Georgia Statewide Historic Preservation Conference 2023

September 13 - 15, 2023

Augusta, GA

Click here to download the conference program

The Historic Preservation Division and Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation invite you to join us for the 2023 Georgia Statewide Historic Preservation Conference in Augusta on September 13-15! 

CONFERENCE INFORMATION UPDATES

official Conference program

Download here

Parking

Welcome Reception - Wednesday, Sep 13 5:00 - 6:30pm, Springfield Village Park, 1211 Jones St, Augusta, GA 30901

There is a public parking deck across the street – Nathan Deal Campus Parking for a small fee. We are not able to provide validated parking. Please note the deck is cashless, but accepts all major credit cards.

Main Conference Sessions - Thursday, Sep 14 9am-5pm & Friday, Sep 15, 9:45am-1:15pm; Marion Hatcher Center and 2KM Architects Chapel, 519 Greene St, Augusta, GA 30901

Please park in the Marion Hatcher center parking lots. DO NOT PARK IN THE 2KM ARCHITECTS LOT. See map below. The two venues are next door to each other and can easily be walked between (less than 1 minute walk). 

Opening Reception - Thursday, Sep 14 5:30-7:00pm; Old Government House 432 Telfair St, Augusta, GA 30901

Street parking is available along Telfair Street.

GAPC Breakfast and Annual Meeting - Friday, Sep 15 8:30-9:15am; Joseph Rucker Lamar Boyhood Home 415 7th St, Augusta, GA 30901

It’s a short walk from the Marion Hatcher Center (7 minutes), so if you’d like to park and walk over, we encourage that. There is a small parking lot available at the site, as well as parking along Telfair St

Registration and Check-in

Online registrants can stop by the registration tables to check-in and pick up their badge and program. For people looking to register onsite, please visit the registration tables at the beginning of the day of your arrival. Please note that onsite registration has an increased fee.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION TRAINING CREDIT 

Sign-in sheets will be available in each session. Please be sure to sign in if you are looking to receive training credit.

tours

All tour options are FULL. If you are on a tour list, you received an email on September 11 with instructions - please check your spam if you cannot find it in your inbox. The waitlists have been closed and cleared at this time.

OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER

We are excited to announce our keynote speaker, Sehila Mota Casper.

Sehila Mota Casper is the inaugural Executive Director for Latinos in Heritage Conservation, where she works to ensure that the preservation field is inclusive, equitable, and rooted in communities. She previously worked as a senior field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the City of Austin, where she has championed systemic transformations and a just preservation movement. 

Over the past decade, she has organized national Latinx preservation conferences, led efforts to save National Treasure campaigns, such as the LULAC Council 60 Clubhouse and Rio Vista Farm, the first U.S. Bracero Reception and Processing Center. She serves on the board of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, Preservation Texas, Texas Dance Hall Preservation, the State Board of Review, and the Friends of the Texas Historical Commission. Sehila is the recipient of the 2014 National Trust for Historic Preservation Mildred Colodny Diversity scholarship and a 2013 Texas Historical Commission Preservation Scholar. Sehila is a graduate of Texas Woman’s University Department of Visual Arts and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Historic Preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design. 

In 2020, Georgia HPD received a federal grant to rebuild and enhance Georgia’s Natural, Archaeological, and Historic Resources Geographic Information System (GNAHRGIS). This project was completed this summer, and new tools are available for surveyors completing data entry in the Historic Resources module of GNAHRGIS. The consolidated rebuilt platform now allows users to download results of searches to Excel. Users can also query historic resources by survey attributes, as well as via the map. For example, a user can layer attributes to perform advanced searches, such as how many front gable bungalows in Lowndes County have been recorded in GNAHRGIS. Another new feature is that all of the properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia have been added to the database, along with digitized nominations and maps. Currently, there are 127,384 historic resources in GNAHRGIS.

Along with these research tools, GNAHRGIS now includes two new tools aimed at facilitating data entry for surveyors – the windshield district polygon tool and integration of the mobile app, ESRI Field Maps.

Windshield District Polygon tool

The windshield district polygon tool allows surveyors to record the following attributes for a grouping of physically similar or related, geographically proximate resources: resource category, basic resource information, general characterization, approximate resource count, primary resource types, primary architectural styles, development time period, boundary types, acreage, boundary description, boundary justification, description, history, and field survey evaluation. Surveyors can also attach photographs and other documentation. These records can now have polygon data attached via ArcGIS Online. This tool allows surveyors to represent these resources as polygons in GNAHRGIS, instead of just points. HPD’s Historic Resources Survey Program offers specific guidance and training for using this tool. It can be used to record neighborhoods of similar resources, resources with large acreage, complexes, and resources with multiple buildings.

esri field maps app integration

As part of the GNARHGIS rebuild and update, HPD partnered with ITOS of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, Georgia Department of Transportation, Georgia Transmission Corporation, and the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC) to integrate the NAPC’s CRSurveyor App to GNARHGIS. The app is designed to help communities survey cultural resources digitally. This solution allows a survey team from a community or organization to take phones or tablets into the field and accurately capture location and specific details about historic sites. The data is saved into a data structure that matches the National Park Service cultural resource standards and catalogs many historic resources survey attributes. This data can be collected offline and ‘synced’ when the surveyor obtains connectivity.

The solution uses the ESRI ArcGIS platform and was designed using Field Maps for ArcGIS. Field data is collected using the ESRI Field Maps Application on a mobile device. The data and maps are stored in the ESRI cloud-based ArcGIS Online platform. Surveyors will access ArcGIS Online through ITOS, so a surveyor does not need an independent ArcGIS license to use the tool.

Field Maps is available for communities to use in CLG surveys, locally funded surveys, and environmental review mitigation surveys if the survey area does not contain any resources that are already in GNAHRGIS; the app does not allow for resurvey of pre-existing resource points. HPD hopes that Field Maps is a useful tool in reducing the amount of time required for historic resources survey data entry, facilitating survey work statewide.

Ready to get started?

If a CLG or community is interested in using Field Maps or the windshield district polygon tool for a forthcoming project, please contact survey@dca.ga.gov to ensure the project is a good fit for the tools. Both the app and the polygon tool should be used by professional consultants or volunteers with required additional training. Field Maps may be used in conjunction with traditional fieldwork and GNAHRGIS entry if clear boundaries are defined for the project for areas previously surveyed. CLGs and communities would be expected to work with HPD staff to clearly define the project in this way.

Additional information on windshield surveys and user guidance for the polygon tool and Field Maps is available on HPD’s website here.

HPD is looking forward to working with communities and surveyors statewide to experiment with these new tools in support of improved historic resources survey in Georgia!

Agenda for the November 3, 2023 National Register Review Board Meeting

The following properties were listed on the Georgia Register of Historic Places during the November 3, 2023 National Register Review Board Meeting.

Brown's Mill Battlefield; Newnan, Coweta County

Summary and Map

Dooly County Campground; Vienna, Dooly County

Summary and Map

Fountain Hill; Conyers, Rockdale County

Summary and Map

Lemon Street School; Marietta, Cobb County

Summary and Map

Historic Preservation, Section 106 and Affordable Housing

By: Mary Ann Hawthorne, Environmental Review Historian

If you listen to, watch, or read the news today in almost any large metropolitan area in the United States, you will undoubtedly hear or see stories commenting on the decline in availability of and/or lack of affordable housing.  While affordable housing shortages and crises in large cities and metropolitan areas are often in the headlines, the issue reaches into the suburbs and rural areas, alike. As noted in a 2002 report, Historic Preservation and Affordable Housing: The Missed Connection by prominent preservation economist Donovan Rypkema, the crisis in affordable housing impacts renters, homeowners, and prospective homeowners, affecting a wide cross-section of Americans.

The Environmental Review team at the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) reviews projects every year that are associated with various types of affordable housing in communities statewide ranging from new construction to rehabilitation or adaptive reuse of historic buildings.  The Environmental Review team most often reviews these projects under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 due to federal agency involvement. Section 106, as it is commonly known, is the provision in NHPA that requires federal agencies to consider how the projects they undertake, permit, approve, license, or fund can affect historic properties, both above and below ground.   

Many communities leverage U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs to provide affordable housing opportunities. In 2022 and 2023, the Environmental Review team reviewed over 100 new construction projects utilizing various HUD programs in Bibb, Catoosa, Fulton, Glynn, Houston, Jackson, Jefferson, Laurens, Muscogee, Newton, Sumter, Tattnall, and Walton Counties, among others.  While constructing new single and multi-family housing is one way to increase affordable housing options, it is clear from studies and news reports that the demand for affordable housing outpaces the available supply of housing, not just here in Georgia, but nationwide. Additionally, the cost of new construction often causes increased pricing and moves the new construction out of the reach of those most in need.

If new construction is not the answer to the affordable housing crisis in Georgia, , what other viable tools are available to communities to meet these challenges? A common saying in the historic preservation community is that “the best historic building is one that is being used.” Preserving our historic neighborhoods is another tool that can be put to good use to address the need for more affordable housing

“Historic” as a classification requires a building or a neighborhood to be more than 50 years old, thus in 2023 buildings and neighborhoods built in 1973 or before are considered historic.  Many older neighborhoods already meet many of the needs of modern Georgians:  proximity to work, access to public transportation, schools, and a variety of shopping opportunities. The HPD sees many examples of older neighborhoods and housing stock being reused for modern needs. In 2022 and 2023, the Environmental Review team reviewed over 450 rehabilitation projects, many involving historic housing, utilizing a variety to HUD programs in Baldwin, Ben Hill, Bleckley, Camden, Chatham, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Dougherty, Floyd, Fulton, Gordon, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jefferson, Lowndes, McDuffie, Muscogee, Richmond, Troup, Ware, and Whitfield Counties, among others. 

One notable example of a successful housing rehabilitation project is the rehabilitation of the Capitol View Apartments in Atlanta. The Capitol View Apartments were constructed in 1947 using funds from the Federal Housing Administration’s Veterans’ Emergency Housing program, and when opened, were home to veterans and their families. For decades, the complex served as affordable housing for low-income renters without a significant, property-wide rehabilitation since construction.  The property was purchased in 2018 and with construction financing secured in 2020, a major rehabilitation project leveraging HUD program funding along with state and national historic preservation tax credits and low income housing tax credits, began. By the summer of 2021, all ten of the historic apartment buildings had been rehabilitated and met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.   The Capitol View Apartments are now open to renters and are located in a historic neighborhood where the coveted proximity to work, transportation options, and shopping can be enjoyed by the residents. The property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

New construction and rehabilitation of existing buildings, however, may not be the full answer to the affordable housing question. There are many tools a community can use to address this issue and historic preservation plays an important role in that strategy.  Mr. Rypkema, in his 2002 report, suggests that creating more local historic districts and giving priority to older and historic neighborhoods for infrastructure, educational, and recreational facility improvements can be options for local communities to explore.   While communities throughout Georgia continue to seek creative solutions to their housing crisis, the Environmental Review team at HPD supports communities utilizing federal agency programs to meet those challenges through the Section 106 review process.

This week we are excited to bring you updates from the future preservationists of Georgia! Graduate students in Historic Preservation and related fields have accomplished a lot this academic year and have contributed to interesting projects across the state and the country! Many are also participating in internships in the preservation field this summer. These students and recent graduates bring so much to the table with their experiences and perspectives. We look forward to seeing what they do in preservation in Georgia and the wider world in the years to come. Read more below about updates provided by four programs across Georgia.

Preservation academic programs in Georgia

Graduate-level preservation degree programs are offered at Georgia State University, Savannah College of Art and Design, and the University of Georgia. SCAD offers an undergraduate BFA in Preservation Design as well. Preservation-focused courses are offered at Kennesaw State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Southern University, Savannah Technical College, and the University of West Georgia.

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 

Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture melds the study of historic structures and sites with preservation technology and sustainability. Within Georgia Tech, the historic preservation initiatives led by Associate Professor Danielle Willkens were awarded seed grants related to documentation and sustainable tourism projects for the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, SC and Petra, Jordan. Federal grants are underway for the following projects:

• “Archival Layers and Public Interpretation for Heritage BIM: Two Atlanta Case Studies” (NCPPT)
• "Digitally Decoding Vernacular Construction: Sellman Tenant House” in Maryland (NCPPT and Smithsonian Institute)
• Emergency stabilization of the English Avenue Elementary School in Atlanta (Atlanta Preservation Center, National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant)

This fall, six students from programs across the College of Design participated in the poster session for the Georgia Statewide Historic Preservation Conference.

The interdisciplinary spring seminar, Race, Space, and Architecture in the United States, references the projects and methodologies of architects and architectural historians as well as ten other fields including ethnographers, sociologists, and technicians. The course covers topics across the U.S., yet the focus is decidedly on the American South, with a close lens on Atlanta. The course is affiliated with Georgia Tech’s Serve Learn Sustain initiative examines intersectionalities between race, ability, gender, and sexual orientation to further explore complexities in policy and practice within the built environment. Working collaboratively to honor erased histories, the course contributes to Atlanta’s documentary record for preservation advocacy and public outreach. This year, students have been working in team to document and visually interpret three sites in Atlanta (Power Plant at the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill, English Avenue Elementary School, and Westview Cemetery) as well as a condition assessment and HABS set for the First Congregational Church in Marion, AL. 

Two PhD students focusing on HBIM and the use of aerial documentation for deficiency detection in historic structures, Junshan Liu and Botao Li, have been actively presenting and publishing their work, with an upcoming workshop in The Netherlands and conference papers at CIPA Florence. 

GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Sandra Hall, Madelyn Livingston, Michelle Bard, Hannah Brecker, Alicia Guzman, Ieshia Hall, Brendan Harris, Darlene Hawksley, Joachim Hillier, William Hodge, Paige Jennings, David Moore, Katherine Rambler, and Rachel Staley were awarded 3rd place in the HABS Peterson Prize contest which recognizes the best student architectural documentation drawings of historic buildings. Their set of drawings for the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Greensboro, GA are now a permanent part of the HABS collection stored in the Library of Congress. They accepted their award at the Association for Preservation Technology (APT) conference held in Detroit.  

Amy Durrell, Rural Schools in Putnam County: 1938-1949, and Michelle Bard, Documenting the Burns Cottage, presented academic posters at the 2022 GA Statewide Historic Preservation Conference.  

Michelle Bard presented her poster featuring architectural drawings of the historic Burns Cottage at the 2023 National Council for Public History conference. Her Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) submission, HABS GA 2449, is now part of the permanent collection housed at the Library of Congress 

Lauren Reeves is working with the Historic Macon Foundation to develop recommendations for interpreting Oak Ridge Cemetery. Oak Ridge was designated as a burial ground in 1851 for the enslaved. 

Natasha Washington and Ricky Yates are surveying a historic Gullah cemetery on Daufuskie Island, SC. The project is supported with funding from the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund 

Eric Menninger is working with Thomasville Landmarks to create a historic structure report of a historic shotgun house in Thomasville, GA 

*HPD note: Natasha Washington has also been interning with the Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network (GAAHPN) at the HPD! Additionally, the HPD welcomed Michelle Bard to the staff as an Environmental Review Historian in 2022. Paige Jennings has served as our fantastic CLG Coordinator since 2020.

SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

The following is a list of the graduating students from the MFA, MA, and BFA Preservation Design programs. Congratulations Graduates!

• Jennifer Howell, MFA in Preservation Design, Thesis: Trauma-Informed Design in Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings: Builds Community and Stability
• Olivia Arfuso, MA in Preservation Design, Capstone: Tainted by Trauma. Investigating the Impacts of America’s Turbulent History with Mental Health and Determining How the “Difficult Heritage” Ideology Can Be Implemented to Preserve Asylum Architecture.
• Savannah Kruzner, MA in Preservation Design, Capstone: Living Heritage at The Southern Pine Company. Explores how a community’s living heritage can be incorporated in the design of an adaptive reuse project. 
• Melanie Schuster, MA in Preservation Design, Capstone: Protecting our Historic Resources:  An Exploration of Demolition by Neglect in State Parks. 
• James Dillman, BFA in Preservation Design, Capstone: Malls and Rehabilitation 

Association for Preservation Technology International, Student Scholar, Emily Schripsema, Presentation: Looking to Our Recent Past to Inform Our Near Future: Applying Preservation Strategies to Late 20th Century Shopping Malls.

The following students will be participating in summer internships:

• Savannah Mae Tuten - Historic Savannah Foundation
• Nathan Barnett - Chautauqua Foundation 
• Jackie Boling - Tybee Island Historic Preservation and Tybee Island Main Street
• Zheng He - ForDoz Pharma Corporation 
• Daniela Salume - Carolyn Coppola Preservation 

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Students enrolled in the University of Georgia’s Master of Historic Preservation program will be entering internships this summer around the state and country, on sites ranging from Mount Rainier to Natchez and from the Channel Islands in California to Cumberland Island off the Georgia Coast. Current students are doing original research on a wide range of preservation topics, including vernacular skate board parks; parking garages; and little-studied architects in Macon and Pittsburgh.

Two examples of ongoing work by MHP students:

Megan McPherson presented a poster based on her thesis at the National Council on Public History annual meeting. Her thesis explored the history and current cultural landscape of Georgia’s first African American state park. 

Elizabeth Jones has led community engagement efforts surrounding the preservation of Zion Hill cemetery in Monroe, Ga. This formerly abandoned yet nationally significant cemetery is the burial site for the victims of the Moore’s Ford lynching. Under Jones’ guidance, ground penetrating radar has mapped the cemetery boundaries and likely burial locations of those interred. She has led community-wide cleanup efforts and the installation of new burial markers. Her work was recently featured in the award-winning documentary Unspoken.