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M.S. Historic Preservation

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.

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.
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.

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
NEW YORK-BASED STUDIOS

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


Fall 2023 Courses

Course Semester Title Student Work Instructor Syllabus Requirements & Sequence Location & Time Session & Points Call No.
A4080‑1 Fall 2023
HP Elective Internship
Sarahgrace Godwin
FULL SEMESTER
1.5 Points
10090
A4510‑1 Fall 2023
Studio 1-Historic Preservation Studio
Andrew Dolkart, Debora Barros
301 FAYERWEATHER
TU 2 PM - 6 PM + F 9AM - 1PM
FULL SEMESTER
6 Points
10092
A6305‑1 Fall 2023
Advanced Studio III-Joint Historic Preservation/Architecture Studio
Jorge Otero-Pailos, Mark Rakatansky
TBD
M 1:30- 6:30 PM
FULL SEMESTER
6 Points
10093
A6727‑1 Fall 2023
Old Buildings, New Energy
Francoise Bollack
203 FAYERWEATHER
TU 11 AM- 1PM
SES A
1.5 Points
10113
A6740‑1 Fall 2023
Historic Preservation Theory & Practice
Jorge Otero-Pailos
409 AVERY
M 11 AM - 1 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10110
A6790‑1 Fall 2023
Thesis I
Paul Bentel, Sarah Sher
200 BUELL
W 9 AM - 11 AM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10096
A6921‑1 Fall 2023
Machine Learning
Bilge Kose, Kivanc Kose
Preservation Technology Lab
W 5:30  PM - 7:30 PM
SES B
1.5 Points
10117
A6937‑1 Fall 2023
Visualization Techniques for Arch Preservation
André Jauregui, Halley Ramos
Preservation Technology Lab
W 5:30  PM - 7:30 PM
SES A
1.5 Points
10121
A6510‑1 Fall 2023
Neighborhood Preservation and Zoning
Carol Clark
203 FAYERWEATHER
TU 11AM- 1PM
SES B
1.5 Points
10112
A6767‑1 Fall 2023
Preservation Planning and Policy
Erica Avrami
408 AVERY
W 11 AM - 1 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10095
Pla6909‑1 Fall 2023
Advanced Studio III - Joint Historic Preservation/Urban Planning Studio
Erica Avrami, Shreya Ghoshal
323M FAYERWEATHER
TH 2 PM - 6 PM
FULL SEMESTER
6 Points
10111
A6768‑1 Fall 2023
Conservation of Architectural Metals
Richard Pieper
Preservation Technology Lab
W 2 PM - 5 PM
SES A
1.5 Points
10114
A6784‑1 Fall 2023
Conservation of Brick + Terra Cotta & Stone
Norman Weiss, Daniel Allen
Preservation Technology Lab
W 2 PM - 5 PM
SES B
1.5 Points
10115
A6934‑1 Fall 2023
Traditional Building Technology
Tim Michiels
Preservation Technology Lab
TH 9 - 11:30 AM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10109
A6886‑1 Fall 2023
Building the Engine: Industry + the African Urban Agenda
Fatou Dieye
323M FAYERWEATHER
TH 9 AM - 1 PM
SES A
3 Points
10081
A6961‑1 Fall 2023
ADV V STUDIO - CLINIC
Marina Otero Verzier, Farah Alkhoury
WARE LOUNGE - 600 AVERY
M 2 PM - 5 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
13712
A4892‑1 Fall 2023
Data Visualization for Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities
Jia Zhang
409 AVERY
F 9 AM -11 AM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10070
A4341‑1 Fall 2023
Traditional American Architecture
Andrew Dolkart
209 FAYERWEATHER
TU 11 AM - 1 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10091
A6830‑1 Fall 2023
Difference and Design
Justin Moore
412 AVERY / ONLINE
T 3 PM - 5 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10004
A6922‑1 Fall 2023
Ways of Experiencing
Karen Wong
209 FAYERWEATHER
F 11 AM - 1 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10352
A6927‑1 Fall 2023
Science + Technology Studies
Albena Yaneva Counts for AAD Vis/Tech Elective
323M FAYERWEATHER
M 11 AM - 1PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10303
A6929‑1 Fall 2023
The Reimagining of Lower Manhattan Post-Sandy
Michael Kimmelman
408 AVERY
W 9AM - 11 AM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
10304
Pla4444‑1 Fall 2023
The Future City: Transforming Urban Infrastructure
Kate Ascher
113 AVERY
TU 1 PM - 3 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
18443
Pla6272‑1 Fall 2023
New York Rising: How Real Estate Shapes a City
Kate Ascher
114 AVERY
F 11 AM - 1 PM
FULL SEMESTER
3 Points
13183
Recent News

Conferences

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

Student Portfolios

Tonia Sing Chi ‘18 MArch/MSHP
Award-Winning Graduation Portfolio
Toniasingchi
Andrea Tonc ‘16 MArch/MSHP Award-Winning Graduation Portfolio
Andrea tonc portfolio update