The axe throwing wasn’t even the best part.
The Monday after a conference is a good time to get your thoughts down - even if you still feel like you need a nap. I know that my exhaustion doesn’t compare to that of the organizers. To them I say ‘bravo! and well done!’ I hope you are all taking a few days off to recover. It is no small thing to put on an event that brings together tradespeople from all over the world. We are a fun, weird, and specifically needy bunch. Trades demonstrations require lots of stuff - equipment, power, water, time, attention. Yet the organizers of the Preservation Trades Network 2024 International Preservation Trades Workshop (PTN IPTW24 - its a mouthful) pulled it off with flying colors. The event took place last week on the beautiful bluff at Re:Purpose Savannah, my former homeland. The RPS team deserves a big round of applause too for an event well hosted. And as always, Big Mama Oak was the beating heart of the event, casting delicious shade on the whole beautiful scene and inspiring this year’s conference artwork:
IPTW '24 artwork looked awesome on the t-shirts.
Big Mama Oak on the bluff at Re:Purpose Savannah.
This is my favorite conference. It is hard to beat preservation trades. I first attended ITPW in 2019 in Stirling Scotland, hosted by the venerable Historic Environment Scotland at the incredible Engine Shed. What a hell of an introduction. I will never forget the Roman mosaic tile demonstration or the young kid demonstrating his traditional sign painting skills. Or the roof thatcher. Or the mud wall builders. Or the, or the, or the… I was like an excited pinball bouncing around the grounds. I was still a preservation student taking classes at Savannah Tech; the preservation trades were a revelation to me after 10 unfulfilling years in marketing. I was also the newly minted Executive Director of a little fledgling nonprofit called Re:Purpose Savannah - freshly titled as of 4 months before. I remember passionately pitching deconstruction as a preservation trade to anyone who would listen at that conference. The more scotch I drank (there was so much scotch) the more passionately I pitched. I ran into one of the unfortunate recipients of one such rant at this year’s conference - she said she has thought favorably about decon ever since. She works at the National Trust now. I am grateful that my lack of inhibitions made the right kind of lasting impression. When it comes to systemic change every conversation counts.
Because deconstruction was not, has not been, considered a preservation trade. How could it be, right? Decon is the removal of historic buildings from the landscape. Preservation heresy. Sacrilege. Over the years the ‘old guard’ of preservationists have been some of my staunchest opponents. But something amazing has been happening in the field of preservation. The field has been shifting from some long-held, dusty, and fairly unfortunate thinking. Let’s be honest, this house has been in desperate need of updating. The once fringe concepts of equity and inclusion have become central. There is real effort to marry environmental considerations with preservation practices - a natural partnership that was underemphasized in the past. And now, more and more, deconstruction as a preservation best practice has been gaining ground. The needle is moving.
So when Natalie Henshaw of the Campaign for Historic Trades, and PTN board member, and friend, asked to hold IPTW ‘24 at our place and for me to give this year’s keynote speech, I felt a lot of feelings. First, how trippy to be hosting IPTW at the lumber yard when 5 years ago RPS barely existed. This in the same year that we (I will always say ‘we’ even though I have since left the RPS fold) hosted the Build Reuse conference in April. What an amazing opportunity for the whole team to experience the conference - something that would be financially and logistically impossible if it was held in a different city. Second, what an honor to welcome so many wise, talented, legendary craftsfolk to our facility, to learn from them as a collective, and to see ourselves as part of them. Third, what a great chance to pitch my passionate pitch and to bring more preservation minds over to the deconstruction side of the street. Although this year, I would do it without the scotch.
I was nervous. Would this group be open to what I had to say? I wasn’t sure if my message would resonate but I did my best to cram the concept into a handful of notecards. I spoke about the history of deconstruction. I knew my audience - these nerds (high praise) would want a historic breakdown if nothing else. I spoke about the demolition and landfilling crisis - the stats don’t lie. I spoke about the policy shifts across the country and their potential to impact contemporary issues like climate change and affordable housing. I emphasized community, the criticality of our collective support of one another, half expecting this group of people, actively engaged in keeping old buildings standing, to run me out of the yard on a rail. They didn’t. I should have had more faith in my tradies! I only got a couple of dirty looks from scandalized elders. Far more than that the community was welcoming, even enthusiastic, about supporting deconstruction and salvage as an important part of the health of the whole preservation trades ecosystem. Phew. And also… yessssssss (fist pump). Every conversation counts.
The next stop on my 2024 preachin’ tour is the Past Forward conference in New Orleans. I am way more nervous about that community, which certainly includes tradesfolk but also administrators and academics - folks who are generally less familiar with and therefore less easily seduced by the materiality of old things. Tradespeople understand as a matter of survival the importance of saving old materials even if we can’t save a whole house. I hope that my next audience can be as open-hearted. I think it is in evidence that the Past Forward crowd is ready to hear what I have to say if only because this is the first time (after many, many failed attempts to present at this conference) that my proposal has been accepted. I really do believe the needle is moving. Let’s go find out how far!
Thanks to Natalie for being a visionary and helping me (in so many significant ways) take up space for decon. Thanks to everyone who came up to me afterward to tell me they enjoyed the talk and to bug out over the wild truths they didn’t know (I love when people do this - it helps me gauge what I need to repeat when speaking to new audiences). Thanks again to the PTN board and to the RPS team for putting on a wonderful event and to all of the brilliant demonstrators who brought knowledge and a great sense of fun to the yard. I will be thinking about that window steamer for the rest of my life. Thank you Steve for the axe throwing target - I learned something new from that as well! (That I suck at axe throwing). Thanks for the low country boil, it was heavenly to sit out there in the yard and eat shrimp with my people. I can’t wait for the next conference. Until then, see y’all in New Orleans!
xoxo, Mae
