Preserving Your Heritage Site: Working with an Architect / Development Team

The Black Grassroots Heritage Preservation Network:

Digital Storytelling and Black Roots Across America

by Marcus P. Smith

Join us to learn tips on how to work with an architect / development team to preserve your heritage site. You will receive insight on lessons learned from a preservation architect with a diverse experience in architecture, planning, preservation, and project management.

At the end of the session, the goal is for you to have more information to begin your working relationship with your team on the right foot.

The presentation will cover the following topics to support healthy communication and expectations between the site owner and the architect/development team:

• Developing a Request for Proposal
• Selecting an architect / development team
• Helpful things to share with your architect / development team

This event is a must-attend for anyone interested in the preservation of Black heritage. Don't miss out on this enlightening discussion!

About the Speaker

k. kennedy Whiters, RA is a preservation architect with over 20 years of experience in architecture, preservation, planning, and project management. She has worked on over 50 preservation projects across the country as both an architect and owner's representative / capital projects manager in the public and private sectors. A published writer, researcher, and educator, kennedy is the founder of Black in Historic Preservation and a New York-based architecture firm, studio kW Architecture + Preservation.

Community Agreement

In support of a community of care and respect, Black in Historic Preservation practices the following Community Agreement and expects members, supporters, presenters, and attendees of events to do the same:

1- Do No Harm: We address issues without attacking people’s identities. We hold a zero-tolerance policy towards anti-Blackness, racism, sexism, xenophobia, fatphobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, and hate speech.

2- We lead ourselves before we lead others: We address issues without attacking people’s identities. We hold a zero-tolerance policy towards anti-Blackness, racism, sexism, xenophobia, fatphobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, and hate speech.

3- One Mic–Practice Active Listening: We allow others to speak and complete their statements and do not interrupt. Listen to understand before you make yourself understood. We balance between listening and speaking - also known as take space, make space.

4- What’s said here remains here–What’s learned here leaves: Everything said in Coalition meetings is confidential. We may all talk in general terms with others about the ideas we share in our discussions, but we will not attribute specific statements to specific people.

5- We feel and reveal our feelings: We hold space to allow each other to sit with our emotions; we do not pretend to know the breadth or depth of another person’s feelings or the most fruitful direction for their thoughts.

6- We embrace multiple truths: We speak our truth from our own perspective while seeking to understand truths that are different from ours. We embrace the complexity of being human and accept different perspectives and lived experiences.

7- We commit to generative conflict in which we all “win”: We see conflict as an opportunity. We lean into discomfort—we clarify, collaborate, and grow.

8- We collaborate in the spirit of reciprocal learning, teaching, accountability, grace, growth, and fun: We will not blame ourselves or others for getting something wrong on the first try. Instead of asking, “Who’s to blame?” We own our impact and ask, “What can we learn from this?” After we have learned new information, however, we will hold ourselves and others accountable.

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Thank you to our Members, Non-Profit Supporters, and Major Donor!

Major Donor: The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation

Non-Profit Supporters: DOCOMOMO-US + Out(sider) Preservation Initiative at the Center for Cultural Landscapes at the University of Virginia's School of Architecture