Academic year 2019/2020 has been a year of transition for the Historic Preservation program. In January a new program director was appointed. Steve Turner, AIA, currently serves as the Executive Director of History Colorado and is the Colorado State Historic Preservation Officer.  He brings over thirty years of experience to his new role as Director of Historic Preservation and  looks forward to strengthening the program’s efforts regarding preservation of vernacular architecture and large-scale landscape in the American West.

Beginning in Fall 2020, the College of Architecture and Planning will offer a Certificate in Historic Preservation. This will allow students in the Architecture, Urban Planning or Landscape programs to acquire the skills to work on Historic Preservation projects within their chosen fields. There will be an option to complete the certificate fully online.

This past year, Historic Preservation students gained real-world experience through a number of activities. For instance, students worked on a documentation project of Riverside Cemetery in Denver. They also worked on proposals to adaptively reuse mid-century modern buildings located along Colfax Avenue and presented their findings at the Colorado State Preservation conference.

Students completed their final Capstone projects including:

• Susanne Larimer conducted a study of the Heritage Tourism program of History Colorado with specific recommendations and strategies to more effectively incorporate Historic Preservation themes into the tour program.

• Meaghan Heinrick developed a field guide for documenting historic cemeteries in Colorado. This included a lexicon of typical features of Colorado cemeteries and an insightful history of pioneer burial traditions and patterns.        

• Onat Kaplan is working on establishing a methodology for quantifying the intangible characteristics of an historic site.

Several Historic Preservation faculty members are currently working on new courses for the next academic year which promise to expand the learning opportunities for students in the program. Themes of these courses include:

• The Politics of Preservation

• Preservation Capstone Seminar

• Design Studio with a Historic Preservation Focus

Despite the challenges of 2020, this upcoming academic year will offer engaging and thought-provoking learning opportunities for our students.

Images:
Student Presentation at Colorado State-wide Preservation Conference
Students at Riverside Cemetery Documentation Project