Historic Preservation – Page 5 – Garavaglia Architecture, Inc.

Advocating for a historic resource now can pave the way to successful projects

It could be said that there is probably no better friend to historic preservation than a recession. With slowed development pressures, advocates are in a great position to start planning now for future historic preservation projects.

Do you know of an untapped or underused historic resource in your community? Perhaps an unoccupied building that has fallen into disrepair, or an older or historic district that is in desperate need of revitalization? Now is the perfect time to begin advocating for your community, to initiate proactive planning, and to direct funding for future projects.

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc., provides a variety of services that are tailored to help launch your planning process including:

Strategic Planning
Feasibility Studies
Commercial District Revitalization
Grant research and support
Fundraising support
Use Studies for Fundraising
Stewardship Training
Visioning and Board Training

Please feel free to contact us to find out more about our services or to discuss how we can help.

Case Study: In rural Amador County, a National Register listed juvenile reform facility had been abandoned since the 1960s. To save this unique resource, a group of local individuals initiated key steps to save the site. Their efforts included:

Forming a non-profit foundation
Numerous successful fundraising & promotional activities
Securing grants including one from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for a rehabilitation study
The Foundation’s preservation efforts were recognized with a 2008 California Preservation Foundation President’s Award.

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. was retained to assist the Foundation and to date we have provided services that include:

Rehabilitation planning, potential use consultations, core Historic Structures Report, National Register nomination update planning, identification of additional rehabilitation funding, and community visioning workshops
Guidance on maintenance and stabilization to sustain funding opportunities
Assistance and direction to the Foundation including board training and visioning services

CAP and MAP Grant Deadlines are Rapidly Approaching!

Are you a museum managing historic collections? Or perhaps you are a museum in a historic building? Garavaglia Architecture, Inc., wanted to let you know that there are a variety of opportunities available to non-profit organizations that you may not be aware of, but hurry, some of these have deadlines fast approaching:

The Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) is a program administered by Heritage Preservation, the National Institute for Conservation and provides a general conservation assessment of your museum’s collection, environmental conditions, and site. Conservation priorities are identified by professionals who spend up to two days on-site with a follow-up report providing assessment and recommendations. The report can help your museum develop strategies for improved collections care and provide a tool for long-range planning and fund-raising.

The 2012 Application is now available! Click here to access the application.

CAP offers a maximum of two assessors per institution. Most museums are provided a conservator to assess the museum’s collections. If you have a historic structure (a building more than 50 years old), you may also qualify for a historic structure assessment. If your institution has living collections (zoos, aquariums, nature centers, botanical gardens, and arboreta), you can be provided a zoologist, botanist, or horticulturalist to assess your living collections.

The Conservation Assessment Program is supported through a cooperative agreement with the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. has CAP assessors on staff and would be happy to tell you more about this program. Hurry, the deadline is 01-December-2012.

Museum Assessment Program (MAP), American Association of Museums

Since 1981, the Museum Assessment Program (MAP) has helped museums maintain and improve operations through a confidential, consultative process. They provide guidance in meeting priorities and goals and understanding how your museum compares to standards and best practices.

Participating in MAP can help:

prioritize goals so you can allocate resources wisely,
document your needs so that you can make a stronger case to funders,
provide recommendations on ways to become an even stronger institution.

In less than a year, your museum can complete a self-study, have a site visit by a peer reviewer and begin implementing recommendations. For those applying for the December 1st deadline, you will receive additional benefits, including an online community, MAP bookshelf and access to the AAM Information Center and Museum Essentials webinar series.

Map Assessment types include:

Organizational Assessment (OMAP)

Collections Stewardship Assessment (CSMAP)

Community Engagement Assessment (CEMAP)

Leadership Assessment (LMAP)

MAP application is now available.
The deadline is Dec. 1, 2011

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. Celebrates 25 Years in Business

We are happy to announce that Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. just celebrated its 25th year in business. The company has expanded over the years into a multi-disciplined, award winning historic preservation architecture firm. With an integrated architectural and historian team, we provide a wide and diverse range of services rooted in our vision to create a place for history in all of our lives.

The variety of resource types and varied locations of our projects have taken us throughout California and provided an opportunity to explore its past in depth. Whether it is the stable that housed a recuperating champion racehorse or the last works of a master concrete sculptor, institutions for immigration or buildings from the gold rush, our environment is still rich in history. Evidence we gather through research, historic photographs, ghostings of what was once built demonstrate that little is actually lost, but rather it waits to be discovered again. Retracing footsteps from the past through our work, we uncover the story each project has to tell. Some may be controversial, others obscure, some are fantastic, and some familiar, but all together they weave a larger context – an identity that all of us can connect to.

Our culture is shifting from an attitude of “newer is better” to an awareness of sustainability. We can learn from our past, whether it is history we strive not to repeat or rediscovering sustainable building practices long forgotten. There is a reason to make a connection to this history as a part of our cultural identity and to continue to foster and use this collective knowledge. As we breathe life back into buildings and neighborhoods, we seek to preserve this important link to our past to achieve better, enriched, and vibrant community for future generations.

Stay with us as we pursue these new ideas, continue to learn from our past, and work towards a more vibrant, sustainable future that has a place for history in all of our lives.