Save hundreds with early bird—now through April 9! Calling all AIA25 attendees! Boston. is gearing up for a landmark event in architecture and design, and you won't want to miss it. This year's AIA Conference on Architecture & Design (AIA25) is bringing together the brightest minds in AEC for four power-packed days (June 4-7) Be sure to mark your calendar for the official HRC event, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. AIA25 boasts a lineup of incredible sessions designed to inspire, educate, and connect you with the future of design.
HRC events
HRC luncheon: A Landmark for our Future: The Boston Public Library
1.5 LU/HSW | EV123 | 6/5/2025 11:30 am- 1pm | $125 | Register here
Place: Boston Public Library
For 2025, we plan to convene at the Boston Public Library, (McKim Mead and White, 1895; Philip Johnson, 1972) in its remarkable Guastavino Room-- showcasing structural and architectural innovations for which this extraordinary landmark is known. With the Library’s President, a panel of architects and engineers will discuss mission, significance, technical challenges, and future vision for this American landmark—and how this future renewal project relates to libraries nationwide. Located in Boston’s national historic Back Bay neighborhood, facing Trinity Church and the historic Copley Square, the BPL is ideally suited to host our timely discussion of public architecture, public service, and the role of discourse and education in an historic, and changing, context.
Our program will touch on the history of the McKim building—a rare confluence of art, architecture, technology, and collections. We will dig deeper into its significance—through the specific work of immigrant Rafael Guastavino and family as they navigated the prevailing cultural landscape in pursuit of the American Dream. We will learn about the efforts of the BPL as it negotiates the fine balance between modernization, services, and stewardship of significant collections and historic resources. Finally, we will explore broad-reaching implications of these topics as they affect other cultural institutions and their architects. The Guastavino Room is named for its renowned vaulted ceilings, a style designed by the Guastavino family, who worked with Charles McKim to open the unique exposed tiling as a design aesthetic—the interlocking Guastavino terracotta tiles add a majesty to the room that is carried throughout the McKim building. This system revolutionized structural design for decades. Attendees will be able to informally walk through the buildings before and after lunch.
After the luncheon, be sure to attend the Fellows Investiture at 2 PM, just across the street at Trinity Church—an event you won't want to miss!
Speakers
David Leonard
The President of the Boston Public Library
A thriving 177-year-old institution and one of Boston’s and the nation's great educational, cultural, and civic treasures. Prior to his appointment as President, David focused on the completion of the $78 million renovation of the Library’s 1972 modernist Johnson Wing (William Rawn Architects) as well as remarkable new and expanded branch libraries which have garnered awards from the American Institute of Architects, the BSA, and the American Libraries Association. During his time at the BPL David has also served as Director of Administration & Technology, Chief Technology Officer, acting Director of Administration & Finance, and acting Chief Financial Officer. He led the Library’s capital improvement project for the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, worked to modernize the Library’s technology infrastructure—including the migration to the new Integrated Library System and deployment of new pay-for-print systems system-wide—and oversaw master planning and design for the renovation of the Central Library in Copley Square.
Ann M. Beha FAIA
Architect
Ann is the founder of Ann Beha Architects, now Annum Architects, and is recognized as a national leader in preservation, adaptive reuse, and contemporary design for historic settings. Known for championing legacy in dialogue with contemporary expression, Beha explores new identities for historic resources, welcoming a broader community to reconsider expand the definitions of design heritage—modernism and post-modernism, vernacular buildings, and lesser-known American architects and design advocates. As a Visiting Professor of Design at Yale she engages students with historic settings and contemporary interventions, serving libraries, cultural, and educational resources. Ann received both the Honor Award and the Women in Design Award from the Boston Society for Architecture, was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard, and received her M. Arch. from MIT. Currently, Ann is consulting with the Boston Public Library on the rehabilitation of their McKim Building, as the institution endeavors to provide contemporary services to patrons within the context of that building’s historic fabric.
John A. Ochsendorf:
Professor of Architecture and Civil & Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Director, Morningside Academy for Design
John is an engineer, educator, and designer on the MIT faculty since 2002. Trained at Cornell, Princeton, and the University of Cambridge, he is known for creative research at the intersection of structural engineering and architecture. Ochsendorf and his students have contributed to numerous design projects, including the Mapungubwe Interpretive Centre, the Sean Collier Memorial, several projects at the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture, and multiple sculptures with leading artists. He served as the Director of the American Academy in Rome from 2017-2020, and as the founding director of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design since 2022. Ochsendorf was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to Spain (2000), a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome (2007) and a MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2008). At MIT, he was named a MacVicar Fellow in 2014 for exceptional teaching and he received the Gordon Y. Billard Award for exceptional service in 2016. A renowned authority on the work of Rafael Guastavino and family, Professor Ochsendorf is the author of Guastavino Vaulting: The Art of Structural Tile.
Boston’s Resilient, Historic Buildings Design Guide: Lessons Learned
3 HSW/RIBA/LU | SYM105 | 6/7/2025 10:45 am- 1:45 pm | $49 or only event $99 | Register here
This half-day interactive workshop will bring together stakeholders in the development and implementation of Boston’s Resilient Historic Buildings Guide to discuss its application and determine what revisions may be necessary to address current trends and issues that have arisen since the drafting and adoption of the Guide in 2018.
The session will kick off with brief presentation of Boston’s Resilient Historic Buildings Guide by the Director of the Office of Historic Preservation for the City of Boston, Kathy Kottaridis. This would be followed by comments by representatives of the National Park Service, David Trayte, and the National Trust, Jim Lindberg, on how the local issues have a greater universal application/implication. This would be followed by the presentation of up to six (6) buildings/projects by preservation planners from the Boston Landmarks Commission, intended to pinpoint the various issues currently confronting Architects as they apply the Guide.
Proposed buildings/projects to include:
1. Boston City Hall, Downtown
2. Old Corner Bookstore, Downtown
3. Rose Kennedy Greenway, Downtown
4. Fish Pier/Fort Point Channel Landmark District
5. Dudley House, Roxbury
6. Mount Hope Cemetery, Mattapan
Speakers
Kathy Kottaridis
Director of the Office of Historic Preservation
City of Boston
Kathy has served as the Executive Director of Historic Boston Incorporated (HBI) since 2007, where she led the rehabilitation of numerous threatened historic buildings, successfully raising more than $5 million in capital grants and overseeing development projects valued at $39.7 million. Her leadership has transformed many of Boston's architectural treasures into revitalized community spaces including the Fowler Clark Epstein Farm, a historic agricultural property in Boston, the Alvah Kittredge House, which was purchased by HBI in 2011 and completed a $3.8 million rehabilitation in 2014, and the Upham's Corner Comfort Station, a former rest station, converting it into the restaurant Comfort Kitchen, a full-service award-winning café and restaurant. Kottaridis holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, a Master’s in Historic Preservation from Boston University, and a Bachelor’s in History from the University of New Hampshire. Her career also includes positions with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Bostonian Society.
James B. Lindberg
Senior Policy Director at the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Jim is currently leading the Trust’s Reuse and Retrofit Campaign. He has more than 30 years of experience in preservation, planning, and sustainable development, including five years as director of the National Trust’s Preservation Green Lab. He has led nationally recognized preservation and sustainable development projects, including the adaptive use of a former dude ranch in Rocky Mountain National Park and the green rehabilitation of a historic school in Denver. Jim earned his BA in the Growth and Structure of Cities from Haverford College and his MS in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning.
Nicholas Armata
Senior Preservation Planner
City of Boston Landmarks Commission
Nick serves as the Senior Preservation Planner for the Landmarks Commission, responsible for the City's Aberdeen and Beacon Hill historic districts. These districts maintain some of the largest collections of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture in the country, which are synonymous with Boston's identity. He is also responsible for community outreach for the department. Nick's mission is to promote and enhance these districts through design review management, community engagement, and policy enforcement. Before joining the team in January 2018, Nick developed a unique collection of professional experiences in planning, government, construction, account management, and social media engagement roles throughout Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. Nick feels passionately that well designed, historic cities are a critical component to its citizens well being and productivity. He earned an Associates degree in Communications, a Bachelor's degree in Regional Planning and GIS from Westfield State University, and a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a focus on Cultural Heritage from UMass, Amherst. Nick has been a certified planner through the American Planning Association (APA) since December of 2021.
Gabriela Amore
Preservation Planner
City of Boston Landmarks Commission
Gabriela serves as the Preservation Planner for the South End, Highland Park, and St. Botolph historic districts. In addition to this, she also serves as the Volunteer Coordinator. Before joining the Preservation team in July 2018, she was involved with institutions such as the Boston National Historic Parks and the Museum of Science. Gabriela graduated from Suffolk University with a degree in History and a concentration in Public History, and from Boston University with her Master’s Degree in Preservation Studies, concentrating in Architectural History.
Rachel Ericksen
Preservation Planner
City of Boston Landmarks Commission
Rachel serves as a Preservation Planner for the South End, Fort Point Channel, and Mission Hill Triangle historic districts. Rachel holds a BA from the University of Michigan in English literature, a JD from Santa Clara University, and a MS in Historic Preservation from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. Prior to joining the Boston Landmarks Commission, Rachel was the 2021 Adolf Placzek fellow for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Chelsea Blanchard
Staff Architect
City of Boston Landmarks Commission
Chelsea has been working to preserve buildings in Boston and New York for the past 25 years. Chelsea holds a Masters of Architecture from the Boston Architectural College and a Masters of Historic Preservation from Boston University. She is a National Council of Architectural Registration Boards certificate recipient and is a registered Architect in Massachusetts and Florida. While working at some of Boston and New York’s top architecture and construction firms, she gained a breadth of construction experience, finely-tuned design skills, and an expertise in zoning and building code. She is passionate about designing projects that reflect this integrity of historic buildings but also their surrounding neighborhoods and landscapes. Her work has been featured in Design New England Magazine, Boston Home, and New England Home Magazine. During the past seven years, she has been running her own architecture firm, Blanchard Architects, which specialized in restorations and additions. Chelsea’s firm was renowned for historically appropriate yet beautiful design solutions, all while requiring the highest quality construction on their projects.
Dorothy Clark
Assistant Survey Director
City of Boston Landmarks Commission
In her capacity as Assistant Survey Director, Dorothy brings strong research and writing skills, as well as a boundless sense of curiosity, to her work at the Boston Landmarks Commission. Of particular note, she will be shepherding the completion of study reports for pending Landmark designations across the city. Dorothy is personally and professionally passionate about history—reading it, researching and writing it, disseminating and discussing it. Her personal mission is to promote the relevance of historical and cultural resources to foster the public’s critical and enlightened engagement with knowledge of the past. Before joining the Boston Landmarks Commission, Dorothy served as editor of Historic New England, the member publication of Historic New England. A full-time journalist in her previous career, Dorothy has worked for the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Bay State Banner. She holds a master's in Design Studies/Historic Preservation from the Boston Architectural College, a master’s in American history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a bachelor's in English/journalism, also from UMass Amherst.
Walking Tour: Boston’s Fort Point Channel Landmark District
2 HSW/RIBA/LU | ET184 | 6/6/2025 10:45 am- 12:45 pm | $75 | Register here
The Fort Point Channel Landmark District (FPCLD) encompasses roughly 55 acres across the Fort Point Channel from downtown Boston. Developed in the 1830s by the Boston Wharf Company and owned by the company until the early 2000s, the Fort Point Channel area is Boston’s largest, most cohesive, and most significant collection of late 19th and early 20th century industrial loft buildings. Development of the Fort Point Channel area began in 1836 and continued until 1882. The Boston Wharf Company erected nearly all of the buildings in the FPCLD from the designs of their own staff architects.
Today, the neighborhood has the highest flood risk of all of Boston’s historic districts and the District commission is working to address resiliency needs while maintaining its historic character.
Leaving from the Convention Center, City of Boston Landmarks Commission Planner, Rachel Ericksen, who oversees the district, will lead an interactive walking tour of the nearby FPCLD lasting approximately 2-hours.
Learn more >
TOUR LEADER BIO
Rachel Ericksen:
Preservation Planner
City of Boston Landmarks Commission
Rachel serves as a Preservation Planner for the South End, Fort Point Channel, and Mission Hill Triangle historic districts. Rachel holds a BA from the University of Michigan in English literature, a JD from Santa Clara University, and a MS in Historic Preservation from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. Prior to joining the Boston Landmarks Commission, Rachel was the 2021 Adolf Placzek fellow for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Managing Performance and Resilience in Building Renovations
1.25 HSW/RIBA/LU | TH300 | 6/5/2025 4:00 am- 5:15pm | Register here
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
253C
The Building Performance and Historic Resources Knowledge Communities have collaborated to bring you this outstanding session. In this session, the presenters will review recent projects involving envelope renovation and additions or restoration. Join us to learn about the design process as well as decision-making and challenges related to building performance—specifically, sustainability and carbon neutrality. After reviewing the selected projects, panelists will share general best practices and discuss detailing for facade renovations. You'll have ample opportunity to pose questions and offer your thoughts on the topic at hand.