During this virtual conference, Federal Highway Administration and Advisory Council on Historic Preservation will provide updates and sessions include an overview of state DOT Historic Roads Efforts, Unusual and Postwar Resources, Diversity and Inclusion in Section 106 consultation. Mead & Hunt is happy present and add to the discussion about these important topics.
Mead & Hunt is excited to be presenting or moderating 3 different sessions this conference.
The Road Ahead – Update on DOT Historic Road Efforts Moderator: Chad Moffett, Mead & Hunt (Monday, July 12 from 2:15 – 4:15 pm)
There are nearly 3.9 million miles of non‐interstate roads across the country. Many state DOTs and SHPOs are working to identify and evaluate important roads to determine if roads are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and therefore subject to evaluation under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. This session explores how a number of state DOTs and SHPOs are identifying, evaluating, and managing historic roads. Presenters will give brief updates on current successes and challenges.
Determining History: Diversity and Inclusion and the National Register – Moderator/Chair: Kristen Zschomler, Mead & Hunt (Wednesday, July 14 from 1:05 – 3:05 pm)
This session will explore new and emerging approaches in our industry to move beyond identifying pretty buildings, “master” architects, and standard histories; and how to change the National Register of Historic Places into one that better represents our nation’s full history. The presentations will highlight the application of new questions in research, expanded views of what makes a place historically significant or possess integrity, and how some of the long-established procedures can result in missing properties associated with underrepresented communities.
(1:05 – 2:00 pm) Kristen Zschomler and Terri Lotti from Georgia DOT’s Cultural Resources Group will discuss how the standard approach of evaluating roads and bridges for transportation/engineering significance may result in missing their more complex and tragic histories, including association with the civil rights movement, the use of prison and slave labor to construct them, or as lynching sites.
(2:10 – 3:05 pm) Sebastian Renfield (Mead & Hunt) will be discussing recent examples of the identification of a property’s associations with underrepresented communities or underrepresented periods of history (proposed examples include, but are not limited to, a Hmong funeral home and a fraternal lodge that turned out to be significant under civil rights) and the challenges to their preservation.
The presentations will be followed by a question‐and‐answer session and audience participation to discuss approaches being implemented across the nation to identify and recognize the historical significance of a broader and more diverse and inclusive range of resources. The Discussion portion of the session will address challenging questions, including but not limited to:
- What are the biggest challenges in completing determinations of eligibility on properties associated with underrepresented history? Do traditional concepts of “integrity” create barriers?
- How can our industry do a better job engaging with the public about property types that they care about? Is the public as concerned with usual suspects most transportation agencies focus on (bridges, roads, downtown commercial districts, etc.) or are we missing resources that the public cares about more?
- As the people with the tools, resources, and authority to determine what is and is not a “historic property”, what are the bureaucratic or institutional roadblocks to diversifying the results of the process?
