Customer Reviews

Historic Preservation Technology: A Primer

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You're new, but one of your duties is to renovate or maintain a building that is old--perhaps one hundred or more years old. Of course you should engage professionals for the work, but where do you start and how do you evaluate what needs to be done and how well they do it? That's the position I found myself in last year. My new job here in the Midwest (I was born and bred in the Pacific Northwest, where truly old buildings are as rare as sunny days) includes custody of a 150-year-old historic home and renovation of an equally old one-room schoolhouse. While I have access to several preservation experts--many times offering conflicting opinions--I am the project manager. Since my experience has been entirely in new construction, Robert Young's book has been a lifesaver for me. This is no Preservation for Dummies--it's a truly informative volume that covers all aspects of historic preservation (process, materials, styles, systems) and offers "best practices" as well as bibliographies for further reading on each aspect. If you are new to preservation, need a refresher or just want an authoritative source for occasional reference, then buy this book.

Professor Young has created a comprehensive overview of the the process of preserving historic buildings, and an invaluable guide to the materials used, their decay processes and the methods used in their repair and maintenance. The bibliographies alone are worth the cost of this publication.