Welcome to our first Building Conservation blog interview. Although I will probably start them off slowly, I hope to have interviews posted weekly or perhaps two or three times a month in the future. The interviews will be conducted mainly by email or telephone and will probably be longer than my usual posts. Our first subject is Ms. Jamie Donahoe, co-founder of Heritage Conservation Network, an organization that provides hands-on preservation skills training in diverse locations all over the world.
AF: Hello, Jamie, thank you for agreeing to do our very first Building Conservation blog interview. Since our main audience is our existing students, faculty, and prospective students, could you start by telling us how you became interested in historic preservation and initially got involved in the profession?
JD: I love old houses, and always have. When I was in high school, I would ride my bike out to small towns in then-rural northwestern New Jersey and take pictures of the houses there. I didn’t know anything about them, really, and it was only after I took an architectural history class in college that I realized I had a veritable timeline of 18th and 19th century styles right along my street in good old Long Valley. I had once planned to be an architect, but soon realized that very few people would want me to design the types of buildings I was interested in. My father, knowing of my interest in old houses, gave me a subscription to the National Trust’s Preservation Magazine and that got me started thinking in that direction.
I’d been spending my college summers in Washington DC with my sister and interned at the
National Building Museum, then in its infancy, between junior and senior years and
Preservation Action the following year. After receiving my
Masters in Preservation Studies from Boston University, I moved to Boulder, Colorado with my boyfriend – now husband – and got involved with preservation there, volunteering with
Historic Boulder and serving on the Board of Directors for many years. It was four years before I found a paying preservation job, with the
National Park Service working with
Section 106 mitigation and
HABS/HAER, taking a major pay cut to do it, much to the amazement of the person who hired me. It’s been with my husband’s job that I’ve moved, first to San Francisco, then, eleven years ago, overseas to Croatia, Thailand, Switzerland and now Hong Kong. As I tell friends here, had I known way back when that I’d be living in all these places, I might have chosen to focus on something other than 19th century domestic American architecture, i.e. old houses, but I’m sure I’d still love them.
AF: What types of preservation projects have you been involved in during your career?
JD: I’ve worked on all kinds of projects and in many aspects of preservation. With Historic Boulder, I did a lot of fundraising and education work; with the National Park Service in San Francisco I worked on updating the List of Classified Structures, a massive undertaking which involved documenting and assessing all the historic structures in the Western parks. While living in Thailand, I worked with
UNESCO on the Wat Phou world heritage site nomination. My last big project before starting HCN was coordinating the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. My background is more in the administrative aspects of preservation rather than the technical, hands-on conservation side, which is why joining with Judith to form Heritage Conservation Network is such a good match, as she has the technical side covered. HCN has worked with all kinds of historic structures, from mill buildings and houses to bridges.
JD: Judith Broeker and I started HCN in 2001. I had helped Judith with some earlier workshops with her company Preservation Unlimited. Those workshops were quite successful. Together, we decided to create a non-profit organization that would work around the world, providing people with the opportunity to learn new preservation skills and learn about different types of structures and cultures. It has grown a bit to encompass other goals such as sustainable development, and heritage tourism, but at its core, we match people with preservation projects. Those people may be looking for training opportunities or want to contribute to a worthwhile project; either way, we keep them busy.
AF: How do you select HCN workshop sites?JD: We receive requests for assistance via the Suggest a Workshop feature on our website. Our board of directors reviews the requests and determines their feasibility, based on certain criteria such as historic value, the type of work that needs to be done and whether it can double as a training opportunity, the level of community involvement, and logistical considerations. Most of the requests we receive are very legitimate and it pains me every time we need to turn someone down. But we’re really operating at maximum capacity now, and until we grow a bit more, we just can’t accommodate any more. We certainly know the demand for our assistance, in the form of workshops, is high.
AF: Who are the HCN workshop faculty and how do you find them?JD: Our technical experts are professionals with particular expertise. We generally find them through our network of contacts – both our own and those of our project partners. Sometimes, however they find us, as in the case of Andy deGruchy, the masonry expert who led the Wiesel Bridge workshop. He himself wanted to save that bridge and contacted us, offering to contribute all the necessary materials and donate his services. We provided two full crews of volunteers, and at the end of the two weeks, the bridge had been fully restored. People who work with historic structures, needless to say, tend to be quite passionate about their work.
AF: Who usually attends an HCN workshop, are they mostly for students or experienced professionals?
JD: Workshops attract a mixture of people, many of whom are students and professional preservationists who want to get some hands-on experience. The workshops are a great way to get hands-on with a project, especially for those in the field who, like me, work more on the administrative side of things. Lobbying and surveying are just as important, of course, but I have to say there’s nothing quite like actually hammering a few nails to feel like you’re part of something real. And of course each workshop also includes volunteers from the local community who are preserving their own heritage, as well as participants who have chosen “voluntourism”, spending their vacation contributing their time and energy to a worthwhile project. Participants often cite the group itself as one of the highlights of their HCN experience. What can I say, good people do good things.
AF: Can you describe “a day/week in the life” of an HCN workshop? What is it like to participate in an HCN workshop?
JD: Each workshop is a completely different experience so it’s a bit hard to generalize, but I’ll try. Lodging for participants ranges from cozy bed and breakfast accommodations to hostel-style dorm rooms. You’ll generally find the price of a given workshop reflects the accommodation being offered. In the case of the Kornthal Parsonage workshop, people have offered to host participants, which means we are able to offer two levels of lodging and therefore two price levels. We usually offer a different rate for people who don’t need accommodation; they may be camping, or have relatives in the area.
Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to the site, such as air fare, rental car if needed, etc. In certain cases, we arrange transportation to the work site every day, though in most US workshops people arrive on their own accord. When necessary, we will write letters in support of visa applications, but we cannot of course arrange for people’s visas nor guarantee that their applications will be approved. Since 9/11 it’s become noticeably harder for people to get visas to the US, and that has affected us somewhat. As for meals, breakfast is usually provided at the place of accommodation. During the day, snacks, drinks and lunches are provided. We learned early on that people like, or rather, need, their coffee break; neither Judith nor I are coffee drinkers and in planning the initial workshops hadn’t taken into account how important morning coffee was to the vast majority of people out there! We provide snacks, water if necessary, and lunch during the day. In the evenings, people are free to dine where they like; inevitably the group chooses to go out as a group at least once, if not all of the time. In some cases, like our workshops in Sicily and Mexico, all meals, including dinner, are provided at the site, cooked by our hosts. We may work you hard, but we definitely feed you well, too.
Each day starts with a meeting to discuss the work to be done that day, the types of things that need to be considered, etc. Often there’s a brainstorming session to determine how to tackle a newly discovered problem – just the sort of thing that comes with working with historic structures. Generally the expert demonstrates what needs to be done and how, then people can try it out for themselves. People bring different skills to the workshop and share them, so we have had architects do measured drawings, carpenters teach great little tricks, and so forth. In many cases, participants have no hands-on preservation or construction experience whatsoever and they learn starting with the basics of using historic tools or modern power tools. It’s been a pretty empowering experience for a lot of people.
Field trips are arranged to relevant sites or sites of interest. For example, at our mill workshops, we’ve spent time visiting other mills in the area. In other workshops participants tour local historic sites, learning more about their host country or region. We are often able to arrange behind the scenes tours to give participants insights to the preservation and conservation issues at the site. Other times, believe it or not, participants are so focused on their work and the goal of completing a specific task that they forego the field trips in order to keep working.
AF: What are some highlights that stand out from past HCN workshops?
JD: My own personal highlight was seeing a 26’ sill beam slip perfectly into place at the end of the 2004 workshop at the
Francis Mill. We’d been working like mad to get that done – it was the crux of the entire project – and, at the last hour of the last day, we did it! We held workshops at the Francis Mill in 2005 and 2006 as well, and the mill structure has been finished, amazing, when you consider there were really just six weeks of hands-on work. The Francis Mill Preservation Society is continuing work, with a new waterwheel set to be installed in June. Our workshop at the Manor House in Slovenia in 2006 was another highlight – not only was the discovery of the original color scheme exciting, the workshop received national television coverage, giving cultural heritage preservation a big boost in Slovenia. Of course, our work in New Orleans and Bay St. Louis is something we’re really proud of. Though our effort was small in the grand scheme of what was needed, to the individual homeowners it meant the world. The people who volunteered there were really touched by the experience.
AF: Tell us about some of the upcoming HCN workshops.JD: This year we are returning to Virginia City, Montana and supporting the Montana Heritage Commission in their efforts to preserve the town, a massive undertaking, needless to say. This year’s focus is on historic finishes, a topic on which very little hands-on training is available. The Kornthal Parsonage, I have to say, is my own personal favorite of this year’s offerings. I fell in love with the building the minute I saw the photos, and there’s a lot of community support behind the effort to save this beautifully detailed Queen Anne house. The porches in particular need of serious attention. The workshop in Ghana is our first project in Africa, and we have very enthusiastic partners. It’s another of those places I, sadly, knew little about until we got involved, and we will be there at an exciting time – the 50th anniversary of their independence and the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery. We’ll be working on two structures – a stone chief’s house on the outskirts of Accra and a colonial-era residence in James Town, an important historic area in the city. We are currently working to involve local students and residents of James Town in the project and have them working there alongside HCN participants. The field trips to Elmina and Cape Coast, both World Heritage cities, should be great. We’re in the beginning stages of planning a workshop in Ethiopia at a very interesting, and complex, site that contains both archaeological remains and standing structures. So you can see we’re really covering the globe these days. We’re working to save the Stark House in Port Robinson, Ontario, an absolute charmer of a house that has essentially rotted out at the bottom. The workshop there – tentatively scheduled for this fall – will be just one way we’ll be involved there. In 2008 we have a focus on Eastern Europe, with workshops planned for Armenia, Albania, and back in Slovenia. The buildings in Armenia - many of which are still waiting for restoration after being damaged in the 1988 earthquakes - also strike a real chord for me. Beautiful. We are being really ambitious with our plans for 2008 and 2009 – the world is a big place and there is a lot of work to be done – we’re hoping people continue to support us and not only attend a workshop but all bring friends along with them!
AF: Aside from getting a degree in historic preservation or a related field or participating in activities such as an HCN workshop, how can students and others interested in preservation get involved or get experience?
JD: Plunge right in. Volunteering is a great way to get experience. Local historical societies, local preservation boards and organizations, statewide organizations, international campaigns all need people to help them. In addition to all my work with Historic Boulder, I volunteered with the National Park Service one day a week and was able to parlay that experience into a job there. (I had very understanding co-workers at my “real” job.) The HABS/HAER summer programs are an excellent way to get a start, too.
AF: What advice would you give those entering the field of historic preservation?
JD: Preservation is a very small field – everybody knows everybody. I’m always amazed that the people I worked with ten and even twenty years ago are many of the same people who are involved today. So be a good networker! Also, it takes a lot of initiative to undertake and follow through on many preservation projects - be sure you’re in it for the long haul and give it your all.
AF: This interview is a new feature on our blog; we’d like to do more. Do you have any suggestions regarding other preservationists we should interview?
JD: Sure. Nellie Longsworth, longtime director of Preservation Action, is an amazing woman. Jeff McDonald of the Virginia City Institute for Preservation Research & Technology. Charles Birnbaum, who is synonymous with cultural landscapes. People that we’ve met through HCN that are real go-getters include Franci Pecnik, our partner and on-site organizer in Slovenia, who is at the forefront of the country’s efforts to preserve their 4000-year history, and Sam Baddoo, who initiated our Ghana workshop and is working very hard to generate interest in Ghana’s culture, heritage, and historic buildings.
AF: I’m not sure where this fits, but I’m sure people would love to know how you operate from Hong Kong (and some of the other exotic places you’ve lived/worked) and about historic preservation in those areas.
The only reason this all works is because of the Internet. I’m online constantly. HCN exists pretty much virtually – our office is in a spare bedroom and our board members are scattered about. The time difference is a bit inconvenient sometimes when I need to talk with people in the US, but as you can see, almost everything can be done via email.
Preservation here in Hong Kong is in its infancy in many ways, but it is growing. The recent demolition of the iconic Star Ferry has served as a wake up call to the people of Hong Kong and has become the rallying cry that Penn Station was in the US preservation movement. There are designated monuments, but they are often out of context: a single building among a sea of skyscrapers. The proposed end to the street markets, the long-planned proposed demolition of Queen’s Pier, and “collective memory” are issues now. At the root of it all of course is money and land value.
AF Update, 3/13/07: HCN is offering the following workshops in 2007 (in Italy, Africa, USA, and Canada):
- Conservation Survey in the Monastery of San Giovanni Battista (Serravalle, Italy, April 1-14, 2007).
- Traditional & Colonial Building in Ghana (Accra, Ghana, June 24-July 7, 2007).
- Historic Finishes of the Old West (Virginia City, Montana, USA, July 9-13, 2007.
- Preservation Work at the Kornthal Parsonage (Jonesboro, Illinois, USA, July 15-28, 2007).
- Saving the Stark House (Port Robinson, Ontario, Canada, September 23-October 6, 2007).
Additional workshops are planned for 2008. For more information, details, and registration information, please visit the
web site.
As you may have noticed, we love to promote Troy. And today we'd like to point out that it's that time of the month again -- Troy Night Out, an evening of arts and culture -- which means time to get out, explore, and experience the arts scene here in our ever-improving river city. This event, which will occur monthly, actually began in February, when it was still bitterly cold and snowy. In spite of the weather, event organizers estimate that 300-400 people bundled up and enthusiastically visited over 30 venues. Given the relatively balmy weather forecasted for tonight, many more people are expected.
