• Press Release Archive
• SALVEtoday
• Salve Regina in the News
• Report from Newport
• Faculty Books
• Tools for Reporters
• Hometown News Release Form (PDF)
• Alert the Media

Home > News, Events & Media > Press Release Archive

Press Release Archive

Release Number: 0130

13-Jun-02
For Immediate Release

Contact: Matt Boxler
Contact Phone: 401-341-2156
Contact E-mail: newsrelease@salve.edu
Alt. Contact:
Alt. Phone:

ROBERT A.M. STERN, BOB VILA FEATURED AT QUINQUE FORUM JUNE 27-29 AT SALVE REGINA

NEWPORT, R.I. – World renowned architect Robert A.M. Stern and television’s original “Bob the Builder” Bob Vila are among the headliners who will participate in The Quinque Foundation’s International Preservation/Conservation Forum, “Setting an Agenda for the 21st Century,” June 27-29 at Salve Regina University.

Stern, founder of Robert A.M. Stern Architects in New York and dean of the Yale School of Architecture, will deliver the keynote address at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 27, in the Ochre Court Great Hall. He will be introduced by Janet Atkins, CEO of Philanthropic Advisors LLC.

Vila, home restorer, author and host of “Bob Vila’s Home Again,” will serve as a panelist for a plenary session on Thursday at 2 p.m. in Ochre Court. The panel will also include John Mesick, principal of Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects of Albany, N.Y. and John Colony, founder and president of Harrisville Designs in Harrisville, N.H. Jane Nylander, president of Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, will moderate the discussion.

The three-day symposium June 27-29, in addition to bringing together traditional crafts and trades people, architects, historians and scholars, will feature the ongoing work of Historic Scotland, an agency that safeguards the nation’s built heritage by conserving properties in its care and providing financial assistance for conserving and repairing outstanding monuments and buildings.

Graeme Munro, CEO of Historic Scotland, will introduce Friday’s Scottish Presentations, which will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Making presentations in the morning will be Ingval Maxwell, director of Technical Conservation, Research and Education for Historic Scotland; Alan McKinney, chief executive of Scottish Stone Liaison Group; Andrew McMillan, senior geologist, British Geological Survey; Douglas Fergus, Scottish manager, Construction Industry Training Board and Patricia Gibbons, director, Scottish Lime Centre Trust.

Afternoon presenters will include Louisa Fraser, business manager at Inverness College; Graham Campbell, training manager, Elgin Cathedral Training Workshop; and Susan Brown, Quinque Conservation Network Manager, Historic Scotland.

The most pressing problem facing the preservation movement today is the need for a democratic discourse among all groups with a vested interest in the process. The Quinque Symposium will serve as the vehicle to identify the key issues in effecting positive change in historic preservation practices. This landmark event will target the roots of the problem and will advance far-reaching change by giving an equal voice to all groups involved in historic preservation.

“The goal of this symposium is to bring people together with their questions rather than their answers,” said Janet Atkins, president and CEO of Philanthropic Advisors LLC, which serves as the management office of Quinque Foundation. “This in turn will provoke conversations about the effective use of skills, materials, standards and policy, and leverage transformation change for our treasured built heritage.”

The symposium is being held on Salve Regina’s campus, which includes 18 architecturally significant buildings and 75 acres of historic landscape abutting the Atlantic Ocean. Through preservation and sensitive adaptation to educational use, the university has saved and maintained important examples of work by such Gilded Age architects as Richard Morris Hunt, Charles Eamer Kempe, Dudley Newton, Henry Hobson Richardson, Seth Bradford, and the firms of Peabody and Stearns, and McKim, Mead and White, along with the work of designers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick Law Olmsted, John LaFarge and Karl Bitter.

The university, which offers an undergraduate program in cultural and historic preservation, has received numerous national and regional preservation awards. Two of its buildings, Wakehurst and Ochre Court, have been designated official projects of “Save America’s Treasures” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Salve Regina is a recipient of the National Trust’s prestigious National Preservation Honor Award.

The U.S.-based Quinque Foundation’s mission is to contribute to the advancement of best practices and skills needed to preserve our built and environmental heritage. Quinque and Historic Scotland have formed a partnership that brings practitioners together who can contribute to the body of knowledge of techniques and hands-on skills needed in this arena.

In addition to the Quinque International Symposium, Quinque Foundation supports a fellowship program for mid-career practitioners to participate in educational coursework and hands-on training with field projects at historic sites to promote cross-training and discovery of new techniques. The fellowships were launched in May, and the next round of fellows will be a combination of U.S. and Scottish-based practitioners to be “exchanged” over the next six to 12 months between the respective countries.