 Welcome everyone. Good morning. Welcome. Thanks everyone for joining. It's great to have you here. I wanted to just say a quick hello. My name is Stefan Bodecker. I use he him pronouns and I oversee the admissions at Columbia Jesus. It's really great to have you join us this morning and I always have to qualify in New York in the morning. I don't know where you're joining from it's probably a different time zone for some of you. We have registrations from a number of different countries and continents so there are definitely some good afternoons and good evenings warranted as well. It's great to have you. Thanks for taking the time to join us for this information session with Professor Jorge Otero pilots who directs the master of science and historic preservation program at the school. And this is part of our open house event series our virtual open house we've had a series of info sessions led by different program directors and some student sessions and virtual visit page. And I hope that you all have, you should have received emails with those links I will share them a little bit later on in the chat as well for for additional resources we have on our website. I wanted to mention just before we get started before I turn it over to just mentioned that the focus today in the session is on the curriculum is on the academic experience in historic preservation. If you have questions about the admissions process a little bit more kind of operational questions about your application and and how to put that together. We host regular sessions dealing with those questions and the next one is actually exactly a week from today next Thursday at 12pm Eastern and I encourage you to register for that. I will be hosting that to to talk you through the requirements and kind of what you need to think about as you as you prepare the application. And with that, I am very happy for hate to turn it over to you. Thanks so much for taking the time yourself to post this session. Pleasure. Welcome everyone. Thank you, Stefan. It's really a pleasure to welcome you all to to this virtual orientation. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the historic preservation program and then we're going to have some questions so please you know as I'm talking right down your questions and then we'll make little time, you know, for us to have a little discussion I'm going to have a ton of questions I'm going to start by sharing my screen and and let's see if I can do that. And you tell me, Stefan I'm relying on you to tell me whether this is working properly. That's working. We just need to go to presentation mode, and we can see. Because the presentation mode button is hiding behind. There we go. Behind everybody's little picture. Can you see that now. That's perfect. Looks good. Thanks. Okay, great. So here we are the preservation program, a little view of Columbia's main quadrangle which is just a beautiful space designed by McKimmy and white. In that, if you see the little arrow that is where we are over there on the right to the right of the dome. Right there. Let me show you the main building where where we are this is Avery Hall. Now the school spread out around a number of buildings and we can talk about that in a second but basically this is this is the main hall where we are. And the most important thing I would say to know about the historic preservation program, obviously is the campus but obvious, but the most important thing I think is the faculty. So let me just tell you a little bit about the faculty. In our program we have full time faculty, very strong full time faculty and adjunct faculty and in the full time faculty. Andrew Dulkard. His specialty is architectural history he's an architectural historian. World renowned historian of of New York City, and one of the foremost preservationists and in New York City he's written a number of books on historic preservation on different buildings of New York, the tenement museum with which he was very involved. Morningside Heights, our own Morningside Heights. He's written on row houses, and he has written as well on LGBTQ history. He is one of the really at the forefront of a whole movement to preserve the sites of LGBTQ history in New York he created the New York City LGBTQ historic sites project with a number of graduates of our historic preservation program. And, you know, while this today might seem kind of like something that you would think would be already, you know, these sites would already be protected. It's really still work that that is ongoing and is really very much at the forefront of the of the of the discipline. And Andrew really led that effort to to broaden historic preservation to for it to be more inclusive, more just and a better representation of who we really are as humans and as as a nation and so he was behind the designation of the stonewall in and a number of other properties but this is ongoing work very exciting work just to give you a taste of the kind of thing that he does now also Andrew leads the studio one and I will talk about that in a second and you'll get a feel for what that is. Another full time faculty is Erica of Rami who is a planner and comes at preservation from that policy perspective that social justice perspective, and also the question of sustainability. And so, you know, she's done a tremendous amount of work both in the United States and abroad she was for 20 years at the World Monuments Fund leading their their projects abroad, and really brings in this idea to to the to the teaching of the community engaged research that you really have to think about the values that the people in the community that those monuments are being used by hold and to understand that and that is preservationist. We often have to talk for those people you know ventriloquize their, their needs and want and then help them accomplish them through our various toolkits. So, for me, I work. I'm trained as an architect practice as an artist and think of art as a method for preserving and work within a group of people who who advanced the question of experimental preservation this idea of of art as a method for preservation has become a kind of broader concern within within the field and we, you know, refer to it as experimental preservation, and also an experimental preservation thinking about the connection, the emotional connection but also the aesthetics of preservation and preservation is a creative field. I think that that's one of our, you know, distinguishing factors here at Columbia that we really think of preservation as an act of changing the world, and we do it through different processes and historic monuments so this is one of my projects this is a project that I did at the British Parliament, this is the entrance to the British Parliament is called Westminster Hall. At the end is the entrance to the House of Lords and to the left the House of Commons, and you can see here this is a cleaning project in fact I clean the interior. I transferred the dust that we collected from the cleaning to these latex sheets. And so the process of preservation itself becomes a mode of expression and a mode of connecting to the broader public to think about history and connection to place. And so that also translate into all sorts of different projects that I do internationally so this for example is the preservation of the old US Embassy in Oslo which the US sold in which I'm currently engaged in as part of the large team in preserving. We have a tremendous range of faculty that teach required and elective courses. They range from engineers, preservation engineers like Tim Michelle's preservation architects like Francois Boulac, Paul Bentel and Theodore Proudon Theodore Proudon is also the the founding director of the society for the documentation and preservation of modern buildings. Richard Piper, who is a metals conservator Mary Jablonsky, whose interior finishes conservator Norman Wise, who is an expert on masonry conservation. Morgan Ahara who works with mass design group and is really part of this planning and preservation policy. So this is Carolina Castellanos who joins us from Mexico every year, who is an expert on international heritage management, Shelby Green, who is an expert on legal matters and preservation and Amanda Trannins who is an architectural researcher, Kate Regev who is an architect preservationist as well as as Mark Rakatansky, and others who join us on a ongoing basis. So let me tell you a little bit. So about what they teach in the master preservation curriculum. So first thing to know is that we have two different options. Okay, we have a full time option and a part time option. Most of you will probably be interested in the full time option but some of you might be interested in the part time option as well. The main difference is full time option is really two years. The four time option is spread out over four years, eight semesters. The full time option is intended for students who have any background. So we have students that are architects, of course, engineers, planners, but also people that come from the arts, from English, from philosophy, from marketing, from finance, all different backgrounds. There's no prerequisite to join the program and it really is intended to teach students the basics, the foundation for becoming a professional preservationist. So there's no experience required to join the program. The part time option is really meant for people who are already working in preservation. And so they have a job, they're usually in and around the large tri-state area of New York, and they want to keep that job and they are going to be part time studying and part time working. So it must be either already a working preservationist, an architect, an engineer, or a planner, or, you know, we can look broadly at some people have relevant experience in related fields. So for example, in nature conservancy and want to move over to more of an architectural preservation direction, so you need to have four years of at least part time employment in that area. So we also have dual degrees. While you do your work here as a preservation student, you can also be pursuing degrees in other programs. So urban planning is one of them. And I'm listing here the different, the different times that it takes to get through each of these programs. There's a time savings preservation and architecture preservation and real estate. When you combine the two programs, you have to apply separately to each program and you get an admission letter to reach for the program separately and you save time in that process. So, switching now to the to the to the meat of the of the curriculum. So our curriculum is what we call a slap the slab curriculum, this is something that is particular to Columbia University. So our curriculum is a is a curriculum based on the idea that you need to connect the dots, and you need to connect the dots in four different really important areas. Society laboratory so technology and science of preservation archival history so how to really figure out the historical importance of a building through archival work and building and building meaning the existing built environment so thinking more broadly this is an environmental question, thinking more broadly about the existing built environment and how do we intervene in it. How do we intervene in it through art, but also through architecture and engineering, we are changing the built environment when we are preserving it so that constitutes the slab curriculum. So we are organized in, and so in each of these categories you can see a series of classes, and those classes are feeding into studios these are required classes the required classes are in yellow and am sorry they're in blue, and in yellow, and they feed into these are three studios, one for the first three semesters, and they lead to a thesis project at the end the last year and that thesis project is an individual thesis project. So the studios are really hands on work where you're integrating all of the different ideas for that you're learning all the different knowledge from these different classes into a project, you're actually working on a project you're working on a building. And let me just tell you a little bit more about each of these studios in detail studio to in the subsequent slides but student just very briefly studio to is going to look at an urban environment and studio three is going to be looking at cross cultural studios so think how do we work across cultures. thesis is a very important component and little tip for all of you as you're writing your applications we really want to hear from you. What kind of work you see yourself doing as a thesis and it's really a way for us to understand where do you want to go professionally. So, when you write your applications, really try to make sure to tell us about that. Where do you want to go with your professional career. And why do you think that Columbia is the best place for you. How can we help you. What is the faculty that you find interesting what is the resources the laboratory, the are the libraries that you think you will be using. We want to know how we're going to be able to help you. So in studio one, we're really looking at buildings we're learning to look at buildings to analyze it a bit like architectural detectives to measure buildings to study the archives of buildings the drawings the plans to read those plans and to connect the dots between all this different kind of information. It's really important because we're trying to learn the historic significance of these buildings. Now in studio to we're really thinking about the community, how do we engage with the community. How do we map with GIS we we work very much at the forefront of digital technologies in the program. So using GIS to understand population density who lives there, but also who. What are their values, and how can we be of service to them in advancing a more just environment. And so the studio to also includes a component which is to actually visualize what is the preservation work going to look like, and to push this idea of experimental preservation that sometimes preservation might mean a legal designation but other times I can the projects on the left. It might mean some light projection it might mean some changes in the environment it might mean like on the right in art installation inside of a of a ruin to really catalyze and motivate the community to to come forward and start building that building so very much hands on very much in the community that is a on the right St. Luke's Church is is in Harlem so we're very, very engaged with that studio three. It is a is a studio that has to is a cross cultural studio and you can have a focus either more on the experimental preservation. Part of it, it is in tandem with the architecture program. So it's a joint studio and then we look at things like, for example, this mansion which was the house of the john Jay family john Jay was one of the founders of the United States of America he was the first chief justice of the United States. He was also a major abolitionist founded the manumission society, but also problematically owned slaves and all of the slave history of this site is been erased and so the students worked on how to reconstruct this African American history and legacy on the site. So very much looking at the history, scanning. We used our drones, 3D scanning equipment everybody learns of it becomes digitally savvy and educated and all the different technologies for documentation. And then you begin to manipulate those scans in order to make your own proposals, based on a number of really deep research on to the material fabric of this of this place. And these students, for example, collected the various fragments of a building that was no longer there you can see the picture of the building on the right, and then did some paint analysis, different kind of material identification to figure out what was the color of this building, how big was it what was it made out of and then propose different reconstructions that reinterpreted the site. And that is one of the projects here's here's another one of those projects by Tom Rice, who was working on how to put together a new door into the building that would actually be a door that kids could actually look through the keyhole and the whole new different hidden environment behind it, which was the story of African American people who lived in the house and took care of of the of the grounds people. So, we also work with, we also teach students how to design extensions to existing buildings. So, in this studio, for example, this was a visitor center that students did and here you have on the right is the existing carriage house that's a J center. And on the left is Tom choose new design for an extension to that carriage house into that visitor center where when people come in this is all a 3D model designed by Tom that, you know, you can see the desk you know getting down to the level of details of how do you actually articulate an exhibition within a historic building new building with the historic building and give this design aesthetic to, to history to helping us connect emotionally to history. The student the project is is the studio three is also very concerned with sustainability through adaptive reuse we've done a number of projects where we've gone around the world and work in us embassies here's the one in Mexico and students work on adaptive reuse projects for those and when we travel we obviously visit the cultural heritage sites and meet with cultural heritage professionals to understand how preservation is practice in different places around the world. So the preservation studio three this cross cultural travel studio. We, we have two options some we offer the option that is a together with architecture and then the option that is together with planning. And so here this one is taught by Professor Erica of Rami, and in this case they went to free town in Sierra Leone. To uncover the, the, the history of the slave trade over here and try to understand how these places which as you can see on the left have fallen into ruin, could be preserved and some of these studios. You can download on our website as various reports that have been made, always an engagement with the local community and these reports become a way of giving back to local community a tool that they can use to actually advance their preservation goal. So all this work involves a lot of engagement with the material fabric. We are in architecture oriented preservation program. We teach students to preserve the built environment. Now, you know, this is different than other programs that might be more, let's say, strictly policy oriented more on the planning side, more about, you know, how to how to write laws, or programs that might be more kind of our archeological they might be working on dead sites sites where people don't live, you know, National Park Service sites, for example, that are really visited by tourists, or other programs might deal with folkloric studies. So that's not us so that's something that you really need to know our program is organized around the living built environment that people are in it people use it. So the preservation technology lab is a is a place where we advance this, you know, your knowledge of the material world, and how it is transformed how we need to care for it. And how we do that with science and technology and aesthetics and art, bringing together art and science into the into the lab. So students go up and go learn to identify materials, but also learn to document them, but and learn to take care of them, because one of the really important parts that we teach in our program is really to move. We want to move the whole world, not just preservation we want to move the whole world from an ethic of what what we think right now is an ethic of carelessness in the world, and an ethic of exploitation, we want to move that to an ethic of care, because what conservation really is about is about caring, not just for the built environment but caring for people so when, for example, we have this student Sun Ho, who is working on mortar. He is at the same time thinking about the craftspeople that are going to be using that mortar how are you going to care for the buildings how are you going to contribute to the local community by introducing a new material that is going to reactivate. So moving on just slightly from the curriculum I think that for us it's very important that we launch students into the world with with the right support, and as students work through this is experimental preservation. You know, ethos and at framework, we want to support them and this the honor prize is an extraordinary prize really that allows students to take an idea that they developed in our program and make it real. It is a $25,000 prize that has gone to help people start companies to to create, you know, digital databases for communities, virtual reality augmented reality work so it's very, very exciting prize. We're very focused on getting you out there, you know the buildings don't come to us we have to go to the building so but also going to the laboratories where the crafts people work the workshops. So we're constantly taking field trips and, you know, New York is our our our laboratory as well so let's maybe pause here for a second and take some questions if any of you have some and then I can go back and tell you a little bit more about the various aspects of our of our curriculum. While you guys, you know just feel free to turn on your screen and and ask whatever question. You have. And while you guys do that I'm still sharing screen correct. Yes, that's right. Yeah, while you guys do while you guys think about and please jump in. I just want to show you the kind of work that some of the students have done. You know, typical work of what we've been doing in the lab this is a 3D scan of every hall this is this is the school this is where we are. And we did a very fine grained analysis of this facade to look at just how it is decaying and what we can learn from the patterns of dust and pollution that are on the facade about not just the facade but about the climate around it. We did analysis of the various different deposits on the building to see, you know, for example led deposits led deposits are those that really mark a moment in time, because at a certain point, cars stopped using lead so we know that if we're finding led we're really looking at dust from, you know, before the 1970s. So this is very high definition ultra high definition scans. We collaborate with various foundations in particular with the Syark Foundation, and doing some of this high definition scanning documentation and analysis work, which is really important for how we preserve things and the students for example we're able to do some wind simulation here to figure out, you know exactly how did the deposits come on to onto the building. So there's just a little example for you of the kind of thing that you will see, and that you will be doing at Columbia and of course what you're doing is you're linking this building to the people that are using it, but also to the environment that is affected by it and that that we are trying to also help to preserve through our engagement with net zero technologies adaptive reuse, and so on.