Program Overview

Introduction to the M.S. Historic Preservation Program

The M.S. in Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary program that educates students to create new, future-oriented roles for built heritage. The program focuses on adapting to climate change and promoting social justice, integrating humanist, scientific, and technological approaches necessary for students to shape the future of the profession.

Program Overview

Founded in 1964 as the first Masters Program in Historic Preservation in the United States, the program embodies a pioneering spirit by continually questioning how the discipline actively responds to the changing social values and climate challenges associated with architectural and cultural heritage. The program prepares its graduates in the theoretical and practical foundations of preservation so they can be agents of positive environmental, cultural, and social change.

Curriculum

The program's curriculum provides a comprehensive foundation in the discipline through place-based studios, field work, laboratory research, lectures, and seminars. The curriculum encourages students to apply theoretical concepts, critical thinking, and problem-solving in real-life contexts. With core strengths in design and technology, planning and policy, and history and theory, the curriculum mirrors the disciplines preservationists must engage and collaborate with in the professional world.

Studio Sequence

The centerpiece of the curriculum is a three-semester studio sequence, supported by core coursework. These interdisciplinary and cross-cultural learning experiences encompass skill-building in historical, social, and technical research, data collection and visualization, community and stakeholder engagement, formal and material analyses, condition surveys, planning and policy development, interpretive and adaptive design, and the formulation of evidence-based proposals for action.

Thesis

A capstone of the curriculum is a student thesis. As a critical piece of independent research, the thesis allows students to augment their course and fieldwork to further develop specialized knowledge in an aspect of the preservation enterprise. Students develop their thesis work with the support of faculty to forge new lines of inquiry and practice, as well as to engage with members of the discipline as they launch their careers.

Faculty and Research

The program reflects a global outlook in its diverse faculty, alumni, visiting scholars, advanced researchers, as well as in the locales where students work. It emphasizes real-world engagement with buildings, sites, and communities near campus and beyond. Through study and engaged research in New York and New Jersey, as well as countries such as Italy, Cuba, Ethiopia, France, Haiti, Mexico, Norway, and the United Kingdom, students apply skills in the real world and co-create knowledge with multiple publics.

Events and Lectures

The program hosts various events and lectures, including the Fitch Colloquium, which features a series of conversations between Jorge Otero-Pailos, director of GSAPP's Historic Preservation Program, and leaders in the field of historic preservation and heritage conservation.

Dual Degrees

The program offers dual degrees, allowing Historic Preservation students to jointly study Architecture (MArch), Urban Planning, or Real Estate Development.

Student Portfolios and Woodlawn Papers

The program showcases student portfolios and the Woodlawn Papers, a collection of student work focused on Woodlawn Cemetery.

Publications

The program is associated with various publications, including Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, and the journal Future Anterior.

Courses

The program offers a range of courses, including:

• HP Elective Internship
• Studio I - Historic Preservation Studio
• Advanced Studio III - Joint Historic Preservation/Architecture Studio
• Historic Preservation Theory & Practice
• Thesis Colloquium
• Master Class: A Fluid Matter - Heritage and its Relationship to Water
• Visualization Techniques for Arch Preservation
• Preservation Planning and Policy
• Conservation of Brick, Terra Cotta & Stone
• Advanced Studio V – Clinic
• Traditional American Architecture
• Arab Modernism(s): Experiments in Housing, 1945-present
• (Re) Inventing Living: Modern Experiments in Latin American Housing
• Architecture Apropos Art
• Interlaced Existence: Death, Life, Liminality
• If Buildings Had DNA
• The History of Architecture Theory
• Extreme Design
• Tensile/Compression Surfaces in Architecture: Tactile Methods for Architects
• Re-Thinking BIM
• Generative Design I
• Modernism + The Vernacular
• Construction Ecologies in the Anthropocene
• Data Visualization for Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities
• Spatial UX
• Architectural Photography: From the Models to the Built World
• Coding for Spatial Practices
• Neighborhood Preservation and Zoning
• Subject+Object
• Make
• Conservation of Architectural Metals
• Structural Daring & The Sublime In Pre-Modern Architecture
• Difference and Design
• Environment, Built: Episodes from an Elemental History of Architecture
• Information Richness: Architecture, Media, Politics
• Cities of Knowledge: Orientalizing Manhattan
• Fortifications and Other Infrastructures of the British Empire
• New Towns After Smart Cities
• Archives of Toxicity
• Environments of Governance
• Architecture, Technology & the Environment
• The Reimagining of Lower Manhattan Post-Sandy
• New York Rising: How Real Estate Shapes a City
• The Future City: Transforming Urban Infrastructure

Faculty

The program's faculty includes:

• Daniel Allen
• Erica Avrami
• Debora Barros
• Jonathan Bell
• Paul Bentel
• Francoise Bollack
• Carolina Castellanos
• Andrew Dolkart
• Shreya Ghoshal
• Heather Hartshorn
• Meredith Horsford
• Mary Jablonski
• André Jauregui
• Bilge Kose
• Kivanc Kose
• Tim Michiels
• Kyle Normandin
• Jorge Otero-Pailos
• Richard Pieper
• Theodore Prudon
• Halley Ramos
• Kate Reggev
• Sarah Sher
• Amanda Thomas Trienens
• John Walsh
• Norman Weiss
• Kennedy Whiters
• Krzysztof Wodiczko

News and Updates

The program's news and updates include:

• Faculty Andrew Dolkart leads a virtual tour of the Tenement Museum as part of the celebration of the reissue of his book, Biography of a Tenement House in New York City: An Architectural History of 97 Orchard Street.
• Faculty Jorge Otero-Pailos, Bilge Kose, and Kivanc Kose featured in Columbia Global for PreservAI.
• Faculty Andrew Dolkart speaks with NYT architecture critic Michel Kimmelman about "Bigorgaphy of a Tenement House in New York City: An Architectural History of 97 Orchard Street" at the Tenement Museum.
• Faculty Jorge Otero-Pailos moderates "Transformation of the villa: the example of the Thieleck estate in Berlin (1927–1931)" at the Italian Academy.
• Faculty Lola Ben-Alon presents at the Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, introducing “Speak to the Earth” and leading the panel “Femme Lineages of Slowness.”