Climate Change + Cultural Heritage

Assessing the Risks Posed by Environmental and Climatic Change to Immovable Cultural Property.

Completed in December, 2015, this Master's Thesis posits a framework for conducting low-cost vulnerability assessments at historic sites with the goal of improving and altering maintenance practices so as to increase resiliency to looming change. Two pilot sites were examined: Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, which faces inundation should sea level rise exceed 1 m, and Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches, Louisiana, which lies just above a flood plain in an area where increased average temperatures may increase risk from termites and wildfire. This body of research was recognized by the Tulane School of Architecture Faculty with the Award for Outstanding Master's Thesis in Preservation in 2016. Click here to read more. 

Case Study Poster for RES/CON 2016 (pdf link)

Case Study Poster for Keeping History Above Water (pdf link)

Full Text of Thesis (pdf link)

Law + Policy

"Easements as a Legal Tool for the Preservation of Historic Sites and Landscapes," Nov. 2014

This examination of a tax-advantaged legal tool for perpetual conservation of open-space and preservation of historic building edifices considers the utility of voluntary, private-sector measures in absence of or addition to land-use oversight. With interviews from several Southeastern U.S. states, the report illuminates the opportunity costs and carrying costs associated with preservation-easement programs.

"Worthless & Priceless: The Promises and Pitfalls of Monetizing Heritage," May 2015.

Unlike natural resources, which are held in commons and managed in the public trust, cultural heritage resources are typically privately owned. How can owners generate revenue from the public benefits those resources provide, including aesthetic, tourism and cultural benefits? Several tools exist, including tax credits, and each has relative merits and limitations.

Travel + Outdoors

Reflections on Panama, May 2015

This short essay was penned for the Tulane Preservation Studies Program annual newsletter.

60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Richmond, 2nd ed., 2010

A comprehensive guidebook to parks and trails within an hour's drive of Richmond Virginia, this book takes day-trippers to Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields, president's homes, forests in the Appalachian foothills and Tidewater marshes.

Capt. John Smith's Adventures on the James, 2007 (with VDCR staff)

Developed for the 300th anniversary of English settlement in the New World, this place-based travel experience Invited travelers to walk in the footsteps -- or paddle in the wake -- of John Smith. Along the way, interpretive signage examined the relationship between colonists and Native Americans and the key role of natural resources in each society. The James River segment inspired a multistate trail network now managed by the National Park Service.

Architectural History

"Egyptian Revival Architecture in New Orleans," Feb. 2015

This exploration of an rarer style that co-existed with the Greek- and Gothic Revival styles looks at the popularization of Egyptian motifs and massing, their strong associations with cemetery designs, and their surprising use in ecclesiastical works. Some of the cities most famed architects, including Dakin and de Pouilly, worked in the style.