2015 Center for Heritage Conservation Symposium
UT Senior Lecturer Fran Gale and nine SOA graduate students participated in the 16th Annual Historic Preservation Symposium at Texas A&M University on February 20-21. The School of Architecture’s Center for Heritage Conservation hosted the Symposium. http://chc.arch.tamu.edu/ The Alamo: Structure of History was the focus of this year’s symposium and Historian Charles Porter of St. Edwards University provided the keynote address on Friday evening. During the Saturday morning session, Alamo Historian and Curator Dr. Bruce Winders summarized a 250 year history of the Alamo; Alamo Conservator Pam Rosser described conservation projects that are currently underway; and Dr. Michelle Bushey of the Trinity University Chemistry Department, discussed her work in identifying paint pigments on interior walls.
During the afternoon session, Patrick Sparks, P.E. of Sparks Engineering described his IR Thermography study of moisture and structural issues; Ivan Myjer of Building and Monument Conservation discussed his stone-by-stone analysis of the west façade; and CHC Director Robert Warden shared the results of his west façade erosion study. The final speaker was Dr. Unmil Karadkar, UT School of Information, who discussed the challenges in developing a database for the information obtained during these investigations.
A highlight of the Symposium was the student poster session with Texas A&M, Texas A&M Kingsville, Prairie View A&M, Texas Tech, UT Austin and UT San Antonio participating. Representing UT Austin were Historic Preservation students Namhyuck Ahn, Paul Cato, Izabella Dennis, Vishal Joshi, Andrew Leith, Paula Nasta, Jessi Kulow Steiner and Architecture student Yung-Ju Kim. The session provided an opportunity for students to discuss their research with the Texas preservation professionals attending the Symposium.
The Annual Meeting of the Texas Chapter of the Association for Preservation Technology International http://www.apti.org/ was conducted during the lunch break on Saturday with APT Texas President Fran Gale presiding. APT is a cross-disciplinary, membership organization dedicated to promoting the best technology for conserving historic structures and their settings. The goals of APT Texas include advancing and disseminating preservation technology among its membership.