Brooklyn, NY, December 2017

At the head of a sold out room, architectural historian Francis Morrone kicked off the Traditional Building Conference in New York, December 5th with an energetic lecture about Brooklyn’s buildings, neighborhoods, and architects of renown. Morrone was the first of fifteen speakers to address the TBC record breaking crowd at the Grand Prospect Hall, a Brooklyn meeting venue on the National Register of Historic Places.

The event's architectural tours were of the historic, 435-acre Green-Wood Cemetery in Park Slope as well as the new 30,000 square foot EverGreene Architectural Arts studio in Industry City.

Conference case-studies featured Brooklyn’s former Fire Headquarters Building, a Romanesque building with a tile roof, and a session about a visionary concept for rebuilding Penn Station. The use of long-leaf southern yellow pine was the subject of a materials and methods class. The recent Palladio Award-winning project for the Beekman Hotel detailed the use of a smoke screen to protect a multi-story atrium for code compliance.

"Infill and context" were the subject of two sessions: one detailing how Main Streets across America employ good ideas for growth and the other on the recent return of the University of Connecticut to downtown Hartford.

Douglas Bracken from Wiemann Metalcraft conducted a late addition session on ornamental metals because the tours were at capacity.

Technological changes in how brownstone repairs are designed and executed and an overview of steel windows rounded out the program.

The Traditional Building Conference seminars, which delivered 10 AIA Continuing Education Credits, was produced by Active Interest Media, publishers of Traditional Building, Period Homes, Old House Journal and New Old House magazines. Conference education platinum underwriters were: Allied Window, Crown Point Cabinetry, Historical Arts and Casting, Ludowici, Marvin Windows and Doors, Pilkington North America, The Unico System, and Wiemann Metalcraft. Bronze sponsors included Architectural Components, Crittall, Heritage Tile, Indow, Kuiken Brothers, New Horizon Shutters, Old World Stone and reception sponsor, Thermolite. Learn more at our sponsors page.

These conference suppliers, who bring their technical know-how to architects, contractors and building owners, are important contributors to the conference's educational focus: Materials and Methods.

Next year's Traditional Building Conference Series travels to Oak Park, Illinois in April and Princeton, NJ in July 2018.