With three active members, MTBA is fully engaged with the Association for Preservation Technology International (APT), a multi – disciplinary, membership organization dedicated to promoting the best technology for conserving/preserving historic structures and their settings. This year’s conference will celebrate the foundations of the organization when a group of preservation and conservation professionals from both the United States and Canada came together 50 years ago, in 1968, to form APT. As a joint American-Canadian organization, with chapters around the world, Buffalo-Niagara is a symbolic location to celebrate our cross-border heritage.
MTBA will be playing a key role in this year’s APT Conference taking place in Buffalo-Niagara from September 22-27, 2018. MTBA’s Mark Thompson Brandt has been asked to serve as the Moderator/Facilitator for a special Theme Plenary on Resiliency & Climate Change. Mark will facilitate an examination of how Resilience is the capacity to adapt to changing conditions and maintain vitality in the face of stress or disturbance. This session will explore how hurricanes and rising sea level threaten historic buildings and districts, and how some communities are attempting to build resilience for their historic waterfronts, including case studies in Houston, Key West, Nantucket, Annapolis and Newport. Deep green rehabilitations for carbon reduction to existing and historic buildings represent our best chance at prevention, in combating climate change. However, developing broader “Action Strategies” provides frameworks for working with climate chaos through mitigation and adaptation. Presenters will provide diverse experienced views on mitigation and adaptation for historic places, against situations that pose significant threats with sustained impacts, expected over the next 50 years.
This special session will be taking place on Monday September 24, 2018 and more information is available here.
MTBA’s Carly Farmer has also been invited to present her abstract Regenerating the Heart of Rural Ontario: New Life for Old Mills at the Buffalo Conference this year. Carly has done extensive academic and professional work on sustainable rehabilitation of industrial sites, including vacant mills, in rural Canada and beyond. Her thesis explores innovative methods to adaptively reuse the Wood’s Mill Complex in Smiths Falls, in a way that positively impacts the region by reconnecting the community with their industrial heritage. This project investigates the role of social equity, cultural vitality, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability in the rehabilitation process and how this contributes to community resilience.
To learn more about Carly’s innovative work, please see her introductory video Regenerating the Heart of Rural Ontario New Life for Old Mills HERE.
