Architecture and Historic Preservation was part of my nature from the time I was born. Looking at old buildings isn’t my first memory but playing with the scrap wood in my dad’s modest garage wood shop and the smell of sawdust gives me warm fuzzy feelings. Spending free time sketching floor plans of houses I wanted to live in until my first architecture / drafting class in 7th grade might have been an obsession and filling all of my electives in High School with Drafting and Architecture classes was a simple choice (along side orchestra). I nurtured my interest with volunteer picket painting projects for the Gaylor House in Corvallis, Oregon when I was in the 8th grade and thought I would be an architect right up until some professional architects came to my High School Career Day and told me I would make no money so I would really have to love it. I was too young to know what love was.

My first attempt at a college major ending up being pre-med with an interest in Physical Therapy. That attempt didn’t even last six months and I was quickly applying for Architecture School at the University of Oregon and then requesting to minor in Historic Preservation, a second major in Architectural History and another minor in Music Performance. I found love.

Graduation in 2001 was mired in empty job searches so I landed in computer support, the job I did while supporting my architecture habit (degree). My patience with computer support wore out within six months and I applied for the University of Oregon Master of Science in Historic Preservation. The idea was that it would help me get the real architecture and preservation jobs not just be told to “get in line, every architect wanted to work on those projects” and I didn’t have any experience. Telling a twenty-something that they don’t have the experience to do a job…. never ends well. I was no different in my 20’s.

I nurtured my way through graduate school and into the open job market. My experience is across the map from National Park Service Internships, to Oregon State Parks jobs, large architecture firm experience in Portland, and design build work in Eugene. I have been teaching or directing the Field School at least 40% time at the University of Oregon since 2008.

Historic Survey and Inventory is a class of high importance in the Historic Preservation Program. It is where I learned to play games with architectural styles while driving down country roads, impress my family with being able to guess a date of a building construction before we could see the date plate, and yes, I use it in my professional work doing historic neighborhood surveys, reading National Register nominations, or writing condition assessments and historic structures reports. I even use the skills from survey and inventory to look at a structure in its context, understand modifications, and material changes, and make judgements on a buildings integrity even if I am not surveying or nominating it to the National Register but rather providing architectural services.

Historic Preservation might have been something that was in my nature but nurturing the skills took effort and, sometimes, painful mistakes. This is only my second year teaching this course and I am excited to have spent some time this past summer learning about the process of learning and how to reach students in a more engaging way. This makes me feel old but a lot has changed in education since I finished my course work 11 years ago.  There are days that I don’t enjoy everything that I do in academia but there is never a dull day when working with students that want to learn and understand cultural resource management. I enjoy nurturing in others something that I love doing naturally.