Sessions & Schedule

How are large-scale historic preservation projects funded? Federal and State Historic Preservation Tax Credits (HTCs) are not enough to cover the extra expenses of rehabilitating historic properties, as vital as they may be. How does the investment and development team “close the gap”? What are some of the funding models available to make large-scale projects happen? This session will be led by Steven Stogel, a St. Louis-based real estate developer who has been involved in over 80 such projects in St. Louis, Kansas City, and elsewhere in Missouri, including most notably the Old Post Office in St. Louis. Steven will be joined by Heather Buethe of the National Trust Community Investment Corporation, and Sean McKessy of RubinBrown’s Real Estate Services and Assurance Services Groups.

The curator for Gateway Arch National Park will discuss the dismantling of buildings along the St. Louis riverfront in preparation for Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (later Gateway Arch National Park). What architectural resources were proposed to be saved for inclusion in the memorial, and how plans changed. What architectural salvage was retained by the Park Service in their collections, how the collections have been preserved and used in the park, and how they may be used in the future. 

SPACE LIMITED. In the late 19th century, the neighborhood we now call “Soulard” was just a small portion of what used to be known as “Frenchtown” – an urban landscape that grew so packed with dense and diverse life, that already by 1842 visitor Charles Dickens branded it “an abundance of crazy old tenements;” Contained within Soulard today is an abundance of crazy old stories.

This walking tour will put one of the city’s most fascinating and historic neighborhoods under the microscope – you’ll learn about not just the bricks, limestone, and other locally-sourced materials that the neighborhood is built from, but a menagerie of interesting tales baked into its walls: you’ll discover a mysterious local home style named after a fish, what life here was like when most of the homes had no plumbing, how German socialist clubs and iconic local schools have been adaptively reused, a local bathhouse that was the only chance at personal hygiene for thousands of St. Louisans, and how the mid-20th century’s urban renewal not only upended both Soulard’s urban fabric and community life, but also nearly erased the neighborhood in its entirety. 

This session will highlight the urgent work of the St. Louis Preservation Crew and SavingWashingtonPark.com in preserving endangered African American heritage sites across Missouri, particularly those with ancestral and community significance. We’ll examine the campaign to save Washington Park Cemetery—a desecrated African American burial ground—as a model for community-led action, drawing connections between heritage desecration, systemic disinvestment, and the broader preservation movement’s crisis of relevancy. Through this presentation, we will discuss how grassroots organizing, digital preservation strategies that carry our stories into the future, and culturally rooted storytelling that centers lived experience and collective memory are being used to reshape the preservation field to prioritize equity, ancestral dignity, and community leadership.
The session will also explore how geospatial tools and mapping technologies not only preserve history—they actively restore dignity to those erased from public memory. Innovative tools are being used to document lost or displaced burial records, support grieving families, and lay the groundwork for one day reconnecting broken ancestral lineages. Participants will learn how student- and community-driven data collection and engagement have built widespread support to help families locate long-lost graves, reconnect with their heritage, and reclaim their stories. The St. Louis Preservation Crew’s trauma-informed approach emphasizes healing, justice, and the transformative power of local leadership in preservation work.

Like it or not, Post-Modern architecture (PoMo) is aging. This reality provides opportunities for historic recognition of these important relics of our collective history and the potential benefits that recognition brings. PoMo dates from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, but it reached its zenith during the 1980s. The national building boom of this decade created some of the most distinctive PoMo speculative office buildings like the 1986 One Bell Building in St. Louis. The boom also helped spur smaller examples of housing in urban cores, housing like the three 1980s PoMo six-plexes constructed on vacant lots within the Santa Fe Place Historic District in Kansas City. Historic tax credits can help make the reuse and continued use of these buildings possible. However, public sentiment often obstructs efforts to recognize the historic significance of PoMo buildings. The style’s clearly identifiable aesthetics create disdain among some who view the buildings as too outlandish, reductive, or aesthetically displeasing to merit historic recognition. Others view PoMo buildings as simply too new to protect. For these reasons, PoMo resources, whether exceptionally important or not, continue to be lost or irrevocably altered before they can be fully understood and evaluated. Historic designation could both bring attention to the cultural importance of PoMo and allow for historic tax credit rehabilitations. This session seeks to provoke an objective understanding of the significance of PoMo and to provide a practical analysis of the historic tax credit rehabilitation of such recent buildings.

The Missouri State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is working to develop a Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS). The CRIS will digitize its review processes and create an online, publicly accessible database of SHPO records about historic properties. 

This session will provide participants with an overview of the prospective CRIS and will update them about the status of the SHPO’s request to acquire the system. This will not be an advocacy session, but could inform future advocacy on the part of stakeholders. 

Interested audiences would include: HTC and Section 106 consultants, advocacy organizations, and owners of historic properties. 

The Soulard Farmers Market is the oldest operating public market in St. Louis, and is considered the oldest public market in the United States west of the Mississippi. Join fellow preservationists, architects, and community stakeholders on a deep dive into the history of the market. Put your design skills to use and help create a vision for the future of Soulard Market.

Historic properties, with their unique architectural and cultural significance, face distinct challenges when it comes to risk management. This course aims to explore comprehensive strategies and best practices to minimize risks associated with the construction of historic properties. Through expert-led sessions and interactive discussions, attendees will gain valuable insights into developing these assets from environmental, architectural, structural, and financial risks.

In this session, participants will learn why repairing historic windows is not only good for preserving our built environment, it’s also one of the only ways out of our current cycle of overconsumption and unsustainable building practices. The audience will walk through a brief history of window manufacturing and how old-growth forests fueled the building boom in America for over 200 years. From there, they will explore the role of repair in this changing world and how preservationists can be at the forefront of best sustainable practices. Finally, audience members will learn what makes an old window “too far gone” and what to look for when assessing their windows for damage.

Learn about what the Cultural Resources Office does and its impact upon the preservation of historic resources in St. Louis, from permitting to demolitions to Section 106 review. The session will also cover the current state of preservation in St. Louis and how the City is working to coordinate with neighborhoods, local organizations and the City’s Planning Agency to map out the future of a city with a declining population and deteriorating building stock.

Rehabilitation of a historic stained glass laylight at the Missouri State Capitol known as “the Great Window” required both traditional knowledge of craft and materials along with integration of modern technological advances for analysis of existing conditions. Working to create a 100 year restoration solution, the Design Team created documents which defined a high level of skill set requirements through pre-qualification of craftspeople for completion of the work. A high level of expertise was required on both the Design and the Construction side for the scope of work. Having the caliber and expertise to completely disassemble and reconstruct an installation of this scale in a historically appropriate manner was critical. While modern technology served to inform design decisions, document existing conditions, serve as a basis for generation of documents, the project still required indepth knowledge from skilled craftspeople.
The laylight is a barrel vault stained glass window located below the largest skylight in the Capitol and above the Grand Entrance Stairs. The laylight, installed in 1921, rests 50′-0″ above the stair, is approximately 1225 SF of stained glass comprised of 57 separate panels which utilized 26,500 pieces of glass. Due to it’s historic integrity and original quality of craftsmanship, defining a methodology for assessment and providing the best treatment recommendations proved to be the most challenging aspect of the project. This solution deviated from the original historic installation and received pushback due to the laylight’s integrity and historical significance. Through mock-ups, supplemental structural evaluation, and a persistent team, the detailing was revised. This proved to be an invaluable decision in that the resulting finished work provided a cleaner apperance, casting fewer shadows o nthe glass, enhancing the original hsitoric intent of the art while improving the structural integrity of the isntallation – and extending its life for another anticipated 100 years.
In conjunction with The Office of Administration, Facilities Management Design and Construction. STRATA Architecture Inc worked with Julie L. Sloan LLC, Stained Glass Conservator as well as with Bob D Campbell & Company for Structural Engineering and Construction Management Resources for Cost Estimating. On the Construction side, the Team worked with Vertical Access, Heartland Drone, Prost Construction, and Judson Studios.

SPACE LIMITED. The advent of steam-powered millwork machines caused an explosion of decorative trim and mouldings during the 19th century. Participants will see a live demonstration of these machines in action, and learn the techniques and tools necessary to fabricate period-appropriate millwork. The demonstration will go into detail about the workability of various species of wood, how complex models are assembled from constituent pieces, and the considerations necessary for installation.

SPACE LIMITED. Tickets to tram and/or film additional cost. Explore the Gateway Arch National Park Museum in a Ranger-led tour where you will learn about the European settlement of St. Louis, the development and demise of the riverfront, how the National Park was conceived, the competition that led to the selection of the design of the Gateway Arch by Eero Saarinen, and the Arch’s construction process. Participants have the option of continuing their tour by watching the documentary film “Monument to the Dream” which covers the construction of the Arch and/or taking the tram to the top of the Arch. There is a fee for the film and tram; however, the entrance to the museum and this tour are free. Participants should arrive early for the tour as they will need to go through security before attending the session.

The Old Courthouse (OCH) was constructed between 1839-1862, is listed in the National Register as a contributing building in the Jefferson National Memorial Historic District, and is nationally significant under Criterion A for Civil Rights as the location of the Dred Scott case and under Criterion C for Architecture as the earliest example of a wrought iron dome in the United States. This session will discuss the history of the building and its construction, the process of formulating federal projects for major rehabilitation, Section 106 consultation, the preservation planning process, the recent phase of rehabilitation of the OCH, responding to issues discovered during construction, and the next phase of rehabilitation.

Transportation history and ethnic heritage preservation, as well as “legacy” historic districts where no buildings survive, and the power of historic preservation through memory are all included in this presentation. Explore how media production was incorporated as an innovative Section 106 mitigation stipulation sponsored by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) for adverse effects in Jefferson City, Missouri. The Foot: A Community Remembered, a 40-minute film documentary, is a unique, intriguing, engaging, memorable, educational, and powerfully emotional film documentary produced to preserve the legacy of this historic African American community. The Foot thrived from the early 1900s through the 1960s when highway construction and urban renewal destroyed its built environment. Surviving community members share their stories in oral history interview segments, enhanced by archival imagery and an appropriate narrative voice. Gary Quigg and Hannah Blad from Lochmueller Group, the filmmakers, will provide an introduction and Q/A session following.

The Forest Park Southeast neighborhood was largely developed in the early 20th century and absorbed a great influx of people during the Great Depression, many of those having lost their farms and looking for work in the City, including speaker James Roseberry’s grandparents and family who lived in the neighborhood for over sixty years. By 1950 over 10,000 residents called FPSE home with the Manchester Avenue Commercial district anchoring one of the most vibrant and successful areas in the City. But that same year also started the decline of FPSE as the streetcar line along the Manchester Avenue Commercial District closed. The neighborhood disinvestment and gradual decline continued and by 2010 the population had fallen to just under 2,900 residents.
Trivers and Park Central Development have been working for over 20 years to halt and reverse this decline through a range of projects, including the Adams School Revitalization and Community Center, multiple commercial and residential renovations, and now new construction single and multi-family mixed use developments. To maintain the diverse neighborhood, these developments includes both affordable and market rate housing. In the decade since the population low point, the neighborhood has seen millions of dollars of investment. In the last year alone, over 50% of the construction projects in the City of St. Louis occurred in and adjacent to the FPSE neighborhood. This has created an eclectic mix of historic preservation and contemporary infill throughout the neighborhood.
However the redevelopment of Forest Park Southeast includes much more than just financial investment. The Manchester Avenue Commercial District, once one of the premier shopping destinations for the City of St. Louis, has been rebranded as ‘The Grove’ and saw its first revitalization in the early 1990s with LGBT-oriented bars and clubs, which have now diversified into daytime restaurants, retail stores and services. The area now has a Community Improvement District and is famous for its growing series of murals and public art throughout the neighborhood. This art has been used as backdrops for street fairs and plays, celebration and recognition of famous St. Louisans and neighborhood residents, and as advertisement for local events like the Tour de Grove professional bicycle race. The diversity and range of art integrated within the neighborhood creates a sense of cohesion between development, entertainment, and community.
The 20-plus year redevelopment of the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood is a case study in the revitalization of a neighborhood. This presentation will look at how development, preservation, art, and resident involvement must all work together to revitalize and create community.

Blunt Hall, formerly known as Temple Hall, is located on the Missouri State University campus in Springfield, Missouri. This Brutalist-style building was designed in 1968 by Kansas City-based architects Kivett and Myers, renowned for their KCI Terminal and Truman Sports Complex, home of the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs. The cast-in-place raw concrete facades were cracked and stained with unsightly previous repairs, and the aluminum-framed Kawneer curtainwall and storefront windows featured non-thermal, single-pane glass with weathered sealant and broken gasketing. The project required the concrete repairs and window replacement to follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation as part of the Section 106 review process while balancing building code requirements and University standards. Meeting requirements to the half inch was a challenge, but ultimately the revitalization of this Brutalist gem provided renewed reverence for this campus icon.

SPACE LIMITED. Decorative painting techniques that transform ordinary surfaces into exotic woods or marbles were a hallmark of Victorian interior decorators. Join a master painter as he demonstrates techniques to recreate these historic finishes. Participants will learn how to draw and distinguish different woodgrains and reproduce finishes using modern and historic techniques.

This presentation will review historic US building envelope systems from the 1850s through the 1960s from a structural engineer’s perspective. We will review common assemblies, materials strengths/compatibility, common envelope support, deterioration/maintenance issues, and common clues for evaluating deterioration. This presentation will be geared towards preservatiniosts, building owners, architects, and contractors.

This session explores how the Missouri Department of Transportation navigated the Section 106 process in the replacement of the John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil Memorial Bridge. Through a combination of historical research, archaeological investigation, and mitigation strategies, MoDOT preserved the story of the bridge and its surrounding cultural landscape. Attendees will gain insight into the challenges and opportunities of documenting and interpreting historic transportation infrastructure, with a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement. The session will highlight the creation of a digital story map and discuss how lessons from this project can inform future preservation efforts.