In November of last year, the eos team was able to travel up to Montreal to participate in one of our favorite yearly events, the Association for Preservation Technology's annual conference (or L'Association internationale pour la preservation et ses techniques, if you happen to live in Montreal). At this event we had the opportunity to attend provoking lectures, tour preservation success sites throughout the city and meet many like-minded preservationist professionals from all across the globe.
The conferences theme for 2024 was "Building Bridges: Connecting Places, Cultures & Practices" and explored new approaches, challenges and successes in historic preservation from multiple different countries in addition to a handful that are located in our Northeast region back in the states. Sessions were split into five different tracks that tackled specific themes and issues that relate to the preservation world in 2024.
Track 01: From the Drawing Board to the Worksite: Techniques, Materials, and Practitioners
Track 02: Historic Structures Meeting Contemporary Requirements
Track 03: Climate Imperative for Historic Buildings and Places
Track 04: Heritage and Social Justice: reconciliation, Diversity and Inclusion
Track 05: Removing Systematic Barriers to Heritage-Led Reuse
A few lectures we attended:
Energy retrofitting for pre-1940s residences
Protecting historic structures threatened by natural fires and flooding
Concrete vulnerability with climate change
Preserving Post-Modern structures
Adapting historic structures to house those facing homelessness
Potential for historic churches to be reimagined for contemporary use
Relocating historic structures
Improving diverse representation in built heritage preservation
+ so many more
In addition to lectures, we also had the opportunity to attend a handful of amazing walking tours led by Montreal design professionals displaying preservation success through a diverse collection of structures, materials and themes. A few tours we attended included an in-depth look at a historic Streamline Moderne restaurant that had recently been restored, a tour of the ceramic work located throughout the city's many subway stations and a survey of a handful of Montreal's belltower restorations. In our free time, we jumped on the opportunity to explore the quaint Old Town, take a bus to the infamous Biospheres (Buckminster Fuller) and Habitat 67 (Moshe Safdie) as well as check out some delicious food.
We look forward to this conference every year as it keeps us to date with new developments in the historic preservation practice, spurs ideas that we can take home and implement in projects, and also network with many other amazing preservation professionals. We look forward to Providence 2025!
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