Erica Avrami

Erica Avrami is a preservation consultant who recently returned to academia. She has lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, Pratt Institute, and Columbia University. Ms. Avrami is also a doctoral candidate in Planning and Public Policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School, Rutgers University, where her research focuses on sustainability planning and the politics of preservation and redevelopment in New York City. Ms. Avrami was for many years a Project Specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute, where she developed and managed a range of education, research, and field initiatives related to conservation of the built environment. Her areas of focus included the role of values in heritage conservation, preservation planning and site management, and sustainable/earthen architecture; she has been involved in field and training projects in the US, Britain, Malaysia, Tunisia, Israel, Peru, and Central America. Ms. Avrami is a Trustee of the United States Committee for the International Council of Monuments and Sites and has served as Secretary of the organization since 2004.

http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications/pdf_publications/valuesrpt.pdf


Ned Kaufman

Ned Kaufman is a free-lance consultant in heritage conservation who also writes and teaches. With a Yale Ph.D. in architectural history, he taught at the University of Chicago and Columbia, as well as curating the inaugural exhibition of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, before abandoning the academic lifestyle to become an overworked non-profit program officer. From 1989 through 2000 he served as director of historic preservation for the Municipal Art Society of New York, where he participated in campaigns to save the African Burial Ground, protect modern masterpieces, block the construction of a bridge to Ellis Island, and protect the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission from insults and injuries. So successful were his efforts that his office soon became known as the Department of Dying Buildings. Meanwhile, he also founded and co-directed Place Matters, a non-profit program dedicated to celebrating and protecting places of community significance.

In 2001, Dr. Kaufman launched an independent practice focusing on preservation planning, historical and policy research, and interpretive programming (www.kaufmanconservation.com). He also served as board chair of the Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers and co-founded and co-directed Pratt Institute’s graduate program in historic preservation. He serves currently as director of research and training at Rafael Viñoly Architects, a program he founded in 2004. His projects there include an initiative to construct and donate an experimental green roof on a public school campus in the South Bronx. From time to time, he has performed as an organist or pianist, most recently as one half of the Elysian Duo, which debuted at Merkin Concert Hall in New York before flashing out of existence. Dr. Kaufman’s book on Theodore Roosevelt’s estate at Sagamore Hill is being web-published by the National Park Service; Routledge will print his next book, Place, Race, and Story: Essays on the Past and Future of Historic Preservation, in 2008.


William F. Menking


Marci Reaven

Marci Reaven is a public historian and Managing Director of City Lore, where she directs Place Matters – City Lore’s joint project with the Municipal Art Society to promote and protect places of history and tradition throughout New York City. She is the coauthor with Steve Zeitlin of Place Matter's new guidebook to NYC called Hidden New York: A Guide to Places that Matter (Rutgers University Press, 2006), and the author and producer of films, exhibits, and public programs produced for museums, historic sites, and public television.

Eric Allison is founder and coordinator of the graduate Historic Preservation program and Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Architecture. He has taught historic preservation and planning at Pratt since 1996. He has a Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Historic Preservation from Columbia University and an M.S. in City & Regional Planning from Pratt.

Dr. Allison’s research interests are on the place of historic preservation in the creation and maintenance of livable cities and in the application of Complex Systems Theory to human society, including the future of cities, virtual communities, and the changing nature of the nation-state.

Dr. Allison serves on the boards of several not for profit organizations dedicated to preserving the architecture, physical records, and historic artifacts of New York area communities. He was for 10 years (1990-2000) president of the Historic Districts Council, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to New York City preservation. As president, he organized its transformation from an all-volunteer organization operating out of a post-office box to one with a full-time staff and citywide impact while increasing fundraising over 50-fold. He serves on the Rebuild Lower Manhattan Task Force of the Metro Chapter of the American Planning Association and is a Vice Chair of the National Council for Preservation Education, the body that sets standards for and certifies preservation programs. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Outside of academia, his experience includes twenty-five years as a consultant, specializing in project management, organizational development, performance management, and communications. He has led projects in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

A speaker and author, Dr. Allison has written on several subjects, including urban planning and preservation, business, and fiction. His works on business include Managing Up, Managing Down, a practical book on middle management techniques for supervisors (Simon & Schuster, 1984; co-authored with Mary Ann Allison) and The Raiders of Wall Street (Stein & Day, 1986). A murder mystery, Through the Valley of Death, was published by Doubleday in 1983, also co-authored with Mary Ann Allison.

Dr. Allison's awards include a 1998 appointment by Mayor Giuliani as a Centennial Historian of New York City and election to membership in the Salzburg Congress on Urban Planning and Development and the Institute for Urban Design. He is profiled in Who's Who in America.

Historic Preservation

The 44-credit M.S. in Historic Preservation offers a focus different from that of other programs, concentrating on heritage, public policy, and building an in-depth understanding of the issues preservationists so often grapple with beyond the physical preservation and restoration of important structures. We encourage students to understand preservation policies and methods as part of a broader historical and social context while providing the range of skills that practitioners need in today's professional environment.

Examples of our core courses beyond the basics include Concepts of Heritage, Adaptive Re-use, Architecture and Urban Form, and the Preservation Colloquium.

The program offers electives in areas such as Main Street Revitalization, Green Buildings, and Public History as well as the resources of both the School of Architecture and the School of Art and Design.

We also seek to foster a critical approach to the field. Historic Preservation is in the midst of many changes as the profession grapples with the integration of environmental, sustainability, and livability issues. Our urban focus, using New York City as a laboratory, allows our students to interact not just with preservation professionals but also with the residents and community groups of historic neighborhoods, experiencing as students the world they will work in.

The faculty is drawn from preservation professionals who bring the real world of preservation practice­-that of the architect, the designer, the historian, of the private sector, the government, and the not-for-profit into the classroom. Students intern at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, at preservation organizations, and in architects' offices, working at the cutting edge of our field.

The Historic Preservation program resides within the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment in the School of Architecture.
GCPE's mission is to create and sustain a learning community of students, faculty and alumni that is characterized by innovative professional practice and that emphasizes planning and preservation approaches rooted in the principles of sustainability, equity and public participation.

For information contact program coordinator Eric Allison at eallison@pratt.edu or at 212.647.7532

Master of Science (Historic Preservation)

44 total credits required

• semester 1
• semester 2
• semester 3
• semester 4

higgins hall north,
room 106
tel: (718) 399-4314
fax: (718) 399-4379

3 History & Theory of Historic Preservation PR-510
3 Documentation/ Interpretation of the Built Environment PR-511
3 History: American Cities PLAN-627
9 CREDITS

3 Preservation Law & Policy PR-512
3 Building Restoration & Investigation PR-513
3 Preservation Electives
3 Elective credits
12 CREDITS

3 Concepts of Heritage PR-520
3 Interventions, Additions, Alterations, & Adaptive Re-Use PR-521
3 Real Estate Development PLAN-640
3 Elective credits
12 CREDITS

3 Preservation Colloquium PR-620
5 Preservation Studio PR-621
3 Elective credits
11 CREDITS

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