An essay by Starr Herr-Cardillo (MSHP '17) and Research Associate for the Weitzman School of Design department of Historic Preservation: "As someone working in the field of historic preservation, I’m used to seeing—and am occasionally criticized for—posts that overemphasize buildings, affirming their importance, mourning their ongoing or imminent destruction. Windows were smashed, walls were tagged, and structures were burned this weekend, but this moment is not about buildings. Damage to buildings is repairable, the murder and psychological torment inflicted by police brutality is not."
In an essay for Values in Heritage Management: Emerging Approaches and Research Directions, Randall Mason, an associate professor in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, explains how Philadelphia’s iconic Eastern State Penitentiary is both an archive of past events and agent of contemporary social change.
By using RFID moisture sensors readable with commercially available RFID equipment —the same technology used in everyday store antitheft systems—Oskierko-Jeznacki is able to monitor shelter coat leaks and moisture intrusion in the largest 19th century earthen ruin in North America.
The Miller House and Garden is considered one of the finest examples of Modernist domestic design—a midcentury masterpiece in Columbus, Indiana, brought to life by a trio of renowned designers at the top of their fields. A PennPraxis team will help to chart the future course of that work.
Less than 25 miles south of the Rwandan capital of Kigali sits a red brick Catholic church. From afar it looks peaceful, much like other churches, but, up close, bullet holes and shrapnel marks become visible. Inside, wooden pews hold small mountains of soiled clothing.
Recently, two alumni of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at PennDesign led the restoration of Benjamin Franklin's grave marker at Christ Church Burial Ground.
Sarah Lerner (MSHP '20) cannot help but compare their current research on Progressive Era Bath Houses to her lived experience in the world of Covid-19.

Photo Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress, LC-DIGhighsm-21891,
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2013632351/
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that helped jumpstart the gay-rights movement in the United States, Change Over Time published an issue dedicated to LGBTQ heritage in which public historian Susan Ferentinos presents a way of “categorizing the LGBTQ historical landscape,” from sites of support and social life to sites of protest and political organizing, LGBTQ businesses and organizations, sites of spirituality, sites of persecution and violence, sites of separatism, and sites of art and architecture.
Roy Ingraffia, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation lecturer alum works with the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers' (BAC) Administrative District Council 1 of Illinois (ADC 1 IL) to help restore Chicago’s Cook County General Hospital, an 105-year old Beaux Arts building – made of brick, granite, and terra cotta – that has been sitting vacant and neglected for over a decade, despite its historical significance in both the architectural and medical communities.
Fank Matero was walking in downtown Mancos in January of 2013, past the old Mancos Times-Tribune building on Grand Avenue. It was usually empty, so he was surprised to see an editor typing away inside. He asked if he could take a look behind the false wall of the building, which had always intrigued him. He was astonished by what he saw.
In this commentary, Frank Matero, professor of architecture and chair of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, considers the dominance of modern architecture in historic preservation activities.