Career Discovery in Historic Preservation

Join us in a lively conversation about preservation and professionalism. Four Penn Preservation alumni representing various facets of preservation practice will discuss the dimensions and scope of the profession as well as the responsibilities, authority, and ethics of the preservation professional. Our panelists will address the topic from their respective domains of expertise including policy and governance, design, conservation, public history, and education. The discussion will provide an overview of the role of preservation in relation to its allied disciplines and the relevance of historic preservation to contemporary social and environmental issues. The conversation will be moderated by Kecia Fong, lecturer in the PennDesign Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. This event is part of the PennDesign Fall Open House.
 
Moderator:
Kecia Fong (MSHP’99) is senior associate editor of Change Over Time: An International Journal of Conservation and the Built Environment and lecturer in the Graduate Program of Historic Preservation at PennDesign. She has worked internationally for the Getty Conservation Institute, US National Park Service, and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture as well as for private sector architectural conservation and engineering firms in the US and abroad. Her work in the field has ranged from material conservation of North American and Mediterranean sites of antiquity; the development of conservation specifications for 20thcentury historic structures; the design of regional conservation education and training programs in Southeast Asia and North Africa; to the promotion and dissemination of critical interdisciplinary discourse on contemporary conservation issues. Prior to pursuing her preservation degree at Penn, Ms. Fong worked for the Settlement Housing Fund in New York City.
 
Panelists:
Joan M. Brierton (MSHP’92) is a senior historic preservation specialist with the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) Center for Historic Buildings. As a recognized compliance expert, she is responsible for oversight of Section 106 regulatory review for GSA restoration, redevelopment and new construction projects. In 1999, Ms. Brierton was detailed by GSA to the White House Millennium Council where she managed the federal Save America's Treasuresprogram. In 2014, Ms. Brierton served as producer for the documentary film Victor Lundy: Sculptor of Spacewhich chronicled the life and career of modern era master architect, Victor A. Lundy. In 2006, in her capacity as a trustee for the D.C., Preservation League, Ms. Brierton chaired ‘DC Modern:  Inventory, Issues and Impact,’ Washington’s first symposium to comprehensively address mid-century modern architecture in the Nation’s Capital.  Ms. Brierton published her first book, American Restoration Style: Victorian in 1998 and most recently contributed to the 2018 Princeton Architectural Press publication Victor Lundy, Artist Architect. 
 
Libbie Hawes (MSHP’00) is preservation director of cliveden of the National Trust where she manages the stewardship of the buildings and landscape. Her efforts are focused on expanding the interpretation of the site to include a diverse slate of themes relating to social history, place, and memory with an emphasis on public participation and community partnerships. Under her tenure she has opened up previously inaccessible historic service spaces to the public. Ms. Hawes serves on the Advocacy Committee of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. While at Penn Ms. Hawes concentrated on traditional building practices in the Delaware region.
 
Dorothy Krotzer (MSHP’01) is director of the Philadelphia office of Building Conservation Associates, Inc. (BCA), an architectural conservation consulting firm. Ms. Krotzer has worked for over 20 years on a broad range of restoration projects with pronounced experience in the Mid-Atlantica and Southeastern regions of the Unite States. Dorothy’s recent work has involved a variety of fascinating and also challenging conservation projects including a masonry assessment of Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC; exposure and documentation of 19th century trompe l’oeil wall paintings by Constatino Brumidi at the U.S. Capitol; and design of stone repairs for the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Dorothy also teaches a course on Professional Practice for Architectural Conservators in the Historic Preservation Program.
 
Nate Rogers (MArch’11, MSHP’11), AIA is senior associate at Beyer Blinder Belle, a design, preservation, and planning practice in New York. Nate is currently responsible for the renovation and rehabilitation of Adams House, Harvard’s largest residential college. His body of work also includes new design, master planning, and renovation for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Toledo Museum of Art. His research interests include the ethical aspects of relating new design to historic fabric.