Specialization: Preservation Planning & Design
The Preservation Planning and Design Program, provides specialized training in preservation that leads to a Certificate of Achievement in Preservation Planning and Design. The program enables planning and design professionals to address the multiplicity of issues in the protection of cultural resources. Recent years have seen a growing attention not just to individual cultural artifacts, but to an increasing number of urban and rural historic districts. The program curriculum offers an awareness and familiarity with issues involved in the identification, evaluation, interpretation, and preservation of historic places, as well as the restoration, adaptive reuse, and design of sympathetic new construction in historic contexts.

Particular interests within the program include regional architecture, the vernacular environment, landscape preservation and the preservation of traditional cultural properties.

The curriculum normally consists of seven quarters of work current with the student's degree program. There is a required core curriculum including one course each in preservation planning, implementation in preservation, a graduate seminar in preservation planning, and at least one design studio dealing with preservation design in a historic context or with technical issues in preservation. In addition students must take 12-15 credits in the area of history, drawn from courses in U.S. history, urban history, history of city planning, or architectural history. Candidates' theses must address issues in a historic preservation or cultural resources context. Students are also encouraged to do research in the field and to take advantage of internships available in the region.

For more detailed information, please refer to the prospectus of the Preservation Planning and Design Program.