Rhode Island Institutions Launch Bachelor's Degree in Traditional Building Arts

NEWPORT, RI — In this city-by-the-sea defined by its rich history in boats and buildings, Salve Regina University has partnered with International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS) School of Technology & Trades and will begin offering a traditional building arts degree as part of its undergraduate cultural and historic preservation program.

Beginning in fall 2015, Salve Regina students can enroll in courses leading to the new 48-credit bachelor of science degree in CHP-TBA (cultural and historic preservation-traditional building arts) in what administrators believe is the only collaborative program of its kind in the country.

“This educational partnership blends theory and practice, and the past and the present in a unique way,” says Jane Gerety, RSM, Salve Regina president. “The integration will prepare students for meaningful and important work.”

The new bachelor’s degree track is a logical extension of the goals of the CHP program at Salve, which include the preparation of students to participate in and contribute to the practice of historic preservation in the U.S., explains Robert Russell, director of the Noreen Stonor Drexel Cultural and Historic Preservation program at Salve. “Further, one of the core goals of Salve is the ‘linking of the past, present and the future,’” he said. “This new track endeavors to do precisely that, resuscitating lost and nearly lost practices and materials connected with the traditional building arts and teaching them to a current generation of students so that they can become the future restorers of the country’s historic buildings.”

In addition to completing an undergraduate degree at Salve, students will also enroll in courses taught at IYRS, located in downtown Newport. Required courses at Salve will include: Introduction to Historic Preservation; Preservation Planning Studio; American Architectural Survey; and Preservation of Historic Cemeteries. Required courses offered at IYRS will include: CAD/CAM Technologies; Studio Building Arts I (woodworking, joinery and metalwork) and Studio Building Arts II (decorative and flat plaster, interior finishes and brick and stone masonry). Students will culminate their studies during the final semester of their senior years with a six-month, 15-credit apprenticeship with a preservation contractor, arranged through IYRS.

“This will be a full-on IYRS experience, deeply experiential, very hands-on, incorporating technology,” IYRS President Terry Nathan says of the student experience. “The Salve students will be side-by-side with students coming directly through the IYRS program, and we think that’s really important. We’ve had some wonderful experiences doing collaborative seminars. It’s incredibly interesting to see students from different backgrounds and skill-sets come together to work on the same things.”

 Russell said this unique partnership directly addresses a significant problem facing historic preservation in the country: the lack of craftsmen and -women adequately trained in the traditional building arts. Educational institutions, he says, must play a role in reviving these skills. “There are the traditional academic skills of inquiry and analysis, but in the case of the new CHP/TBA track, these are also the physical and tactile skills involved with the creation of useful and beautiful objects.

“The 20th century saw the almost complete disappearance of people capable of executing traditional designs in traditional and historically accurate materials,” he says. “The building trades developed along other lines and those who in the past were responsible for maintaining standards — owners of private companies, or unions — have largely forgotten that this was historically one of their most important jobs.”

For more information on the new CHP-TBA degree, contact Robert Russell at 401/ 341-3238 or Terry Nathan at 401/848-5777.

Featured

  • New Jersey PreK–12 School Breaks Ground on New STEM Building

    Saddle River Day School (SRDS) in Saddle River, N.J., recently announced that it has broken ground on the new Dr. Kristen Walsh Hall of Science & Entrepreneurship, according to a news release. The school partnered with DIGroup Architecture for the design of the new facility, which will provide the school with space to expand its STEM and business education classes.

  • Rice University to Build New Student Life Complex

    Rice University in Houston, Texas, recently announced that a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming Moody Center Complex for Student Life (MCCSL) will take place on May 8, 2025, according to a university news release. The 75,000-square-foot facility was designed by architecture firm Olson Kundig with Page serving as executive architect, and it has an estimated completion date of fall 2027.

  • Pangram Secures Funding for AI Detection Technology

    Pangram, which provides technology that detects AI-generated text, recently announced that it has secured nearly $4 million in pre-seed and seed funding, according to a news release. The most recent round of investments, totaling $2.7 million, come on top of the pre-existing seed fund of $1.25 million.

  • old university building with visible aging signs, overlaid with digital data graphics like thermal maps, charts, and system icons

    Modernizing Higher Education Infrastructure: Why Smarter Facility Management Is Essential to Protecting Aging Schools

    Schools now have the opportunity to adopt smarter, more strategic approaches to futureproof operations and enhance the on-campus experience.

Digital Edition