material world.

It is important to remember that at the root of the word material is mater, Latin for mother. Life springs simultaneously from a mother and from a world of matter. Life cannot be lived without a world, and our planet only becomes an intelligible world through life. In light of that, it seems entirely artificial to separate life from world, or to rip intangible from tangible in heritage.

The student work this semester, in its insistence that we consider heritage as simultaneously social and physical, reminds us of the grounding condition of the lifeworld, and challenges us to rethink the whole of the discipline of preservation in light of it.

This refusal of binary thinking, this effort to preserve the whole of the lifeworld, is a visible common thread in the studios, theses and research papers produced this semester. It is a powerful new direction, and one that will require us to continue researching new concepts and developing new theories, policies and practices to inform a profession yet to come. This ability to plant the seed for future research is for me the most exciting part of the student work. It is its promise. It is work that will resonate in years to come, as future generations of students pick it up to continue it. Forging a new preservation is a collective task, and it takes all of us to work collectively towards this common goal.

External circumstances can never easily explain why new ideas emerge at a particular time. A new idea is a rupture by definition, and certainly this past year we all experienced rupturing circumstances at many levels, personal and social: the suffering caused by the isolating pandemic, social protests against systemic racial injustices and even the violent attempts to overthrow our democratic electoral process. We all had to question our assumptions about what is given and considered normal. This larger cultural questioning no doubt informed the student’s work and pushed it to question established ideas and to search for a new preservation.

The direction that this search took towards questioning binarism did not come out of nowhere. I see academic continuity in it, even as it points towards a rupture. To arrive at such profound questioning, the students had to first reap the intellectual harvest of seeds planted in our SLAB curriculum, which at its heart teaches them to hold together social, material, historical, technological and experiential matters through preservation. The SLAB curriculum invites students to search for ways to integrate into a new whole those aspects of heritage that were once thought separate. In this way it set a direction for the students to question binary thinking in their search for a new preservation.

This semester’s work places preservation at the forefront of a rising societal consciousness about the need to take care of the existing environment so that it may sustain our lives. The focus has broadened from caring for isolated buildings to include caring for what matters in matter, for living places, for lifeworlds.

There is a promising road ahead, and we can see it more clearly now that it is illuminated by the student’s impressive individual and collective accomplishments. Congratulations to you all!

Jorge Otero-Pailos

Congratulations to the Class of 2021 for all submitting incredible theses amidst this arduous year!

Bruno Elias: Towards Best Practices For Historic Retrofits: Tradeoffs For Historic Buildings’ Operating Energy Retrofits

Rachel Ericksen: Assessing the Decolonization of Cultural Heritage Policy in Belize through the Analysis of Narratives Presented at Colonial Sites

Katlyn M. Foster: Redlining History: The Geographies of Historic Preservation

Emily Kahn: Beyond Memorialization: Washington Heights as Case Study for Commemorating Holocaust Refugees

Marisa Kefalidis: Children’s Heritage Education at Historic Sites: Evaluating Resiliency in Place Based Education in the Absence of Place

Lai Ma: Video Game as an Immersive Interactive Virtual Interpretation of Historic Heritages, Taking Assassin’s Creed as an Example

William McCallum: New York City Housing Authority Postwar Projects: If New Buildings are Necessary, Can they be Made to Support the Sites’ Significance?

Caroline Peters: Life Among the Dead: Case Studies of Public Outreach at Green-Wood and Laurel Hill Cemeteries

Thomas Rice: The Modern Arch: An Analysis of the Preservation of Early Reinforced Concrete Arch Bridges in the United States

Tucker M. Simmons: Testing Protective Coatings and their Removal for Outdoor Bronze Statuary

Madison Story: Strategies for Heritage Valuation on Adaptively Reused Transportation Corridors: An Examination of Rail Trails in Central Indiana

Congratulations to the Class of 2021 for all their hard work! We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s graduation prizes:

ONERA PRIZE
The Onera Prize for Historic Preservation is awarded to a graduating student or students to conduct a project that tests new preservation theories in practice.

Winner: Katlyn Marie Foster
Topic: Spatializing Preservation: A New Tool for Understanding Preservation’s Role in Urban Histories and Uncertain Futures


FACULTY AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING THESIS
For a master’s thesis that best demonstrates excellence in the field of Historic Preservation.

Winners: Tucker McIntosh Simmons & Emily R. Kahn


WILLIAM KINNE FELLOWS TRAVELING PRIZE
The William Kinne Fellows Traveling Prize is granted on the merit of proposals submitted for travel abroad incorporating the study of architecture, including planning and other specialized aspects of architecture.

Winner: Lai Ma
Project Title: Rethinking the Revolutionary History through New Materials: The Stone Carved Slogans in Bazhong, China


PEER TO PEER AWARD
This non-monetary, student-nominated award is given in recognition of outstanding service to classmates, faculty, and school.

Winner: Rachel Ericksen

2021 FITCH COLLOQUIUM
The Art of Preservation: Engaging and Amplifying Underrepresented Heritage

Artists are leading a broad rethinking of heritage, and claiming a central role within preservation practice. In recent years, many BIPOC artists have worked with built heritage to take up the legacies of racial inequities and historical injustices as central themes in their work. Artists confront, challenge, or reframe the role of heritage in society. What will the future of preservation look like as art becomes more central in the profession?

The 2021 Fitch Colloquium, co-sponsored by the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University’s GSAPP and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, explored this intersection of art and preservation. The symposium convened BIPOC artists who integrate heritage – and all its sociopolitical implications today – into their works.

WATCH HERE

HISTORIC PRESERVATION PODCAST

This semester saw the release of Season 3 of the GSAPP Historic Preservation Podcast. This season’s podcasts, hosted by Program Director Jorge Otero-Pailos featured speakers in this semester’s Preservation Lecture Series, including Andrea Roberts, Shelby Green, and Emily Spratt.

In addition, this year’s Preservation Podcast also included the mini-series Conversations of Monuments, which was curated by HP PhD students Anna Gasha and Shuyi Yin. The series focuses on the question of polemical monuments as recent focal points of protests following the murder of George Floyd and numerous other Black Americans in the United States. Listen to the episodes here.


PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY LAB

Despite COVID, students in New York were still able to make us of the Preservation Technology Lab for classes including Investigative Techniques with Norman Weiss and Amanda Trienens. and Digital Heritage Documentation with Bilge Kose.

STUDIO II
Instructors: Erica Avrami and Morgan O'Hara
Studio Title: The Harlem Renaissance: Preservation, Spatial Encounter, and Anti-Racism

Studio II explored the multifaceted legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, its significance in anti-Black racism histories and activism, and its place-based associations in northern Manhattan. Expanding upon Studio I research in Central Harlem, inquiry involved critically exploring the following questions:

- Histories: What stories, events, works, organizations and entities, and individuals characterize and/or represent the Harlem Renaissance?

- Places and Publics: What geographies and places were/are associated with the Harlem Renaissance? What factors influenced their location and development? How are they spatially encountered and/or experienced today? How are they valued and by whom?

- Intention: How can the preservation enterprise – through community-engaged research, policy, physical intervention, interpretation, creative expression, etc. – instrumentalize the heritage of the Harlem Renaissance as a tool for anti-racism and social justice?

The studio involved community-engaged research with multiple Harlem-based organizations whose missions intersect with the work of preservation, and a report will be finalized over the summer.

Jorge Otero-Pailos delivered a number of public virtual lectures this Spring, including at the American Academy in Rome, at IIT, and at the UNA Europa consortium’s PhD Workshop: Heritage Hybridisation: Concepts, Scales & Spaces. He also prepared for upcoming summer exhibitions including Watershed Moment at Lyndhurst Mansion.

Erica Avrami has been hunkered down with three writing projects this semester, but continues to develop Building a Foundation for Action: Anti-Racist Historic Preservation Resources, an open-access, collaborative resource list for preservationists seeking to acknowledge the field’s structural racism and to take actions toward decentering Whiteness.

Adjunct Professor Bilge Kose, along with GSAPP HP alumni Lisa Kersavage, Kate Lemos McHale, and Michael Karatzas, recently helped create the Landmarks Preservation Commission story map Preserving Significant Places of Black History to celebrate New York City’s African American history through designated landmarks and historic districts. The story map highlights and explores buildings, sites, and historic districts significant to African American history throughout New York City–including Brooklyn’s Weeksville, pictured below. It is intended as an educational tool and a living document, which can be updated with additional scholarship about designated buildings, and with future designations of landmarks and historic districts.

Andrew Dolkart will be honored at this year’s Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards hosted by the New York Landmarks Conservancy as winner of its Preservation Leadership Award. The awards ceremony will take place virtually on May 6 at 6pm. Register here.

Shivali Gaikwad ‘19, presented her James Marston Fitch Award-winning thesis, “Living with Water: Adaptation Processes, Heritage Conservation, and Conflicting Values,” at the APTNE 2021 Annual Meeting and Symposium, which took place virtually on February 26th.

Sreya Chakraborty ‘20’s work on recovering sites of slavery and sharecropping with the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) was recently featured as a cover story in Preservation in Print magazine. Read the piece here.

Scott Goodwin ‘20, served as managing editor for the most recent issue of Future Anterior 16.2, on Heritage, Preservation, and Decolonization–now available on JSTOR. Read the issue here.

James Churchill ‘20’s blog piece “Historic Monel: The Alloy That Time Forgot” was published on March 23 by the Nickel Institute. The Institute also added a summary of Churchill’s thesis research on historic monel metal to its technical library.

HP PhD student Anna Gasha‘s blog post “Challenging Social Exclusion in the Urban Built Environment” was featured on the Columbia Earth Institute’s State of the Planet news blog.

Emily Kahn '21’s submission of Zion Episcopal Church, a Gothic Revival stone church built in three phases (1834, 1853, and 1870) in Dobbs Ferry, New York (pictured below) was approved for listing on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service. Local newspaper The Rivertowns Enterprise reported on the listing here. Also, this semester Emily was awarded Preservation Alumni’s annual Fitch Prize for her paper titled, Questions of Authenticity: The Restoration & Museification of the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Named in honor of James Marston Fitch (1909-2000), the founder of the Historic Preservation program at Columbia University, this prize is awarded annually for the best paper or project completed during the first year of studies.

Tucker Simmons '21 presented his thesis research at the Association of North American Graduate Programs in Conservation (ANAGPIC) 46th Annual Conference. The conference was held from April 14-16, by the Garman Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State College over Zoom. On the conferences second day, Tucker gave a brief 15-minute talk of his research on more durable coating for outdoor bronzey, followed by a five minute Q&A. During his talk he went over his research, how it was conducted, along with some of the outcomes and conclusions he drew from it. During the Q&A session he received a number of insightful questions that were also helpful in adding to his thesis. He’s happy to say he had a great experience, and is glad he was able to share his research and receive the positive feedback and enthusiasm he got from his presentation!

COMPETITIONS

The team representing Columbia for the APT PETC Competition has been hard at work getting involved with all aspects of masonry arches! This year, the team is doing historical research, conservation studies, and structural analysis of the beautiful Gothic arches of the Brooklyn Bridge Towers. Additionally, they are working on designing and building a masonry arch of our their own that they will be very soon building and testing at the Preservation Lab. So far, it has been an insightful and rewarding process to discover the types of mortar used at the Brooklyn Bridge, and to learn about the behavior of arches. They would like to thank their faculty advisor, Tim Michiels, for the guidance and the invaluable expertise on all things about masonry arches!

CLASS TRIPS

This spring, the Historic Preservation program found a groove in safely planning class tours in the midst of the pandemic. Several additional first-years were able to move into New York for the spring 2021 semester, allowing greater attendance for in-person tours than last fall.

Studio II/Digital Heritage Documentation students met to conduct a field survey at Harlem’s Langston Hughes House to practice survey methodologies for cultural heritage buildings and gain experience with digital technologies of photogrammetry and Lidar. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the Studio II’s ongoing investigation of physical encounter with the Harlem Renaissance.

Architecture and Development of New York City with Andrew Dolkart involved two in-person walking tours–in the East Village and in the Financial District–open to students in and near the city. The walking tours were recorded by video for students unable to join in person.

Modern American Architecture with Jorge Otero-Pailos met in Midtown in March to explore the Art Deco, International Style, and Postmodern skyscrapers in the blocks surrounding Grand Central Terminal.

And finally, Andrew Dolkart hosted a bonus walking tour of Brooklyn Heights on a beautiful Saturday in March open to all HP students–making up for some of the lost walking tours of 2020.

PRESERVATION LECTURE SERIES

Andrea Roberts, “Reconstructing Black Worlds: Counternarrative Creation as Preservation Practice,” January 22, 2021

Shelby Green, “Deconstructing ‘Collective Memory’ in Public Spaces,” January 28, 2021 | Watch Here

Emily L. Spratt, “AI and the Art of Culinary Presentation: Gastronomic Algorithms between Alain Passard and Giuseppe Arcimboldo,” February 16, 2021 | Watch Here

Gretchen Sorin, “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights,” March 11, 2021

Matija Strlič, “Good Pollution: Smells in Museums,” April 8, 2021 | Watch Here

Susan Macdonald, “Concrete Heritage: Beleaguered, Besieged, Beloved, Conserved,” April 15, 2021 | Watch Here


LUNCH & LEARN

Tim Michiels, February 1, 2021
Practicing, Teaching, and Research: Perspectives From Stints in Academia and Industry

Francoise Bollack, February 22, 2021
On her book Material Transfers: Metaphor, Craft, and Place in Contemportary Architecture

Belmont Freeman, March 15, 2021
On his work in the field of preservation architecture, engaging both issues of restoration and addition

Mary Jablonski, March 29, 2021
Vandalism Graffiti and the Civil War Graffiti Trail: A Look at Conservation Issues at Historic Blenheim