Traditional Building Conference: Lyceum | Full Schedule

8 – 9 am Breakfast, Networking

9 – 9:15 am Welcome and Introductions

9:15 – 10:15 am Global Perspectives/Local Practices: Sustainability and Historic Preservation

Speaker: Carl Elefante, FAIA; Principal Emeritus, Quinn Evans Architects, Washington, DC; 2019 Clem Labine Award Winner and past president of the American Institute of Architects

1 AIA Health/Safety/Welfare Learning Unit

The world is at work to address climate change, reduction of fossil fuels, energy conservation and many other important strategies to protect human health and the environment. Technologies are being developed at a rapid pace but there is a growing tension between such efforts and historic preservation. Historic preservation should be implicit in effective solutions to the critical problems that we face. So why is the practice of historic preservation being cast as a problem? In the race to solve the problems, are we forgetting good science and sound building practices and creating new problems that will exacerbate the challenges rather than solve them? Some would say yes, and some would say no. Join an architect who has been at the forefront of balancing historic preservation and sustainable building strategies for his candid thoughts on addressing the tensions, respecting good scientific practice and creating policies to enable architects and builders to work effectively in their locales.

Learning Objectives:

10:15 – 10:45 am Networking Break

10:45 am – noon Masonry Cleaning Methods at the US Capitol

1.25 AIA Health/Safety/Welfare Learning Units

Speaker: Mary Oehrlein, FAIA, Historic Preservation Officer, Architect of the Capitol, Washington, DC

The US Capitol Complex includes some of America’s most important buildings and landscapes. The building exteriors are a veritable repository of the nation’s geological heritage, including marble from Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont; granite from across the country; regional sandstone and Indiana Limestone. The variety of stone types and physical condition demands the use of a variety of cleaning materials and methodologies. This session will review recent cleaning campaigns using water, chemical, laser, micro-abrasion and poultice.

Learning Objectives:

Noon – 1:00 pm Lunch

Box lunch with free time to explore the Museum at the Lyceum and network with sponsors. Box lunch and museum admission included in registration price.

1:00 – 2:00 pm The Restoration of Stone Tracery for Stained Glass Windows - Ancient Craftsmanship/Modern Technology

1 AIA Health/Safety/Welfare Learning Unit

Speaker: Laurie Wells, Vice-President of Sales, B.E.S., M.A.; Old World Stone Limited, Burlington, Ontario

In 2017, a weather event known as a micro-burst impacted the First Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City, causing its beautiful west window to bow inwards 16 inches, cracking or fracturing every stone tracery unit. 3-D scans were made of the damaged window to rebuild each piece using robotic milling, CNC routing and the manual talents of stone masons. Once shipped to Oklahoma City, these units were carefully installed by a local masonry contractor, and the new stone tracery window is now fully assembled. The south tracery window of First Presbyterian, also damaged in the micro-burst, is currently in production and will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

2:00 – 2:30 pm Networking Break

2:30 – 3:30 pm Traditional and Transparent: The Stabilization of Menokin House

1 AIA Health/Safety/Welfare Learning Unit 

Speakers: Robert Score, AIA, Director of Historic Preservation, Consigli Construction
Hank Handler, Vice President, Oak Grover Restoration Co.

Menokin is the home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The house is a ruin but retains nearly 80 percent of its historic fabric. The Menokin Foundation has chosen to stabilize the ruin and infill the missing sections of the building with glass in an effort to showcase the building while not recreating missing elements. When completed, the building will be safe for explorers to study and enjoy the building. The $7 Million rehabilitation project is supported by a rare surviving drawing of the structure dating from 1769 and an extensive collection of 1940 photographs from the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Learning Objectives:

3:30 – 4:30 pm Using the Historic Practice of Practical Geometry Today

1 AIA Learning Unit

Speaker: Jane Griswold Radocchia, Architect and Architectural Historian, Bennington, Vermont

Bring your sketch book and pencil - compass and straight edge optional - for drawing exercises and a lecture on the topic of practical geometry. This session will include a brief history of Practical Geometry as practiced by Vitruvius, Serlio and Palladio and later used by master builders Peter Nicholson, Asher Benjamin and Owen Biddle in their pattern books. The instructor will cover the “rule of thirds,” the daisy wheel, and the five ways to draw a square with a compass, straight edge and pencil. Jane Griswold will make the case about how building professionals can still use Practical Geometry today in their work.

Learning Objectives:

4:30 pm Board bus to Mount Vernon

5 – 6:30 pm Private Reception at Mount Vernon

6:30 – 7:30 pm Private Evening Tour of George Washington’s Mount Vernon

1 AIA Learning Unit

Tour Guides: Staff from the Mount Vernon Preservation Department

George Washington’s home has been undergoing significant restoration over the past few years. After extensive paint analysis, paint is being removed from the wooden rusticated blocks and off-white, sand coated paint is being applied to recreate the stone-like, original faux finish. We will tour the mansion's interior and have an opportunity to learn about this process first-hand.

Learning Objectives: 

7:45 pm Departure by bus to return to the Lyceum in Alexandria

8 – 9 am Breakfast, Networking with Sponsors

9 – 9:15 am Welcome and Introductions

9:15 – 10:15 am TBDEL3 Terra Cotta Tile: Color Selection and Matching

1 AIA Health/Safety/Welfare Learning Unit

Speaker: Alicia Cordle, Ceramic Engineer, Ludowici, New Lexington, OH

Whether matching tiles for a historic preservation project or building anew with a specific color in mind, terra cotta tile can be produced in a number of custom colors. This seminar will address new roofs, new roofs designed to replicate all or part of an original roof or matching small areas of roofs for selective replacement. Special attention will be given to matching for historic preservation projects.

Learning Objectives:

10:15 – 10:45 am Networking Break

10:45 – Noon Palladian Influence on the Past, Present and Future of Mid-Atlantic Domestic Architecture

1.25 AIA Learning Units

Speaker: Christine Franck, AIA, ICAA, INTBAU; Christine G.H. Franck | STUDIO, Denver, CO

The Mid-Atlantic region is home to some of the finest domestic architecture in the United States. Georgian, Federal, Colonial Revival and classical homes of today create the enduring character of this region. This session will explore the origins of this heritage in the work of Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), examine place-based adaptions of his legacy in early American architecture and consider the potential of this tradition for architecture today.

Learning Objectives:

Noon – 12:20 pm Networking break

12:20 – 1:45 pm Lunch at Gadsby’s Tavern 

2:00 – 4:00 pm Tours – Select one tour on the registration form

Architectural Highlights of Historic Downtown Alexandria

2 AIA Health/Safety/Welfare Learning Units

Tour Guides: Penny Jones, Architectural Historian; and others to be announced.

Alexandria was established in 1749. It is an early example of a town with streets laid out in a grid pattern. As an important port town, many fine buildings were constructed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the historic district covers 100 blocks and retains the largest concentration of urban structures in Virginia and the district is considered the finest assemblage of historic streetscapes in the nation. Art deco buildings and bungalows of the 20 century add to the rich architectural heritage of an earlier time. There is a former Ford plant designed by Albert Kahn and the highly respected adaptive reuse of the Torpedo Factory into artists studios. A team of architectural historians drawn from Alexandria and nearby communities will take small groups on an exploration of some of the historic buildings that have been preserved or adaptively reused.

Learning Objectives

Note: Extensive walking; all or part of interior spaces visited are wheel-chair accessible. Please wear sturdy shoes.

Sketching Alexandria with INTBAU

2 AIA Learning Units

Instructor and Guide: Christine Franck, AIA, ICAA, INTBAU; Chair, INTBAU USA

This session is offered in cooperation with the International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU) USA Chapter

Join INTBAU USA’s chairperson to study the traditional architecture and urbanism of Alexandria, Virginia through observational drawing. This session will include the careful observation, freehand sketching, and diagramming of exterior architectural and urban details under the direction of an internationally respected classicist and architect in one of the most important and intact urban historic districts in the United States. Particular focus will be given to the composition, elements, and details of Alexandria’s traditional urbanism and architecture.

Learning Objectives:

Note: Extensive walking; the tour route will be wheel-chair accessible. Please wear sturdy shoes.