M.S. Historic Preservation

Ziming Wang

Spring 2021 - GIS for Preservation
Bilge Kose

Whitney Bayers, Madeline Berry, Kevin Borja, Yu Chen, Madeline Entrikin, Xianqi Fan, Yaxin Jiang, Timothy O’Grady, Kenneth Warner, Kun Yang, Runpeng Zhao

Fall 2018 - Advanced Studio III - Joint Historic Preservation/Urban Planning Studio
Erica Avrami, William Raynolds

Bingyu Lin, Qian Xu

Fall 2019 - Advanced Studio III-Historic Preservation Technology Studio
Carlos Bayod Lucini

Seo Jun Oh

Fall 2019 - Advanced Studio III-Historic Preservation Technology Studio
Carlos Bayod Lucini

The Columbia Community: Promoting Inclusion Through Preservation

Studio Publication

Fall 2016 - Advanced Studio III - Joint Historic Preservation/Urban Planning Studio
Erica Avrami

Studio Publication

Spring 2017 - HP Studio II
Erica Avrami

Zhiyue Zhang, NinaLang

Fall 2018 - Advanced Studio III-Historic Preservation Technology Studio
Adam Lowe, Carlos Bayod Lucini

Micah Tichenor

Fall 2018 - Studio 1-Historic Preservation Studio
Andrew Dolkart, Kim Yao, Claudia Kavenagh

Drew Barnhart, Claire Cancilla

Fall 2019 - Advanced Studio III-Historic Preservation Technology Studio
Carlos Bayod Lucini

Valerie Smith

Spring 2021 - GIS for Preservation
Bilge Kose

Luxi Yang

Spring 2021 - HP Studio II
Erica Avrami, Morgan O'Hara

Overview

The M.S. in Historic Preservation Program curriculum educates students to create new, future-oriented roles for built heritage that promote inclusive and resilient communities. With a particular focus on adapting to climate change and promoting social justice, the curriculum integrates humanist, scientific, and technological approaches necessary for students to shape the future of the profession: 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. The program frames preservation both as an experimental form of creative expression and as a critical 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. The program’s curriculum and academic activities express an ongoing commitment to anti-racist systemic change as reflected in its anti-racism statement of purpose and the 2021-2022 anti-racism task force summary report.

Founded in 1964 as the first Masters Program in Historic Preservation in the United States, the program embodies a pioneering spirit by continually questioning how the discipline actively responds to the changing social values and climate challenges associated with architectural and cultural heritage, so as to ensure that the historic built environment better serves present and future generations.

The program prepares its graduates in the theoretical and practical foundations of preservation so they can be agents of positive environmental, cultural, and social change. Students are drawn from multi-disciplinary backgrounds such as architecture, art history, history, urban planning, engineering, science, art, urban design, archeology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and jurisprudence. Students bring to bear their respective interests on preservation. By focusing on historical, aesthetic, technological, environmental, social and political questions, the program cultivates deep engagement with the ideas and practices that constitute preservation, and the broad multi-disciplinary skill sets that it draws upon.

The program reflects a global outlook in its diverse faculty, alumni, visiting scholars, advanced researchers, as well as in the locales where students work. It emphasizes real-world engagement with buildings, sites and communities near campus and beyond. Through study and engaged research in New York and New Jersey, as well as countries such as Italy, Cuba, Ethiopia, France, Haiti, Mexico, Norway, and the United Kingdom students apply skills in the real world and co-create knowledge with multiple publics. Learning beyond the lab and classroom is likewise enhanced through faculty-led publications, studio reports, research, public lectures and events such as the annual Fitch Colloquium.

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People

Jorge Otero-Pailos, Program Director

Sarahgrace Godwin, Program Manager

Preservation Technology Laboratory

Jorge Otero-Pailos, Director of the MS Historic Preservation Program at Columbia GSAPP introduces the School’s newly renovated laboratory. Read more about the Preservation Technology Laboratory.

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Preservation Technology Laboratory

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M.S.HP Student Life Highlights, 2019-2020

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2018 Information Session on the Historic Preservation Program

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Documentation of Advanced Technology Studio III

Curriculum

Columbia’s Historic Preservation Program provides a comprehensive foundation in the discipline through place-based studios, field work, laboratory research, lectures, and seminars. The curriculum encourages students to apply theoretical concepts, critical thinking and problem-solving in real-life contexts. With core strengths in design and technology, planning and policy, and history and theory, the curriculum mirrors the disciplines preservationists must engage and collaborate with in the professional world. The course of study provides fundamental knowledge of the spectrum of the discipline, and then affords each student the opportunity to develop an area of deep focus through a one year thesis.

The centerpiece of the curriculum is a three-semester studio sequence, supported by core coursework. These interdisciplinary and cross-cultural learning experiences encompass skill-building in historical, social, and technical research, data collection and visualization, community and stakeholder engagement, formal and material analyses, condition surveys, planning and policy development, interpretive and adaptive design, and the formulation of evidence-based proposals for action. Exploring questions of research and interpretation, cultural identity and values, justice and equity, sustainability and resilience, creative expression and process, these studios position the work in the field within broader societal and environmental contexts, and within broader realms of critical inquiry.

During the summer between the first and second year, the Historic Preservation Program strongly suggests the completion of one or more internships or work experiences as part of a student’s education and career development, and provides support in identifying opportunities in New York and elsewhere.

A capstone of the curriculum is a student thesis. As a critical piece of independent research, the thesis allows students to augment their course and fieldwork to further develop specialized knowledge in an aspect of the preservation enterprise. Students develop their thesis work with the support of faculty to forge new lines of inquiry and practice, as well as to engage with members of the discipline as they launch their careers.

For those students who would like to like to specialize further or expand their studies, GSAPP offers dual degrees, allowing Historic Preservation students to jointly study Architecture (MArch), Urban Planning, or Real Estate Development.

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Sustainable Building Renovation in the Tropics
2019 Summer Workshop Instructors Belmont Freeman, Michael Adlerstein

Historic Preservation Showcase
2019 End of Year Show

Sustainable Building Renovation in the Tropics
2019 Summer Workshop
Instructors Belmont Freeman, Michael Adlerstein

Experimental Preservation Seminar: Scent
Instructors: Instructors: Jorge Otero-Pailos, Andreas Keller
Spring 2019
Final Review at the Intrepid Museum

Historic Preservation Showcase
2019 End of Year Show

Experimental Preservation Seminar: Scent
Instructors: Instructors: Jorge Otero-Pailos, Andreas Keller
Spring 2019
Final Review at the Intrepid Museum

Experimental Preservation Seminar
Instructors: Jorge Otero-Pailos, Andreas Keller
Spring 2017
Visit to Morgan Library with Master Perfumer Carlos Benaim (IFF) and Curator Christine Nelson

Experimental Preservation Seminar
Instructors: Jorge Otero-Pailos, Andreas Keller
Spring 2017
Smell collecting equipment above Golden Legend (1521), Morgan Library

Experimental Preservation Seminar
Instructors: Jorge Otero-Pailos, Andreas Keller
Spring 2017
Morgan Library Conservator Maria Fredericks discusses materials and adhesives in historic books

Faculty Adam Lowe and Carlos Bayod use Lucida to 3D scan surface of 14th century panel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Advanced Technology Studio III
Instructors: Adam Lowe and Carlos Bayod
Scanning of San Baudelio de Berlanga, Spain

Advanced Technology Studio III
Instructors: Adam Lowe and Carlos Bayod
Scanning of San Baudelio de Berlanga, Met Cloisters, NY

First-year Historic Preservation Field Trip to Ellis Island

First-year Historic Preservation students start work on Ellis Island’s ruined hospital, a U.S. National Monument

Microscopy Workshop at the Highbridge Laboratory Facility

Historic Preservation students make molds in the Conservation Lab

Concrete, Cast Stone, and Mortar Class with John Walsh

Students visit the Museum of Modern Art Conservation Laboratory

John Walsh working with GSAPP Interns on Frank Lloyd Wright blocks at MoMA Conservation Lab

Historic Preservation Alumni event, New York

3D point cloud model of Avery Hall, outcome from 3D scanning and photogrammetry workshop led by Mario Santana Quintero

Michael Adlerstein takes the joint Architecture/Preservation studio to the United Nations in NY

Experimental Preservation Seminar: Scent
Instructors: Instructors: Jorge Otero-Pailos, Andreas Keller
Spring 2019
Final Review at the Intrepid Museum

HISTORIC PRESERVATION PODCAST

Columbia GSAPP · Historic Preservation Podcast - Season 2

Studio Reports

Visit an archive of studio reports completed as part of the M.S. in Historic Preservation Program here, and browse through highlights below.

Preservation as a Tool for Social Inclusion in Poughkeepsie, NY<br>Spring 2017

Yangon at a Turning Point: Progress, Heritage, and Community

Heritage, Education, and Urban Resilience: Building Alternative Futures in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Fall 2017

Heritage, Tourism and Urbanization in Lalibela, Ethiopia; Fall 2016

The Gingerbread Houses of Port-au-Prince

Eero Saarinen US Embassy in Oslo

Borders, Boundaries, and Exchanges Between People and Things Advanced V Studio; Fall 2018

GSAPP GLOBAL

NEW YORK-BASED STUDIOS

Browse the map below to view studio reports focusing on locations in New York.

Current Faculty

Summer 2023 Courses

Course	Semester	Title	Student Work	Instructor	Syllabus	Requirements & Sequence	Location & Time	Session & Points	Call No.
A4080‑1	Summer 2023	HP Elective Internship		Sarahgrace Godwin		HP Elective		FULL SEMESTER 1.5 Points	10658

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Historic Preservation Publications

Columbia Books on
Architecture and the City

Preservation, Sustainability, and Equity

Author
Erica Avrami

Preservation and Social Inclusion

Edited by
Erica Avrami

Purchase Read Online Paperback

Preservation and the New Data Landscape

Edited by
Erica Avrami

Purchase Read Online Paperback

Preservation is Overtaking Us

Authors
Rem Koolhaas, Jorge Otero-Pailos

Purchase Read Online Paperback

Future Anterior: Volume XII, Number 1, Summer 2015

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

Purchase Paperback

Future Anterior: Volume XI, Number 1, Summer 2014

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Future Anterior: Volume XI, Number 2, Winter 2014

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Future Anterior: Volume X, Number 1, Summer 2013

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Future Anterior: Volume X, Number 2, Winter 2013

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Future Anterior: Volume IX, Number 1, Summer 2012

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Future Anterior: Volume IX, Number 2, Winter 2012

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Future Anterior: Volume VIII, Number 1, Summer 2011

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Future Anterior: Volume VIII, Number 2, Winter 2011

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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Future Anterior: Volume VII, Number 1, Summer 2010

Edited by
Jorge Otero-Pailos

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2022 Fitch Colloquium: Preservation in China’s Future: Day 1

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2022 Fitch Colloquium: Preservation in China’s Future: Day 1

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Fitch Colloquium: Preservation in China’s Future: Day 2

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2021 Fitch Colloquium
The Art of Preservation

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2019 Fitch Colloquium
Record/Replay: Data, Technology and Experimental Preservation

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2019 Fitch Colloquium
Record/Replay: Data, Technology and Experimental Preservation

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2019 Fitch Colloquium
Record/Replay: Data, Technology and Experimental Preservation

Dual Degrees

M.S. in Historic Preservation and M.S. in Real Estate Development

Student Portfolios

Tonia Sing Chi ‘18 MArch/MSHP
Award-Winning Graduation Portfolio

Andrea Tonc ‘16 MArch/MSHP Award-Winning Graduation Portfolio

M.S. Historic Preservation

People

Studio Reports

Historic Preservation Lectures and Events

Summer 2023 Courses

Historic Preservation Publications

Conferences

Student Portfolios