Check out this business practice dinner. Compared to other cities in the United States, Seattle has relatively tough historic preservation codes. Pressure from the recent wave of development in the city tests the codes, and forces cultural resources professionals to make difficult decisions about what is worth saving, and how it should be saved. This presentation will discuss current cultural resource requirements for development projects in terms of three questions:

• What are the origins of the historic preservation movement in Seattle and the US;
• How has the Seattle Landmarks program shaped urban identity in the city; and
• How are districts, buildings, structures, and objects identified as “historic” in the permitting process.

The presentation will walk through a couple of case studies to illustrate some of the challenges of evaluating the historic significance of the built environment, and make a case for the importance of historic preservation in planning new projects.

Presenter:  Dr. Matthew Sneddon joined HRA in 2011. He is formally trained in U.S. History, the History of Science and Technology, and the History of the U.S. West. Dr. Sneddon has worked in HRA’s CRM division on projects related to Cultural Resources Management, historical architecture, and other associated reports. He comes to HRA with field training in historic preservation, architectural assessment, cultural resource management, and industrial archeology from coursework at the Building and Architectural Technology Institute at Lehigh University, work as a project historian for HAER, and as a historical consultant for the National Park Service. His work in cultural resource consulting has ranged broadly over the built environment, including residences, commercial buildings, bridges, transportation networks, electrical generation and transmission systems, dams, and public works. Dr. Sneddon’s training as a mechanical engineer informs his historical and integrity assessments of construction methods, materials, structural systems, and engineering design of a wide variety of resources.

Dr. Sneddon has extensive experience as a researcher and instructor at the university level, including teaching a course on historic preservation in Washington. He has over a decade of historical and environmental consulting experience, including work on Section 106, State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) projects. Since joining HRA, Dr. Sneddon has performed archival and government documents research, conducted cultural/historical field surveys, prepared narrative histories and historical context statements, and contributed to technical reports for cultural resource inventories. He currently serves as a Historian on the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board and Architectural Review Committee. Dr. Sneddon has a PhD in History from the University of Washington, an MA in History from Lehigh University, and a BA in History/BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

No shows and cancellations received after 12:00pm (PST) on November 10 will not be refunded.

5:30pm: Arrive/social. 6:00pm: Welcome/dinner. 6:30pm: Speaker presentation.

If you are outside of the greater Seattle/Bellevue/Tacoma metropolitan area, you may attend via webinar. Select the appropriate “virtual” cost option.

Did you know that SDA members and employees of SDA member firms enjoy a reduced cost to attend? It’s true!