Dulce Nettey, 22, a participant from Morgan State University in Baltimore, says she found the technological aspects of the fellowship to be “fascinating,” particularly when combined with the need to learn more about the human experience inside the home. “The history portion really pushed us to figure out how to tell the story, to figure out how it all connects,” Nettey says.
Daren Johnson, 22, a student at Tuskegee University in Alabama, adds the intensive nature of the fellowship posed a time-management challenge for all three participants, placing them in a real-world environment that allowed them to push themselves professionally.
Because of the pandemic, the trio met virtually each Thursday for a full day of learning, sessions, workshops and presentations. Dr. Kwesi Daniels, head of the Architecture Department at Tuskegee University; Professor Dale Glenwood Green at Morgan State University; and Assistant Professor Ronald Kloser at Hampton University helped shape the curriculum of the fellowship. Student attendance was mandatory for all programming and events.
Johnson was surprised to learn that the same digital technology used in popular action movies could be applied in architectural, preservation and development projects. “A lot of the documentation things we learned, like the standards and the reason for the documentation of certain properties, were very eye-opening,” he states.
Architect Robert Arzola, a longtime architect for HABS, coached the students on a weekly basis to refine their submission for the Holland Prize. The annual competition recognizes the best single sheet, measured drawing of a historic building, site or structure prepared to the standards of HABS, the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) or Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). All drawings accepted for the competition are added to the permanent HABS, HAER and HALS Collection in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.
Arzola hopes the fellowship helped the students grow personally and professionally, adding that he appreciated their particular focus on the room where the cultural figure spent most of his creative time, often sitting by the window to draw inspiration from the street life outside. “It’s going to look great in your portfolio and on your resume that you participated in this program and worked on such an unusual home during COVID,” Arzola told the students after their final presentation.
For Curtis and the fully distributed workforce at Existing Conditions, the virtual teaching and learning environment was a natural fit.“Our collective hope is that programs like this can be part of a broader movement toward inclusivity and diversity in the world of preservation,” Curtis says. “The next generation of architects, planners, and preservationists should know there are teams and tools available to empower them with the confidence to make smart decisions based on accurate data.”
“Representation of buildings and cities has long been at the core of architectural education and practice. Students generally study drawings of buildings, so we are simply another step in that evolutionary process,” Curtis adds. “All architects should know that pinpoint accuracy is achievable and that accurate building documentation can not only eliminate unnecessary risks for them as professionals, but also unlock design opportunities that may otherwise go unrealized.”
Milan Jordan, director of the National Trust’s HOPE Crew program, an acronym that stands for Hands-On Preservation Experience, directed the effort and says the fellowship was a first-time pilot that may be adapted for students in semesters to come. “Coming to HOPE Crew with a background in architecture allowed us all to work together to find the right alignment of programming to build on the students architectural curriculum,” she says. “With every deadline we gave these students and every challenge they faced, they knocked it out of the park.”
IMAGES: courtesy Existing Conditions