In late February, I attended The Association of Preservation Technology Northeast Chapter (APTNE) 2025 Annual Meeting & Symposium in beautiful and historic Saratoga Springs, New York.

With more than 300 attendees, 21 vendors, and 4 tours, the event was lively, thoughtful, and enlightening.

The overarching theme of this year’s conference was “Evolution of Place Identity,” and the presentations and tours explored these ideas.

The following were several takeaways that I came away with:

1. An aspect that was a common thread throughout was the question, “How to protect these elements that fully tell the story of place?” This was asked by the keynote speaker for the attendees to consider how our work contributes to authentic storytelling.  From the struggle to preserve the remains of the Jewish resorts in the Catskills, to the study of the Chinese American small-scale industries in Manhattan’s Chinatown, to uncovering the hidden narratives of the visiting nurses of the Henry Street settlement in NYC, many of the presenters sought to highlight fading or little-known stories before the physical evidence of their existence disappeared.

2. Many of the presentations directly addressed the theme of evolution of place. Some looked at a smaller scale evolution (such as the transformation of an abandoned church into a performance venue), some took a larger view (such as the evolution of the host city, Saratoga Springs, from its historical origins to a modern city that incorporates its past into its present), and some even looked at the evolution of how we preserve from the earliest days after the National Historic Preservation Act to today. In all of these, the unifying idea is that evolution is natural, even necessary, and that how we accommodate change while keeping the essence of the original is one of the keys to preservation.

3. Unsurprising to an organization that has “Technology” in its name, many of the presentations focused on the importance of detailed technical knowledge as the critical to a successful project. From the importance of understanding how to use and promote building and zoning codes to maximize opportunities for protection of historic integrity and place, to finding creative structural solutions to create gallery spaces in an old mill building, to knowing the local geology and quarrying techniques of old bluestone mines to help save a landscape sculpture, to finding the right masonry solutions to preserve an iconic bridge, the how is important.

4. Perhaps the most important takeaway was that collaboration forms the cornerstone of preservation. Forming collaborations, making friends and connections, sharing knowledge, and helping one another is what furthers, “APT’s mission is to advance appropriate traditional and new technologies to care for, protect, and promote the longevity of the built environment and to cultivate the exchange of knowledge throughout the international community.” While the Symposium is meant to be fun (and it was!), its mission is serious and important.

Looking forward to the next conference in 2026!