The Department of Historic Preservation | Preservation Through Public Policy Archive
The Historic Preservation, Preservation Through Public Policy Archive is a collection of documents from David Hollenberg assembled over the past 25 years as readings for or background to the seminar course HSPV 5720 Preservation Through Public Policy which he taught from 1997-2023.
Upon his retirement, Hollenberg deemed it important to collect his materials related to the course in order to make a digital preservation policy archive. The link to the documents and an explanation of its contents is below.
Currently the Preservation Through Public Policy Archive is only accessible to those with the UPenn BOX account, please contact pennhspv@design.upenn.edu if you have trouble accessing the files.
Course Origins
HSPV 5720 Preservation Through Public Policy is a one-semester seminar that was first offered in the 97-98 academic year in response to a growing need for a stand alone course dedicated to exploration, analysis, and adaptation of relevant preservation policy tools, such as local historic ordinances, the National Register, Federal Tax Credits, local zoning, etc. Previously, in more or less the first two decades of the Program, public preservation policy content was taught within other coursework – in particular, the Preservation Planning Studio whose focus was always a specific site.
Since its inception, Preservation Through Public Policy is a practical course that teaches students how preservation policy is applied in the profession at the local, state, and national level. Additionally, the syllabus has evolved in response to the real world changes made to Preservation Policy in the United States. The course is a requirement for the Preservation Planning concentration.
HSPV 5720 Preservation Through Public Policy is currently taught by Cory Kegerise.
HSPV Preservation Through Public Policy Archive Contents
This collected material is intended as a rich and lightly-curated source for policy and planning explorations, as well as, a repository of how one class was taught and evolved over multiple decades.
Special thanks for Di Wu (MSHP 2025) who assisted in the digitization of this archive.
1. Policy: Course Readings. This includes many of the readings assigned throughout the semester over the years. These readings varied as the discipline of preservation and its associated public policy evolved, adding or removing documents to respond to current change. This folder includes readings for the last several years of the seminar dating from December 2023 through May 2025. Additional acknowledgements to the Fisher Fine Arts Library who made early scans of these readings.
2. Policy: Background Material. This is a miscellaneous collection of preservation policy topics large and small, assembled over the seminar’s first 25 years or so to help track policy changes and inform the seminar content.
3. Preservation Through Public Policy 2023_ Syllabus and class overviews. This includes the Fall 2023 course syllabus which is the final semester where Hollenberg taught the course. The folder also includes a set of one-page overviews of the weekly readings. This document serves as an abbreviated annotated table of contents of the policy material. As noted in the overviews, many of the readings are online, while others were available through the Policy: Course Readings folder.
