Preservation Virginia would like to invite you to attend the Virginia’s Historic Courthouses Symposium being held May 19 and 20, at the Historic Staunton Foundation.
Evening Reception May 19 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and day-long program of speakers and sessions May 20 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
In 2015, historic courthouses were named to Preservation Virginia’s Most Endangered Historic Places list. The thematic listing is intended to bring attention to the challenges of maintaining these structures while meeting requirements for space, security, and other 21-century usage concerns. Preservation Virginia and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources are partnering to present the Historic Courthouses Symposium to be held in Staunton, May 19-20, 2016. The symposium will bring together elected officials, judges, architects, and others to look at best practices and case studies that balance these obligations, and look at the economic benefits of preserving these centers of community.
Conceived as an informational meeting for those responsible for decisions pertaining to use, maintenance, restoration, and the general administration of the judicial system in Virginia, the targeted audience is those who work in and steward these facilities. Invitations have been sent to decision-makers, law practitioners, and related associations or advocacy groups, including county commissioners and administrators, judges and court administrative staff, facility maintenance staff, architects, contractors, consultants, and historic preservation advocates.
From this symposium, we hope to begin crafting a set of best practices and case studies that couldices could: influence new legislation or the formal adoption of a historic preservation approach to courthouses, empower preservationists and advocates to better educate their elected officials and the public on the benefits of re-use/adaptation, and formalize the role of public participation in such important decisions. Topics to be addressed include: the role of public participation, funding sources, economic benefits of a historic preservation approach, the role of tax credits, regional governance and the relations between city and county governments, as well as design-oriented issues like planning and needs assessment, incorporating historic fabric, security and life safety, energy efficiency and sustainability.
On the evening of May 19, John O. Peters, a former commercial litigator who has extensive practical, research, and writing experience with Virginia’s courthouses, will speak to the role of courthouses
For additional information, including online registration and lodging information, please visit:
http://preservationvirginia.org/programs/historic-courthouse-symposium