Introduction to Historic Preservation is a five-week intensive summer program offering university credit to familiarize students with the skills, knowledge, and professional opportunities related to the field. In addition, the 2023 Historic Preservation Focus will be held in person. This pre-professional program is for those interested in preservation, considering it as a career, or may wish to get a head start for application to graduate school.

This program combines lectures, small discussion groups, field trips, and collaboration and integrates humanist, scientific, and technological approaches necessary for students to shape the profession’s future. Students are introduced to several interconnected historic preservation topics, including the reuse of buildings, the design of adaptation technologies, planning and policy innovations, social and historical research, materials science, and digital computation applied to the 3D scanning, documentation, assessment, monitoring, and care of built heritage through readings, discussions, and site visits. The program frames preservation as an experimental form of creative expression and a necessary form of collective action guided by philosophical, ethical, and critical thinking, supported by evidence of its benefits to society and enabled by emerging technologies and policy tools. We teach preservation as a social, material, and environmental process, as a way of thinking and acting through buildings and places of cultural significance to improve the built environment and people’s quality of life.

Students attend classes four afternoons a week for five weeks, attending a combination of lectures, small group discussions, site visits, team projects, and workshops. While lessons cover a spectrum of requisite knowledge for planning, students also work in small groups directly under the guidance of one instructor on projects and focused discussions. Students also are connected with professionals in a variety of roles related to preservation, learn about their career paths, and promote inclusive and resilient communities.

To participate in the Intro to Historic Preservation course, please complete the online application form including:

• Academic transcript/record from each university attended and credit earned, up to the most recently completed semester
  
• An optional letter of recommendation
  

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. No prior preservation experience is required.

Please contact the GSAPP Admissions Office with any questions: arch_admissions@columbia.edu