Building Conservation (Historic Preservation) Program for Working Professionals, Blog Additions

Over the weekend, we added new sidebar links to a number of professional organizations and divisions or chapters within those organizations that bring together members that are specifically interested in historic preservation and urban design (see below for more updates).

This reminded us that since this is the time of year when we are receiving admission applications and many people are thinking about pursuing graduate degrees and making career changes, we should mention that our Building Conservation program has been designed specifically for you.

We are a program for working professionals and professionals looking to change careers or further specialize within their chosen field.

So if you are already an architect, architectural historian, engineer, contractor, mason, construction manager, archeologist, planner, museum professional, interior designer, or landscape architect and you don't want to or can't afford to leave your current job or your family, we may be exactly what you're looking for and need to advance to the next level of your profession. Of course, we also welcome and like hearing from others wishing to pursue a graduate degree in building conservation/historic preservation.

If you'd like to know more, telephone or email our director, Frederick Cawley, (518) 276-6867 or cawlef[at]rpi[dot]edu (we have used this format to thwart spammers--you should use the "at" symbol and dot as is standard email form). To find out more, you can also visit our web page and read the blog archives at the bottom of the sidebar to the right.

We will write about preservation careers in future posts, but in the meantime, you might also find it useful to visit the American Institute of Architect's Historic Resources Committee (including their online newsletter Preservation Architect and the AIA Guide to Historic Preservation .pdf); the
Americal Society of Landscape Architecture's Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network (several issues of their newsletter are also available online; the latest describe's ASLA's efforts to establish and further the mission and goals of the Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS), which is essentially the landscape version of Historic American Building Survey (HABS) and Historic American Engineering Record (HAER)); and the American Planning Association's Urban Design and Historic Preservation Division (several back issues of their newsletter are also online but member and nonmember users must register to gain access).

We have also begun adding historic preservation and related blogs to our new "blogroll," and greatly appreciate hearing from several readers. We will talk about these blogs and "preservation blogging" at greater length in later posts, but for now, visit John Leeke's Historic HomeWorks active video blog Reports from the Field and online video conferences. The collaborative YorkStater Blog recently mentioned us and often posts about historic preservation in upstate New York. In an update of our November 7, 2006 post (below) about a lecture series at the NYS Court of Appeals, they write that you can now view county courthouses, appellate court buildings, and several assorted city courthouses, and read about their histories on the Historical Society of the Courts of New York State's website.