 Hillary, tell us a little bit about Greater Portland Landmarks. Greater Portland Landmarks is Portland's historic preservation education and advocacy organization. We actually build awareness of the historic nature of Portland and also the wonderful architecture that tells the story of our history. Does every old building have to be preserved or restored? I think that the beauty of historic preservation is that there is a really rigorous process about analyzing what's preserved. So in Portland, for example, there are historic districts and these are made up of properties that have been surveyed carefully and also there's a concentration of historic material. So in historic districts there are a number of historic properties that tell the story of an era or in some cases they tell the story of a whole mix of activities that happened in the city. For example, Congress Street really tells the economic development story of Portland whereas a neighborhood like the Western Promenade is a period of time in which a lot of beautiful buildings and beautiful architecture was created. So within one of these districts is every building eligible to be restored or only some of them? Part of the analysis for an historic district is to determine which properties are what they call contributing and which are landmark buildings and then there are buildings that are non-contributing. So buildings that were let's say you are in the Western Promenade or the West End District and there is a gas station that was added in the 1950s so that would be a non-contributing building. Whereas a landmark building might be something like the Portland Observatory or City Hall, a building that has very special stature from its history and also its architecture and then the buildings that are contributing are part of the fabric or the historic fabric of that neighborhood. So they're part of a building that has historic features and architectural elements that fit into what they call the period of significance or the time in which that neighborhood gathered its history. And if you have one of these buildings, must it be restored if you're going to do something to it? Well in an historic district there's a review process so it doesn't require you to do any projects but when you do a project that affects the exterior appearance of the building then there's a review process. Often it's very much at the staff level for a small project but for a large project there is actually a review committee that reviews the plans for whatever exterior changes there are to the building and the idea there is to be sure that changes are made in a way that's compatible with the architecture of the building and the history of the neighborhood but it doesn't necessarily mean you can't do additions or make changes it just is a way of managing change so that the whole neighborhood retains its historic character. If an owner buys a building how do they know if it falls into one of these categories? Actually there's a very detailed study of every building in an historic district so once you are in a district you can actually look up your street address and find out if it is a contributing or non-contributing or landmark building and usually there's a very detailed study in survey form, photography so it's a really interesting way also to learn more about your own historic building. Jennifer one of the resources that the Greater Portland Landmarks has for homeowners and building owners is things like this trade show. Tell us about the show. The Old House Trade Show is a collection of juried exhibitors who specialize in preservation and construction and specialists in the field of preserving or working within the confines of an old house and we define an old house as a house that's already been built so they are the ones who know what might be happening behind your walls or know how to fix what might be behind your walls and your attics on your basements it's a really great collection of exhibitors. What are some of the challenges in doing something like that, restoring an old house? Where do you start? That's a really good question and we actually have a workshop on that we have multiple multitudes of workshops today and our very first one today is all about how to attack your project where do you start? If you have so many things that need to be done how do you manage those projects? And sometimes it's with an architect, sometimes it's with a contractor sometimes you just know what you want to do but it's always good to have some sort of resource maybe how to accomplish those tasks. In addition to the trade show, what other resources does Greater Portland Landmarks have and what resources does the city provide? Greater Portland Landmarks also publishes what's called the Northern New England Preservation Directory which is a listing, it's a directory listing of some of the same people that are here today and we do that every year so we even do that on the years of the trade show and that lives on our website at PortlandLandmarks.org and we have a preservation services program our preservation services advisor Christopher Kloss can come to your home and help you work on those projects and help you figure out what you might want to do there are tax credits available by the federal government and the state and for homes and homeowners and the city provides some resources as well especially if you live in a historic district there are some guidelines that need to be followed when restoring or doing work on the outside of your home And are there any other resources that are available that people can use if they just have questions, that sort of thing? Sure, we have some resources on our website the National Park Service has resources on their website the city has resources and we also have many books available for sale that we've published The Energy Efficient Old House is a workbook that we've done that steps homeowners through making your house more energy efficient which is great here in Northern New England in the wintertime even in the summer but mostly in the winter and we have another publication called Living with the Newer Old House so it's a publication that covers homes from the 1930s up through mid-20th century and that was done by the advisory service of Greater Portland Landmarks which is a volunteer group the advisory service is also a group of people that can come and help you understand your home historically and maybe some of the things that you might want to restore in your house what's original, what's not and you can ask for them to come to your home as well Heather, when somebody comes to you and they want to restore their house so they think they want to, where do you start? We typically start with a general walkthrough just to get to know the client and get to know the home myself and my right-hand man Dave Cleaves our general contractor will walk through and take note of what you're looking to do and then we'll go back and we will write up a review and give you some ideas on how we think is the best way to go about that How do you sort of judge the possible from the practical? It's very difficult restoration as you know can sometimes bring some surprises so you know we try to just judge what's the best and most practical way to go about restoring so whether that is cosmetic or down to insulation and other items such as that you know we try to be practical and give you the best solutions And some people they may have larger ideas than their building can take or can handle or they can afford, how do you sort of manage all that? We try to get the full scope of the project and separate individual pieces of the project so that you could possibly, if you'd like, do them in different phases at a time and of course you do have to be practical about an older home and how much it can handle so usually we'll just work together, build some floor plans, maybe a 3D model and be able to walk through the plans together and decide what's the best application What are some of the biggest challenges working with our very old home? Some of the biggest challenges certainly can be plaster Some people do prefer to restore the plaster which can be a little bit of a treacherous feat but it's not impossible, foundations you know sometimes can be an older field stone or a brick may need some repointing besides that there's always some unforeseen unknowns that you may run into a lack of insulation, you name it And how do you work with the guidelines if it's in a historic district? Do you work with the city and that sort of thing to be sure that you're following all the guidelines? Most certainly and Greater Portland Landmarks I have to say is a phenomenal company to be able to go to and get resources and find people around here that specialize in particular items such as brick, windows, siding and we certainly work with the city through every single project and to be sure that we're doing things properly Is there room in this process for new buildings and new design and new architecture? There's definitely room for new architecture and historic districts and I think you can just go to the old port in Portland and see some good examples One example for example is the building that's next door to the U.S. Custom House which is now occupied by CIEE which is an organization that has its headquarters in Portland so a very modern building with modern materials and modern forms right next to one of the Great Landmarks of Portland, the U.S. Custom House And is that a sort of building that 50 years from now that people will want to preserve? I would hope so. One of the goals of Landmarks is to encourage the production of new architecture that is of the quality of the historic buildings so that really looking at neighborhoods and districts as evolving over time and so the buildings that are built today with quality materials with good design those buildings are going to be the historic buildings of tomorrow so very much so we want to encourage really good new architecture and historic context And if people want more information about Greater Portland Landmarks where can they go? They can go to our website www.portlandlandmarks.org or our offices are on the corner of High and Spring Street at 93 High Street and we'd love to have people stop in and we're open Fridays 11 to 1 We have a wonderful installation that talks about how historic preservation has evolved over the last 50 years and of course it's all still evolving so we look forward to meeting new people and getting more people involved in historic preservation going forward