Michael C. Henry

Biography
 

Professional Registrations

Professional Engineer New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and nine other states
Registered Architect New Jersey 
Professional Planner New Jersey

Education

Master of Science, Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1977
Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, 1972

Awards

Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award for excellence in the education and training of conservation professionals, American Institute for Conservation, 2024

G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, 2024 and 2012

Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, University College London (UK), 2005

National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Preservation Award, Restoration of the 1929 Atlantic City Convention Hall Auditorium, Watson & Henry Associates, 2003

Experience

At the Weitzman School, Michael Henry teaches courses focusing on the deterioration and pathologies of buildings and their systems and on diagnostic methodologies and monitoring of buildings and their performance.  His areas of interest include: preventive conservation of historic buildings and museum collections; traditional approaches to interior environmental management in historic buildings; energy efficient methods for conservation environments for collections in museums; moisture transport in building envelopes and materials; measurement of building performance and deterioration; and the special challenges of buildings and museums in hot-humid climates. 

He is Principal Engineer/Architect and founding partner of Watson & Henry Associates where he has practiced for the past forty years, consulting to institutions, cultural heritage stewards and architects/engineers throughout the United States and in India, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil and Tunisia.

Michael Henry's work includes: sustainable environmental management and monitoring for museum collections and archives; investigation, monitoring, analysis and assessment of historic buildings; preservation of significant historic structures, especially unconventional or technically challenging buildings; and engineered stabilization of large museum objects.

Selected Publications and Lectures

Michael C. Henry. Five chapters in Managing Collections Environments – Technical Notes and Guidance. Joel Taylor and Vincent L. Beltran, editors.  The Getty Conservation Institute, 2023. 

Michael C. Henry. “White Paper No. 2, Understanding Moisture Problems in Mission Masonry” in Best Practices for Stone Building Preservation Management. U. of Texas at San Antonio Center for Cultural Sustainability, 2021.

Michael C. Henry. “Conservation Environments, Museum Buildings, and Sustainability.” Chapter. Summit on the Museum Preservation Environment, Proceedings of the Smithsonian Institution. Sarah Stauderman and William G. Tompkins, editors. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2016.

Shin Maekawa, Vincent L. Beltran and Michael C. Henry.  Book.  Environmental Management for Collections:  Alternative Conservation Strategies for Hot and Humid Climates. The Getty Conservation Institute.  2015. Winner, 2016 PROSE Award for Environmental Science, Association of American Publishers.

Michael C. Henry. The Conservation Environment: an Engineer’s Perspective.  Conservation Standards: Fact or Fallacy, a meeting sponsored by the American Institute for Conservation and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Albuquerque, New Mexico: May 2012.

Michael C. Henry. Climate, Historic Building Envelope, Comfort & Environmental Management in Hot-Humid Climates.  Preservation Re-Engineering:  Finding Green Environmental Management in Vernacular Historic Buildings in a Hot and Humid Climate, a symposium by the Pitot House and the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, New Orleans, LA: April 2011.

Michael C. Henry.  The Conservation² Building:  Non-Mechanical Strategies for Energy-Efficient Collections Environments.  25th Annual National Archives Preservation Conference, National Archives and Records Administration.  Adelphi, MD, March 2011.