Technology is essential to any current practice. The trick is to use the technological tools and not let the tools run the project. When we consider buildings constructed in another era, we must consider the technology of that time in order to best understand how the materials work and to understand the capacity of the structure itself.

It is not always wise to force a “new” system on the old one. However! We use all sorts of cool tools from simple devices like Rilem tubes to moisture meters, binocular microscopes, borescopes and ground penetrating radar. We can locate the reinforcing bars buried in concrete, test for rot, understand the failure rate of stone, and determine an exact match for historic mortar, plaster patches, and colors on decorative paint schemes that are hundreds of years old.

Software continues to improve and offers many easy options for stitching photographs, weaving HVAC through historic structural systems, and highlighting moisture problems through thermographic data.

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens is my favorite Akron historic landmark. I could live there as a servant a la Downton Abbey and be fulfilled in life. Their Children’s Garden is delightful, as are their special events, such as Ohio Mart, and their holiday decorations and lights event. Sometimes there are even performances in the ballroom!

Historic preservation of significant buildings and places holds a tangible link to the past that allows us to see the work of our ancestors.

Just as people need historic places and buildings, historic places and buildings also need people. Without emphasizing the human dimension, the sharing of stories about a place and making it relevant to today, the value of the historic site is challenging to verify.

Lately, I have a renewed appreciation for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Their mission is “People Saving Places,” and they make this message front and center in everything they do, such as through their “This Place Matters” campaign.

I grew up in a working-class city just beginning to commercially and culturally exploit the remnants of its grand patrician past. It was also gradually admitting that it owed its European legacy to the skills and knowledge of the enslaved, oppressed, and impoverished.

Preservation in Charleston is much more expertly done now, but even then, it was clearly as much about politics and learning as it was about pure design. In Charlottesville, I got to work on the University of Virginia. Jefferson and his contemporaries, and the architects who immediately followed them, had a continuing influence on us locals.

Historic preservation wants material culture to truthfully tell the story of its authors, keepers, and users. The discipline predates the modern professionalization of architecture and was a means by which building itself was first subjected to a detailed study. It is comfortable.

I restored an 1844 Greek Revival church (Thomas Ustick Walter, architect) after it burned. It came together well, with a construction crew that was careful and serious, and the building is in every respect better and more durable than it was before I got involved. It didn’t lose its authenticity along the way. And the building committee members became my friends.

Technology more and more accurately maps and measures historic resources. Much of architectural conservation is removing old repair materials that are incompatible with the original ones. Ready laboratory analysis makes that kind of restoration simpler.

Virtual reality helps us understand former building configurations. Communication makes it easier to dig up special expertise. Large data sets should improve preservation planning.

Preservation establishes something as definitely past—conserving it would not otherwise be necessary. Preservation likewise exists to reveal a landmark’s continuing beauty, utility, and relevance. Architects need to practice it without chasing away the community that kept up once-unappreciated patrimony.

Sea levels will soon flood vulnerable buildings, cities, and landscapes. Preservation professionals must help government identify monuments and secure them. Climate change will generally stress existing, traditional materials, and building configurations, in unprecedented ways.

The project that I am most proud of is the Faber Building in Wooster, OH. This was the first project I got to work on when I started out as an intern. The Faber Building was one of my first experiences with a historical building rehabilitation project and opened my eyes to the special procedures and construction process that goes with a historical building.

In addition, I am proud of how the finished product turned out. The previous images of the existing conditions showed a building that was vacant and neglected for years and in bad shape. I was able to contribute to the team and rehabilitate the structure into a beautiful space like it was in its heyday.

My favorite historical places that I have visited was either Athens, Greece, or Florence, Italy. In Athens, I was able to visit the Acropolis and see the Parthenon. It was surreal to see this mega-structure that was built thousands of years ago at the birthplace of democracy. Being able to live in Florence for five months was truly incredible. Every day was a new history walk and it was a blessing to witness the amazing art and architecture all around city.

Developers should prioritize the reuse of old buildings because of the potential opportunity of State and Federal Historic Tax Credits that help with the cost of rehabilitating an old building. In addition, some old structures have good “bones” or a good “shell” where a developer would only need to make cosmetic changes rather than a full new build. Historic structures, in themselves, have a history or connection to the surrounding area they inhibit that makes the building part of a story.

Developers should embrace this rather than build new from the ground up.

History has always had a special place in my heart. From a very young age, my imagination was sparked by tangible interaction with history. Touch, sound, sight and smell allow you to experience the physicality of history.

When it comes down to it, I truly believe nothing compares to physically experiencing history. With this belief in my heart, I slowly started collecting things that felt like a gateway into the past. Model trains, coins, a camera, and a lemon juicer were some of my first finds.

These minor, seemingly insignificant things started to glow with the presence of those who used them before me. It was then that I realized the most minor thing could have significant meaning.

My childhood fantasies grew into a hunger for history that was never satisfied. I learned to appreciate what history we have by understanding how much history we have lost. My hope is that through specializing in historic preservation, I get to save our heritage while transforming our future.

A Perspectus project? No. Thank goodness. However, I was on a ghost hunt in Americas’ oldest city when my husband captured something otherworldly.

We were in the St. Augustine historic jail when suddenly I found myself alone in what used to be a jail cell. I didn’t realize that my husband was just outside the doorway photographing me. I remember feeling an intense weight of sadness, like the air above me was 400lbs, and I stood there unable to move. Eventually I was able to unfreeze and left the room lacking the words to explain what happened. It was the day after, going through photos, we found this…

I envision that as a society, we learn to appreciate historic things as they are. This holds very true for our historic built environment. I hope that as we progress, people value the importance of our historic buildings, and become advocates to retain them in an appropriate way.

Historic buildings are not a sum of their parts, they cannot be dismantled, and pieces parts separated. Historic buildings have an identity, and just as people, these identities are holistic. Historic buildings can grow and change, but they must always stay true.

Regret only goes one way. Once something is destroyed, it cannot be re-obtained. The tower will never be the same. The major question circulating now is whether the tower be built as it was, or it becomes something new. It is most important to remember what piece of heritage this holds for the area. The new tower must correctly represent that heritage. The community feels as though a piece of its identity has been destroyed. We must restore that identity.

When we break something, the first thing we do is try to put it back together. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail. But we always try to restore things, its human nature. Because we are grateful, we appreciate things after we realize how quickly they can be taken away. Does the new tower need to look identical? No. Perhaps they build the new as an iteration. That’s all history is, a slight iteration of what came before it.

We improve and we tweak while appreciating what was there before. When you get hurt, you often end up with a scar. The new regenerates as closely as it can to the old, forever being slightly different. You live and grow with the scar as a reminder.

Coming from a ‘new-build’ architectural background, the reuse of old buildings provides two main positive objectives. The first is a maintenance of a sense of place – the comfort of time past in a present functional location allows a level of well-being and understanding for current and future inhabitants.

The second is a reduction of materials needed and used for construction, which can lower the carbon footprint, promote sustainability, and provide better Life Cycle Costs to clients.

As sad as it was to watch the Cathedral tower and roof burn, the opportunity for today’s designers to now revisit this cathedral’s aesthetics, structure and form will lead to a better understanding of historical structures across the architectural community.

Additionally, the opportunity to ‘re-think’ the building, allowing all of the design community to provide ideas and thoughts as to its future restructuring and restoration may well provide a fresh look at how this historic building can continue to give a sense of place, an understanding of location, and maintain a cultural heritage for our current and future our society.