These events are FREE, but there is a $10 suggested donation if you are able.

We are pleased to offer 1.5 CE credits for architects offered through the New York State Education Department.

Please note: The League does not report to NYSED the way that other credit programs (ex., AIA) would. Certificates of completion are for each architect's individual records and reporting procedures for maintaining licensure.

Thanks to our program sponsors: Peggy N. & Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust

An ongoing series of panel discussions and presentations that will look to the future of historic preservation.

Through a wide variety of topics, these webinars will bring together a diverse group of speakers who interact with the preservation field in many ways. Their distinct voices and perspectives will help us all think about where our field is moving and how we can be better equipped to help lead the way. 

If having a sign language interpreter present for any of our webinars would facilitate your participation, please let us know at least one week in advance of the particular program: kpeace@preservenys.org

Preservation Roundtable: How’d you get your job?

This series of virtual roundtables is aimed at current students and early career professionals. Each roundtable will feature two guest speakers who will share 1. What they’re currently doing and what’s so cool about it and 2. How they got there. Attendees are encouraged to join in the discussion and ask questions! Part networking and part career services, we want to take some of the mystery out of what a career in preservation could look like.

Monday, May 13, 12:00 p.m. - How’d you get your job? with Meredith Horsford & Erin Tobin | Click here to register

Meredith Sorin Horsford serves as the Executive Director of the Historic House Trust of New York City (HHT). HHT, a New York City-based preservation organization that partners with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation on the stewardship of 23 historic sites throughout all five boroughs of New York City. HHT advocates for, promotes, and provides technical expertise to the nonprofit organizations that operate the historic sites. Horsford leads her team in managing over $100M in capital restoration projects, preventative maintenance  work and nonprofit support for our house partners.

Prior to her role at HHT, Horsford served as the Executive Director of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum from 2015-2023, where she led her team toward creative and inclusive programming and interpretation with a community focused perspective. In 2019, she spearheaded an extensive research project on the enslaved and free Black men and women that were instrumental in the prosperity of the Dyckman Farm. Her goal at the museum was to connect the past with the present through programs such as a reoccurring race lecture series, contemporary art installations highlighting the Black experience in America and urban agricultural programs.

Horsford has worked as a museum and nonprofit professional for 19 years, working previously as the Executive Director of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, New York City’s official mayoral residence, and prior to that, Deputy Director of the Historic House Trust of New York City. She holds a Master of Arts in Geography from the University of Delaware, a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the State University of New York College at Geneseo and a certificate in Grantmaking and Foundations from New York University. Horsford also serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the Greater Hudson Heritage Network.

Erin Tobin joined Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) as Executive Director in 2021. At AARCH, Erin advances the organization’s strategic goals as AARCH’s chief operating and finance officer, as well as its primary spokesperson. Erin serves as the primary contact for special projects and preservation advocacy efforts, while overseeing the organization’s robust preservation services and educational programs.

Prior to AARCH, Erin served as the Preservation League’s Vice President for Policy and Preservation, where she worked from 2007 to 2021. She has also held positions with the Massachusetts Historical Commission, New York Landmarks Conservancy, and Historic Albany Foundation. She serves on the City of Albany Historic Resources Commission, appointed in August 2018 and currently splits her time between Albany and the Adirondacks.

Have a topic you’d like us to tackle in a Roundtable format? Please get in touch!

Lessons in Placekeeping from Buffalo and Beyond

Thursday, May 30, 12:00-1:30 p.m. | Click here to register

In this webinar, we'll hear from sociologist and photographer David Schalliol and Assembly House 150 Founder Dennis Maher about their respective work and how that work has intersected.

Based in Minneapolis, MN, David Schalliol's work has taken him all over the world — including various places around NYS. He has explored the "telescope houses" of Buffalo's East Side and has documented affordable housing in NYC.

In Buffalo, Dennis Maher founded Assembly House 150 in 2014. Based out of a circa-1850s church, the organization aims to transform lives and the built environment through art, design, and construction.

In The City Creative: The Rise of Urban Placemaking in Contemporary America, co-written by David and published in 2021, Assembly House 150 is featured as an example of hyperlocal placemaking — "small-scale interventions aimed at encouraging greater equity and community engagement in growth and renewal." The material in the book is based on multiple visits David had with Dennis and Assembly House 150. David first interviewed Dennis in 2011; first visited with him in 2013; and he began documenting Assembly House 150 in 2014.

David Schalliol is an associate professor of sociology at St. Olaf College who is interested in the relationship between community, social structure, and place. He exhibits widely, including in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Centre Régional de la Photographie Hauts-de-France, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. His work has been supported by institutions including the Graham Foundation and the European Union and featured in publications including MAS Context, The New York Times, and the Journal of Urban History. David is the author of Isolated Building Studies (UTAKATADO) and co-author, with Michael Carriere, of The City Creative: The Rise of Urban Placemaking in Contemporary America (The University of Chicago Press). He additionally contributes to such films as Almost There (Kartemquin Films) and Highrise: Out My Window (National Film Board of Canada). His directorial debut, The Area, premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and has screened on America Reframed and PBS.org.

Dennis Maher is an artist, designer, and educator based in Buffalo, NY. He is the founder and director of Assembly House 150 and a professor in the Department of Architecture, University at Buffalo SUNY. For over 20 years, Maher has been realizing projects at the intersection of art, design, architecture, and community engagement. He works with buildings, pieces of buildings, and people who construct buildings in order to create spaces for the collective imagination. Maher founded Assembly House 150 in 2014 as an outgrowth of his Fargo House project on Buffalo’s west side which has transformed two ordinary dwellings into an experimental living space and continuously evolving art installation. With Assembly House 150, he is transforming a formerly abandoned 1850s-era church into an immersive architectural dreamworld—built with tradespeople, designers, apprentices, students, and others. Themes of Maher’s work include the natures of house and home, the animism of objects, the revelation of the surreal within the familiar, and the latent memories of Western and post-industrial cultures. Maher holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. His work has been exhibited at venues including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (Buffalo, NY), the Mattress Factory Art Museum (Pittsburgh, PA), the Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (Shenzhen, CN), Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT), and Black and White Gallery and Project Space (NYC).

Past Programs

Featured
Rethinking Preservation in Urban Settings
Rethinking Preservation in Urban Settings

For this panel, we invited people working across the state, from Buffalo to Queens, who are thinking outside the preservation box to work with their communities. We wanted to look at how practitioners take a more holistic approach to preservation in urban centers — not just relying on tried and true preservation tools like landmark designation and historic tax credits. From cultural districts to building shell stabilization, there are so many ways preservationists can engage with the complicated realities of their city's built environment to better serve the people who call these places home.

Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies
Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies

In April, we hosted a virtual Roundtable to discuss Leslie Kern’s book Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies. For anyone who missed the conversation, we wanted to share a few key resources mentioned during the Zoom.

Expanding Narratives: The Erie Canal and Beyond
Expanding Narratives: The Erie Canal and Beyond

This panel used the iconic Erie Canal as a starting point for a conversation about how organizations can be better about sharing complicated histories, touching on issues related to environmental justice, urban renewal, disinvestment, segregation, and displacement. There is no single narrative about any history or historic place — the realities are often complicated, messy, and worth spending time thinking critically about. History is constantly being written and rewritten and we are all active participants in that process. The panelists also talked about implementation, how we take steps to truly tell a more complete story through our preservation work.

Disability Justice in Preservation
Disability Justice in Preservation

Historic sites can struggle with modern accessibility requirements. But how can we push past compliance to build a truly equitable and accessible baseline for everyone who engages with historic buildings? This Zoom panel explored work being done around disability justice in the preservation field, to go beyond ADA access and look at a more holistic vision for accessibility in historic spaces.

Salvaging What Can't be Saved: Deconstruction, Salvage & Sustainability
Salvaging What Can't be Saved: Deconstruction, Salvage & Sustainability

In thinking about how to build a more sustainable future, the preservation of our historic buildings needs to be prioritized. But when buildings can't be saved, there is still room for preservation to play a role. Deconstruction and architectural salvage allows heritage building materials to be saved and repurposed, diverting material from the landfill and creating a circular economy in the process. As much as we might want to save all the old buildings, it is inevitable that we will lost some. The question is how those buildings will come down.

Public Art x Preservation
Public Art x Preservation

Bringing contemporary artists into historic spaces drives dialogue and helps bring the past into the present. In this webinar, our panelists highlight how public art and preservation can work together, from public monuments to historic house museums.

Social Justice and Preservation of Place
Social Justice and Preservation of Place

Presented in partnership with the Tenement Museum, this webinar explored the intersection of social justice and preservation. How can the act of preserving and stewarding a building tie directly into a broader social justice mission? We wanted to explore the idea that preserving, restoring, rehabilitating, and stewarding a physical place can be integral to social justice work. In this conversation, we dig into how different kinds of organizations can incorporate preservation practices, without necessarily being a “preservation” organization.

Preserving Black Heritage on Long Island: The Pyrrhus Concer Action Committee as Case Study
Preserving Black Heritage on Long Island: The Pyrrhus Concer Action Committee as Case Study

The effort to save the Pyrrhus Concer Homestead demonstrates how interdisciplinary coalition-building can support historic preservation efforts, centered around issues of equity and social justice.

Workforce Development in Preservation
Workforce Development in Preservation

In this webinar, panelists representing successful preservation trades training programs share their best practices, program specifics, and talk about the perennial need for these kinds of opportunities.

Preservation in the Adirondacks
Preservation in the Adirondacks

We brought together three Adirondack-based preservationists to explore how the preservation movement has helped shape the region and how it continues to evolve.