10 C O N T E X T 1 1 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 0 power brokers after the general election. As an antidote to the gloom of the UK, it is nice to find that the latest issue of the Association of Preservation Technology’s Journal of Preservation Technology (Vol XL, Nos 3–4 2009) is upbeat as it celebrates with a special 40th-anniversary issue. Ten commemorative articles have been commissioned by guest editor DavidWoodcock. In his introductionWoodcock comments that the issue ‘revisits topics covered in the 30th-anniversary issue to examine changes in philosophy and technology, and also considers topics that have emerged in preservation technology in the past ten years.’ Brian Scott Robinson, the association’s president, cites the articles as being ‘representative of the superior work being performed by APT members around the world’. Documentation of heritage assets has advanced considerably in the last 10 years, particularly with the application of digital tools. One only has to think of faster, lighter and portable computers and the astonishing resolution capabilities of cameras. Robert Warden examines recent advancements in technology, including the advent of GIS and GPS, and advances in photogrammetry, not just for buildings and structures, but also for smaller objects, such as artefacts found in archaeology. He also identifies the downside: that this comes at a cost of keeping up with the latest techniques and software or hardware, which increases the cost of documentation. They should be seen as a means to an end, not an end in themselves. With concerns about health and safety and associated legislation in the UK and the growing compensation culture here, it is instructive to look at Marilyn Kaplan’s long and interesting article on the history of safety and building codes in the USA. A single national code is only a decade old. Kaplan takes a positive view that decades of advancement in building safety and regulation have created more options for historic buildings, with code changes and new technologies successfully reducing physical and visual impacts. But proper enforcement of the regulations is required, as is greater flexibility of application (as recommended in our own PPG 15) to ensure the need to retain historic architectural integrity. Baird Smith and Carl Elefante examine historical developments over the past 40 years in sustainable design. They give an architectural conservation overview of the responses to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo; of emerging ideas about embodied energy; of the US secretary of the interior’s 1979 standards for preservation treatment (and the rehabilitation standards and guidelines in particular); and of technological developments and guidance on historic windows in the 1980s and 90s (mirroring English Heritage’s Framing Opinions campaign). They look ahead to concerns about the impact on historic buildings of the recent global economic meltdown, and the unsustainable and inequitable US consumption of energy resources. When the APT was established 40 years ago, none of the founders practiced engineering professionally. Early papers were technical, but they were not written by or for engineers, or about a subject for which technical training was necessary. It was not really until the 1990s that a formal engineering presence became evident. The article by Derek Trelstad and Robert Silman shows how the APT has redefined what it is or what its members know about conservation engineering. In looking forward, the article emphasises the need for thinking outside the box. It concludes by stating that ‘great things are not done by those who sit down and count the cost of every thought and act’. Other items of interest are an analysis by Robert Melnick of the effect of climate change on global and cultural landscapes and a report by DavidWoodcock on developments in preservation education in North America over the past decade, highlighting recent progress and the future implications for heritage educational from climate change, demographic shifts, physical security, landscape conservation, authenticity and economic imbalance. Ronald Staley, HThomas McGrath Jr, David Overholt and Thomas Whitmore explore how the process of turning a design concept into reality when preserving historic buildings has developed and improved since 1968. Frances Gale and Norman Weiss provide an update on buildingmaterials research over the past 10 years, outlining the challenges ahead. Natalie Bull concentrates on the APT’s strategic planning from 1995 to 2008, and how it has helped shape the organisation to be successful in future. Diana Waite concludes the issue by outlining the APT’s distinguished record as a publisher, and explaining how its responsibility for high-quality content is even
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