This project attempts to answer the following questions:

• What is the best approach to cleaning differing substrates in order to achieve a uniform result?
• What effect do these techniques have on the substrates at the microscopic level?

The efficacy and sensitivity of varying applications of the Sponge-Jet® cleaning system as well as chemical sponges and peelable as well as water poultices are investigated.

The goals of this project were to:

• Understand the properties, manufacturing process, history and use in conservation of gelatin as an adhesive and identify its greatest vulnerabilities
• Evaluate the bond strength and wet-dry and freeze-thaw deterioration that can occur once the gelatin treatment has been applied to earthen finishes in formulations that include glycerin as an additive
• Determine the most effective method of testing a conservation material’s bioreceptivity and apply it to gelatin
• Synthesize new data and data from previous research to establish climatic conditions for optimal performance of gelatin at Mesa Verde and other earthen sites

Housing prices began to decline in late 2006 and early 2007 and foreclosure rates skyrocketed, however there have been relatively few studies conducted to assess who has been affected since that time and how these foreclosures have and will continue to affect the economy long-term, in addition to the lasting impact these foreclosures will have on neighborhoods and communities. In fact, there is no publicly-accessible national database of mortgage foreclosures, making research on the subject all that more difficult.

There has not been a study undertaken to determine if local historic district designation has an impact on the occurrence of mortgage foreclosures in Philadelphia, let alone any other large city in the United States. With the issue of foreclosures as timely as it is, a study of this kind is pertinent and may encourage similar studies at a national level. Philadelphia may not yield the dramatic results that a more economically hard-hit city could, but is it worthy to complete this research to see if local historic district designation does in fact correlate with lower rates of foreclosure. If the hypothesis proves to be correct, this thesis will provide an additional supported argument of how local historic districts are generally more stable than similar non-designated neighborhoods, providing yet another reason for the continued creation of local historic districts.

Creative sector research and policy making stress the importance of character-rich places and the co-location of spaces for production and consumption of creative goods as a components in developing a region's creative industry. Yet the existing literature does not specifically seek out or incorporate historic preservation as a mechanism in creative district planning strategies. This thesis explores the critical role historic preservation can play in the development of the creative industries, thus ensuring preservation is considered a component in future policy initiatives. It addresses the relationship between historic preservation and arts districts (one aspect of creative industry cultivation), seeking to identify strategies that build effectively on historic preservation policy and arts districts as complementary components of community economic development strategy. It identifies policy tools that advance both historic preservation and the development of the creative industry and describes instances in which these tools have been successfully applied in concert.

Contexts include a brief history of the vacant housing problem in order to describe the current supply of vacant housing, include how to understand the process of rehabilitation through real estate investment, and case studies of fringe neighborhoods in order to define relevant areas of study.

The collection of media reports, journal articles, books, and community reports about fringe neighborhoods serves as the initial analysis of categories of enablers and disablers. Recent events and occurrences are used as indicators of effectiveness. From these media reports, interviewees of practicing small-scale residential redevelopers in fringe neighborhoods are selected. Each interview asked the same set of questions to ensure consistency. Then enablers and disablers as defined through the interviews are compared and analyzed to those of the media reports. The final conclusion finds that private small-scale residential redevelopment is a highly flexible and case-specific approach to addressing the vacant housing issue in Philadelphia.

In sum, prior to, and in addition to, preservation advocacy efforts to publicize and popularize buildings of the recent-past, preservation planning efforts must establish better methods for identifying resources and assessing their significance. In light of the issues and caveats just introduced, this study asks: what is an optimal inventory method for a municipal/county-level commission or nonprofit organization to identify priorities for preservation planning for the recent-past?

Through characterization and analysis of finish schemes at Spruce Tree House, this thesis seeks to gain a fuller understanding of how Ancestral Puebloans utilized architectural surface finishes in different architectural typologies for a variety of functions. This study presents a complete vision of how Room 115(2) looked during its occupation and may have functioned within a larger architectural program.

It is an uncommon strategy for a private-sector developer to take a large-scale and long-term interest in a historic neighborhood. This study will therefore have to answer the following questions: How did Goldman adapt a Main Street approach – which is traditionally used in the downtowns of small communities – to 13th Street, which is only one part of a much larger urban fabric? How did the developer balance physical improvements with the long-term need to attract businesses and promote this new (or recreated) place? The answers to these questions are grounded in historic preservation and urban policy, economics, and design.

This thesis attempts to generate a historically derived exterior color palette by examining paint samples from a group of representative houses to gain an understanding of the finishes employed in Pan-Caribbean domestic architecture. The research utilizes: 1) historical research and documentation of representative structures, 2) stratigraphic analysis of paint finishes, 3) comparative analysis of decorative trends, and 4) visual tools for understanding the buildings original finishes. The historic paint research conducted for this thesis focused on the front elevations or balcones (porches) of vernacular creole houses. Historically paint and decorative motifs are concentrated on the façade of a house making it the most vibrant and diverse feature.

In this thesis I mean to investigate the challenges and parameters posed through these types of projects, and the degree to which the circumstances are unique to ‘their’ (modern) movement and ‘our’ contemporary moment. (While Modernism is an admittedly loaded and imprecise term, I will use it as shorthand for the various ideologies in mainstream architectural practice in the midtwentieth century.) First, how does the consideration of the “recent past” as short temporal distance play a role, and second, how might this be complicated further by modernism’s own ambivalent relationship with history? And then what of our own ambivalent relationship with modernism as history? What are the specific theoretical questions at hand as regards changing conceptions of time, author, and artifact? The working thesis of this paper is that, indeed, in the broader spectrum of additions to significant historic buildings, the project of adding to a postwar icon is unique on two levels. The first is that these icons necessitate a sophisticated approach, distinct from the broader addition paradigm as it is now understood in conservation and preservation design. By virtue of the moderns’ era, our era, and the relationship therein, postwar icons stipulate an ‘ethic’ that may prove to have some surprising tolerances but nonetheless demands a unique approach and demonstrable design rationale. The second argument is that a requisite ethic largely remains out of sight, discourse, and widespread use. The paradigms of current practice, through their failures and ambiguities, make the case for a critical reconsideration of this project within our complementary and combined fields of architecture and preservation design.