Symposium

Patrimony and Pragmatism:
Design Excellence and Preservation Standards - [SY1]
Thursday, November 4, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Registration fee $80
Lunch will be included with your registration.

A one-day symposium exploring emerging international trends in the conservation and re-use of our architectural heritage, and the issues that shape the nature of change. The symposium is sponsored and organized by the US General Services Administration and the US National Park Service in association with APT.

The Roman architect Vitruvius defined good architecture as having “Commodity, Firmness, and Delight”: good function, sound building, and the ability to lift the human spirit. “Firmness and Delight” may make a building valuable commercially, yet contemporary demands on services and security must often focus on the needs of function. Satisfying these needs may require significant interventions into historic properties that test the threshold of how much change can be tolerated without sacrificing historic character.

This one-day symposium will bring together scholars, practitioners, and federal stewarship program leaders to explore the state of the art and future directions for maximizing the value of historic properties while retaining their historic integrity. In five structured discussion sessions, internationally eminent experts will present examples of projects and interventions illustrating their own, sometimes conflicting, perspectives on approaches that derive value from heritage buildings as part of a vital cultural legacy and as integral elements in a dynamic urban environment.

Registrants will be invited to participate in interactive discourse following each panel discussion. The breadth of examples and speaker perspectives are intended to stimulate debate over differing philosophies represented by visionary projects that brilliantly adapted program requirements to showcase the original architect’s intent, as well as provocative interventions that created new showstoppers celebrating a composite of new and old.

There will be four content sessions, followed by a discussion and overview.

1. Broad Spectrum: International Approaches and the Role of Government
2. Evaluating Significance and Keeping Integrity
3. Designing for Building Performance
4. Designing for the Urban Context

The final session, designing for excellence and successful preservation, will explore balancing the goals of maintaining historic integrity and maximizing building performance with the goal of promoting design for vibrant city centers that remain rich in historic character. This session will involve panel participation and include audience participation.

This pre-conference event will be the talk of the Opening Party, and a great beginning to our discussions about raising the grade for preservation.