IPTW 2006: “Rebuilding Hope – Reclaiming Heritage”
Demonstrators and Presenters
October 26-28, 2006 - Holy Cross, New Orleans

Greg Abry is President of Abry Brothers, Inc., the second oldest company in the city of New Orleans.  Abry Brothers specialize in house raising and leveling and commercial and specialty shoring. Abry Brothers was founded in 1840 by John G. Abry, a skilled shorer, from Frankfurt, Germany.  Mr. Abry is a graduate of Louisiana State University.

Camille Bowman received her Master of Science in Historic Preservation from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation. Because she is trained as an architectural conservator, her work in the field of historic preservation most often involves the understanding of building materials and how they deteriorate, solutions for their preservation, and maintenance as a prescribed prevention technique. She is the author of Handbook for Owners of Alabama's Historic Houses (Montgomery: Alabama Historical Commission) and will soon issue a similar handbook for owners of Virginia's historic houses.  Camille is the Certified Local Governments Manager  and Tidewater Regional Historian for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.  

Carole Briggs has over nineteen years experience in commercial, real estate, construction, environmental and OSHA legal matters. She has represented private- and public-sector owners and contractors in both transactions and litigation, in administrative, state and federal courts. Carole became involved with PTN as a demonstrator in 1999, at the IPTW in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Following Carole's involvement at IPTW, she became a legal representative for PTN. In 2001 her law firm handled the incorporation of PTN and became an Agent for Service. Since 2001 she has been PTN's corporate counsel.

Rob Cagnetta studied Architecture and Historic Preservation at Roger Williams University. In 1990 he obtained an internship with the Preservation Cooperative where he began refining his preservation skills. After graduation in 1991, Rob spent five weeks in England, studying the architecture, restoration techniques, and professional organizations of Great Britain. Upon his return he was employed by the Preservation Cooperative, enabling him to obtain and learn various preservation skills and techniques throughout New England. In 1994 Rob began his own practice, providing services for such National Register buildings as the Newport Tennis Hall of Fame and the Newport Art Museum. Then in 1995, Rob partnered with John Canham to create the Institute for Preservation Training. Under their parent organization, Vocational resources, Inc., their mission was to provide fee for service historic preservation services, and historic preservation training and education. IPT began the first Department of Labor, Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training certified Carpenter (Preservation) apprenticeship program. In 1997, Rob became the lead project manager of IPT. With this new program, IPT was able to complete projects for the National Parks Service, The Massachusetts's State Historical Commission, The Bristol Historical Society (Bristol, RI), as well as dozens of private homes and businesses.  In January of 2001 Rob started Heritage Restoration, Inc.

John Chan graduated from UCLA in 1989 with a BA in economics, trained in Hubbard Management Technology, worked with slate, tile, and copper roofing for approximately twenty years. He has consulted for U.S. Dept. of Defense and given demonstrations and lectures to many groups, including the Ohio Historical Society, Cincinnati Preservation Society, and Saylor Park Historical Society.  Having worked as a laborer at Durable Slate during the summers while he was in college, John joined the company in 1989 as treasurer, estimator, and purchasing agent. John was responsible for the establishment and development of the company’s slate and tile brokerage department, and established the Cincinnati office in 1997. He recently established Durable Slate’s newest office in New Orleans.

Rudy R. Christian is a founding member and immediate past president of the Timber Framers Guild, founding member and President of Friends of Ohio Barns, founding member and Project Development Director of the Preservation Trades Network and is a founding member of the Traditional Timberframe Research and Advisory Group and the International Trades Education Initiative. His experience includes participation in the Quingue Forum, numerous speaking engagements and instructing educational workshops as well as publication of various articles about historic conservation. A recent article entitled Conservation of Historic Building Trades; A Timber Framer’s View was published in the APT Bulletin, vol. XXXIII, No1 and his recent collaborative work with author Allen Noble entitle The Barn; A Symbol of Ohio has been published on the internet. In November 2000 the Preservation Trades Network awarded Rudy the Askins Achievement Award, for excellence in the field of historic preservation. 

Michael Drummond Davidson is the former Director of Restoration at the Cathedral of St. John the Devine in New York City.  He is a masonry specialist trained as a stone mason in Scotland.  He is the President of the Stone Guild of Mississippi, which provides restoration services nationally and internationally.  He lives in Eupora, Mississippi with his wife Belinda Stewart, a preservation architect.

David Dillard, AIA has twenty three years in the practice of architecture, specializing in design, historic restoration, forensic investigation and computer aided design and modeling.  He is a graduate of the Mississippi State University School of Architecture and graduate student in the Tulane University Department of Historic Preservation.  He is a member of the Vieux Carré Commission Architectural Review Committee.

Walter E. Dukes is currently a Professor in the Rinker School of Building Construction at the University of Florida.  He has been in the Academy of Higher Education for the last 36 years at four Universities serving from an Instructor of Brick masonry to the Chair of the Department of Construction Management & Safety.  He previously served on the Board of Trustees of the American Council for Construction Education and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Minority Contractors.  He is President of the North Florida Chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors.  His research interest is Workforce Development and Curriculum Development in Construction Education.  

Richard B. Easterling is an Attorney in the firm of Adams and Reese LLP.  He is a member of the Special Business Services Practice Group and a member of the Governmental Relations Practice Team. His areas of experience include regulatory practice, administrative law and gaming.  Prior to law school, Easterling worked in the life insurance and property and casualty insurance business. 

John Friedrichs is the owner of New Dimension Building in Lexington, Virginia.  He has been involved in building trades for more than thirty years, and he has been a self-employed mason twenty years this coming January. He taught himself his trade, with the help of seminars, lectures, workshops, and steady work. He is married 28 years, with two sons now employed as traditional craftsmen as well. He has had numerous apprentices, some of whom are now self-employed masons.  

Ken Follett is an historic conservation specialist in Mastic Beach, New York with 30 years trade background specific to masonry, wood technology and exterior building envelopes with emphasis on the New York built environment.  He is a partner in the firm of PreCon LogStrat, LLC which specializes in assisting structural engineers, architects and conservators in pre-construction support services, logistics and strategy pertaining to in-field evaluation of heritage structures.  Ken is a founding member of PTN, former board member and first President.  He is currently the PTN liaison with the Association for Preservation Technology International, a member of the Timber Framers Guild, a member of the International Log Builders Association, a Board member of Preservation Volunteers and a member of the Stone Foundation.  

John N. Fugelso, now retired, is the former Chief Preservation Construction Section, Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission.  He has a B.A. in history, University of Minnesota, Duluth, an M.A. in historic preservation, George Washington University. His interest in trades history and trades training spans his thirty-year career in preservation. A graduate-school internship at the National Trust for Historic Preservation started his involvement with preservation trades. At Durham Technical and Community College in 1978 he developed one of the first preservation trades training programs. At PHMC he developed a new job class for Preservation Construction Specialist. He received the Askins Achievement Award in 1999. 

David Gibney has been a practicing restoration craftsman and technician for the past twenty-five years.  He is the owner of Historic Restoration Specialists, Inc. in Smithsburg, Maryland.  His areas of expertise include carpentry, masonry, decorative plaster, timber and log structure restoration. As founder and president of Historic Restoration Specialists, Inc., David’s work focuses on the design, history, and preservation of high-end early American homes. He also teaches restoration at Harford Community College, Belair, MD. 

Hans Grandin is the Executive representative of The Swedish Construction Federation.  With a membership of close to 2,700 companies, it represents the interests of the construction industry in Sweden. The Swedish Construction Federation is a partner and sponsor of IPTW 2007, Tällberg, Sweden. 

Duffy Hoffman is the owner of Hoffman Painting & Refinishing, Inc. in Pipersville, PA. He is a third-generation craftsman with more than twenty years’ experience in the preservation trades. Hoffman Painting and Refinishing, Inc. specializes in paint removal, interior and exterior painting, plaster wall restoration, wallpaper installation, shutter, door, and window sash  restoration, as well as restoration carpentry, repairs, and millwork fabrication. Notable landmark projects include the Sheldon House and Tusculum in Princeton, N.J., the Locktown Friends’ Church (N.J.), and the Cornwall Iron Furnace (Pa.).  Duffy has been featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles and twice on the HGTV program “Restore America.” He has been demonstrating at IPTWs since IPTW 2000. 

Bill Hole has been working with his hands for thirty years using clay, metal, glass, wood, plastics, plaster and concrete. House painting, Boatbuilding, custom carpentry, concrete, structural steel, cabinet and millwork, all developed his craft skills for teaching new home construction at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California since 1991. He since developed a hands-on Associate of Science Historic Preservation and Restoration Technology program (unique on the West Coast). He thrives on teaching people the successful use of tools, preservation techniques, craft and critical thinking skills that are fundamental to building conservation and recycling our historic resources. “Preservation is about community working together to sustain pride of ownership”. 

Morris (Marty) Hylton III is the former Initiatives Manager for the World Monuments Fund, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic art and architecture worldwide through fieldwork, advocacy, grant making, education, and training. Since 1965, the New York-based World Monuments Fund has worked with local communities and partners to preserve more than 460 historic sites in 84 countries.  WMF support for North American trades initiatives includes the 1993 conference on “Employment Strategies for the Restoration Arts: Craft Training in the Service of Preservation” in New York, and assistance in curriculum development for the preservation program of the Brooklyn High School for the Arts. 

Glenn Allen James has been a woodworker since childhood and in business since 1983. After graduating college and discovering his passion for historic building techniques he established Craftwright and began producing custom-handcrafted timber frame structures, including barns, homes, chapels, museums and home additions. Craftwright also has restored many antique and historic timber frames structures throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region. Glenn is a consultant to the Maryland Historic Trust and currently is an adjunct Professor at Harford Community College in Maryland where he teaches Timber Framing. 

Joseph Jenkins, in the preservation trades since 1968, provides slate roof consulting services, slate and tile roof restoration contracting, slate roof publications, and slate roof tools and supplies. He has personally worked on over a thousand slate roofs, many over one hundred years old. Jenkins authored and self-published the award-winning Slate Roof Bible and is on the board of directors of the National Slate Association.  He is a founder the recently formed Slate Roof Contractors Association of North America.  He is the recipient of the 2006 Askins Achievement Award. 

Frank Jones was born in uptown New Orleans, the third generation of Jones family carpenters.  His father Matthew Jones learned the trade from Frank’s grandfather Matthew Jones Sr.  At a young age, Frank learned carpentry skills.  His father became fascinated by New Orleans style historic brackets and embarked on a self-taught revival of bracket making.  In the 1980s, Frank caught his father’s passion for brackets, but had to gain his approval first.  They began to work together and as Frank developed his own style, with his father’s encouragement, Frank began following his own muse.  Today, his brackets are constructed out of old Cyprus from salvaged doors.  Frank is the owner of Foxx Architectural Products in New Orleans, Louisiana.  

Alice-Anne Krishnan is the founder of the nonprofit Tarps New Orleans initiative.  Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, working with the networks of PTN, NCPTT, USACE, the PRC, Rebuilding Together, AmeriCorps, and countless others, she was able to pull together a collaborative pilot project to tarp the historic asbestos and slate that were disqualified en masse from FEMA’s Operation Blue Roof program.  Ms. Krishnan graduated in June 2006 with a MPS degree from Tulane School of Architecture and has been involved for the last three years with the NCPTT Summer Institute on Engineering for Older and Historic Buildings.  She works as a Historic Preservation Specialist for R.C. Goodwin & Associates, a local cultural resources management firm.  She is a Brooklynite, who moved to New Orleans in 2000. 

John Laing, IMBM, ACIOB, Cert Ed, is a well respected international expert in historic plasterwork, an associate member of the Worshipful Company of Plaisterer’s, a Member of the Plasterer’s Craft Guild, and an educator and consultant at the School of Building and Engineering at Edinburgh’s Telford College in Scotland, where he is the Assistant Head of School. He has dedicated his life to teaching and sustaining best practice in trowel trades skills, particularly, traditional plasterwork, delivering seminars and presentations throughout Europe and the United States. He demonstrated at four previous IPTWs. John was the recipient of PTN’s Askins Achievement Award in 2004. 

Misia Leonard is a preservation architect in private practice in Andes, New York. A former PTN board member, she joined PTN in 1997 and has not missed an IPTW since. She worked for more than twenty years in public service in New York City as a preservation architect. She initiated a “Preservation in Action” course at City College of New York, School of Architecture, with emphasis on work in the field, and is now working on making this curriculum available through other organizations. Misia is committed to working towards a true and equal partnership between traditional trades and design specialties.  She also serves as the AIA/CES Coordinator for PTN. 

Michael Logan has worked for the Howard County, Maryland Department of Recreation and Parks as Supervisor of Heritage Conservation for 29 years. He works full time in the preservation tool trades and is charged with care of 18 historic sites owned by Howard County Government, including two National Historic Landmarks.  including two National Historic Landmarks.  He is a former Board member of the Preservation Trades Network, member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Board member for Preservation Howard County.  He is as an instructor in the Harford County Community College Building Preservation Program, a frequent instructor in hands on workshops, and one of the principle organizers of IPTW 2003 in Columbia, Maryland. 

Dennis Livingston is a Baltimore-based union carpenter, author, and illustrator with more than 25 years of experience developing and delivering worker training and other community-based programs in renovation, weatherization, the prevention and remediation of lead hazards, and other healthy housing practices.  Dennis is the author and illustrator of Maintaining a Lead Safe Home, Building a Deconstruction Company, and the National Park Service's Lead Paint in Historic Buildings. He was the illustrator and contributing author of the Federal Lead Paint Safety Field Guide and the Enterprise Community Partners/National Center for Healthy Housing publication Creating a Healthy Home - A Field Guide for Cleanup of Flooded Homes.  He has trained recently incarcerated men and woman to be environmental site supervisors and trained high school students as sampling technicians.  

H. Thomas McGrath, FAIA, FAPT, is a historical architect and Superintendent of the National Park Service Historic Preservation Training Center in Frederick, Maryland.  Tom is a Fine Arts graduate of Middlebury College, and in 1972, he received a Master of Architecture Degree from the University of Colorado.  He has been recognized in awards from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation, and the Maryland Historical Trust.  He is a frequent lecturer and instructor on historic preservation, craft training and cultural resource maintenance topics.   

Tracy Nelson is the former Gulf Coast Coordinator for Architecture for Humanity, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1999 to promote architectural and design solutions to global, social and humanitarian crises. Collaborating with many partners in the city, AFH is focused on all aspects of the building recovery effort in New Orleans, primarily in the Lower 9th Ward. Tracy got involved in the recovery efforts as a first responder along the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the days after Hurricane Katrina hit and started working exclusively in New Orleans in April 2006 as the building recovery effort got off the ground.  Tracy’s background includes a BSc. in Historic Preservation from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island and a Master degree in Environmental Design from Cambridge University in England. Her background in the preservation field includes hands-on work as a preservation carpenter, Storefront Coordinator for the National Trust’s Mainstreet Program, Team Leader for Habitat for Humanity and Senior Fellow for the House of the Seven Gables. Tracy is also a working Photographer.

Michael Orrell has worked for twenty-five years in the restoration trades. Over the past fifteen years he has focused on the problems and benefits of restoring original doors and windows.  After Mike had worked successfully with Duffy Hoffman as a subcontractor on a number of projects, they joined forces, and Orrell now handles the repair and fabrication phases for Hoffman Painting and Refinishing, Inc in Pipersville, Pennsylvania. He has a background of ten years teaching physical development to elementary and middle school students. 

Theodore Pierre Jr. is a New Orleans native and graduate of St. Augustine High School.  He holds a Master of Architecture from Tulane University 1976.  He is a practicing Architectural Craftsman specializing in masonry.  Mr. Pierre founded Treasures on the Banquette: a program to expose grammar school students to the significance of New Orleans Architecture and Culture, and is a co-Founder of the New Orleans Crafts Guild. 

Yolita Rausche from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, received her Master of Architecture in Historic Preservation from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.  Her thesis was titled Chagrin Falls, Ohio: An Architectural Analysis of a 19th century Mill Town (1833-1910). Previously, she obtained a professional degree in architecture, Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her professional education is wide range in the field of historic preservation, from Sec. 106, to Historic Structure Reports to Engineering for Older and Historic Buildings. Material and Building Pathology at the Summer Institute of NCPTT in Natchitoches, LA.  Currently she is working for Chambers Murphy & Burge Restoration Architects in Akron, Ohio. But from November 2005 to June 2006, she worked for Fema in New Orleans, LA, evaluating historic properties damaged by Katrina and proposing scope of work for the City of New Orleans’s historic buildings. 

Claudia Riegel, a native of Chicago, earned an undergraduate degree at Purdue University, a Master's at the University of Georgia and a PhD from the Entomology and Nematology Department at the University of Florida in 2000. Directly out of school, she was hired by Dow AgroSciences LLC and moved to Louisiana. Responsibilities included testing of new enhancements to the products in the portfolio, providing technical support for the commercial organization in the southeast and southwest and collaborating with government organizations, universities and customers on topics in urban pest management. In 2004, she decided to focus on Formosan subterranean termites and became senior entomologist for the city of New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control Board. In this position, she provides technical support for the City of New Orleans and the pest control industry, conducts independent research, collaborates with industry for enhancements of existing products and testing of new products and collaborates with government organizations and universities on research projects. 

Joe Rohl is a graduate of the Building Preservation Program at Belmont Technical College.  He has owned a historic restoration and stained glass repair business and is currently employed as a Preservation Specialist with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. 

Lisa Sasser has worked in preservation since 1972, beginning as a Museum Technician at the Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas.  In 1984, she became the first woman to enter the National Park Service preservation trades training program at the Williamsport Preservation Training Center in Williamsport, Maryland.  Since 1986, she has helped to develop training programs, and instructed workshops in preservation philosophy and “hands on” preservation methods for federal agencies, universities, and state and local groups.  Publications include the articles What Historical Architects Can Learn from the Preservation Trades – and Why They Should, New Paradigms for Preserving Old Buildings,  Setting Up a Preservation Workshop in the journal CRM, and Why the Trades Matter for Preservation: A Half-Century of Promoting Traditional Building Skills for Preservation in the National Trust Forum Journal.  Lisa is a member of the Timber Framers Guild, the American Institute of Architects, the Association for Preservation Technology, US/ICOMOS, the International Log Builders Association, and Stone Foundation.  She is a founding member, and current President, of the Preservation Trades Network.  In 2001, she received the Askins Achievement Award, presented annually by the Preservation Trades Network for “outstanding contributions to the preservation trades”. 

James Warden grew up in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, on a dairy farm that had been in his family for eight generations. As a child he became familiar with and grew to love old buildings. His father sent him up on their 60-foot barn roof at an early age to “fix the leaks,” with just a ¾-inch-diameter rope to hold onto! Over the years he learned varied skills on the farm, many of which have helped him troubleshoot and solve difficult leakage problems. In the 1970s James started doing all facets of construction, including dismantling a cabin, moving it 15 miles, and reconstructing it on his woodland property. In the 1990s he learned more skills while doing construction in New York City. It was there that he started to learn slating skills from an old Englishman. After New York he started working on slate roofs in Boston and published his business website in the year 2000. He currently does slate work in Providence, Rhode Island, much of which is in collaboration with the Providence Preservation Society, as well as an increasing amount of slate work in New Haven, Connecticut. In the summer he returns to Vermont to work on slate roofs there.

Roy Underhill began his interest in old tools growing up in Washington, D.C., where an older sister worked at the Smithsonian Institution.  He studied colonial American technology at Duke University in Durham, N.C. and worked in blacksmithing and woodworking following graduation.  In 1978 he began taping The Woodwright’s Shop, one of the longest running series on public television.  He also worked as the Master Housewright and Director of Interpretive Development at Colonial Williamsburg.  He is the author of numerous books on traditional building trades.

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