TRADTIONAL BUILDING CONFERENCE SPEAKERS in WILLIAMSBURG, VA, June 10-11, 2025

Restoring Williamsburg - The Journey for Integrity and Authenticity

Carl Lounsbury retired in 2016 as the Senior Architectural Historian at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Over a 35-year career at Colonial Williamsburg, he was responsible for long term research projects such as the study of English and colonial American public buildings, churches, meetinghouses, and theatres, and the terminology, practice, and technology of preindustrial building. He was involved in the restoration of many buildings in the Historic Area. He also has had an extensive career consulting with museums, historical and preservation societies, academic institutions, and homeowners in the investigation and restoration of historic buildings.

Lounsbury earned his undergraduate degree in history and English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his MA and PhD from George Washington University. He has taught at the University of Mary Washington, VCU, and the University of Virginia. He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary.

Among his publications are The Courthouses of Early Virginia; An Architectural History of Bruton Parish Church and Essays in Early American Architectural History: A View from the Chesapeake. He is the co-author and a contributor to The Chesapeake House: Architectural Investigation by Colonial Williamsburg, and Restoring Williamsburg, a popular history of Colonial Williamsburg. His most recent book is The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History, a study of an Eastern Shore family, their colonial house, gardens, and objects. He is now writing a history of early American churches and meetinghouses, the first comprehensive of ecclesiastical architecture in early America in more than a century.

Color and Paint Analysis at Williamsburg

Kirsten Travers Moffitt, Senior Conservator & Materials Analyst
Department: Conservation Department (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

Kirsten Travers Moffitt received her M.S. from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation and is currently the Senior Conservator and Materials Analyst at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. She specializes in historic paint and pigments and has authored numerous papers and lectured widely on the subject, especially at the International Architectural Finishes Research Conferences where she has presented her work on zinc white paints, limewashes, and verdigris pigment. Her architectural paint research work was instrumental to the development of Benjamin Moore’s Williamsburg paint line and contributes to the evolving appearance of Williamsburg’s historic area.

Integration of Craft and Architecture at North Hall, the Veritas School

Gibson Worsham, AIA, is a licensed architect at Glave & Holmes Architecture in Richmond, VA. He obtained his undergraduate degree in architecture from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in Architectural History from the University of Virginia. He manages a variety of preservation and adaptive re-use projects as well as new work for civic, governmental, and private clients. He brings to the firm a strong interest in architectural research, building conservation, and classical design.

He was responsible for the restoration of the roof and balustrade at Bremo, Virginia’s masterful Palladian villa and was the Project Manager for the detailed restoration of the Waterford Mill. Mr. Worsham has also led numerous county-wide and individual historic resource surveys across the Upper South, worked with FEMA to provide post-disaster historic district review, drafted numerous National Register nomination reports, managed historic rehabilitation tax credit applications, and authored building guidelines for historic neighborhoods.

Worsham was formerly State Historical Architect for the Kentucky Heritage Commission and served on the Architectural Review Board of Petersburg, VA for six years. In addition, he is a past president of the Byrd Theatre Foundation, which operates Richmond’s architecturally distinguished motion picture palace. He currently serves on the board of the Center for Palladian Studies in America. He blogs regularly on topics concerning the urban history of Richmond, VA, and urban morphology in general.

Hard Hat Tours:  Wren Building  and Blow Hall at the College of William and Mary

Susan Reed, AIA, NCARB
Susan Reed, AIA, NCARB, is a Principal and Director of Historic Preservation at Glavé & Holmes Architecture in Richmond, VA. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History with an Architectural History minor and a Master of Architecture with a Certificate in Historic Preservation. She is licensed in Virginia and New York.

She has worked exclusively on historic properties for over two decades including a variety of project types from theatres, museums, academic buildings, warehouses, historic residences, commercial buildings, churches, rural farm structures, government buildings and even an offshore lighthouse. Her expertise includes thoughtful restoration and rehabilitation design, compatible new additions and infill in historic contexts, construction documents, construction administration, condition assessments, Historic Structure Reports, National Register Nominations, and State and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits. Susan’s recent projects have included the award-winning restorations of Duncan Lee’s Taylor House on Monument Avenue and VCU’s Scott House in Richmond, as well as the ongoing restoration of the Wren Building at W&M.

She serves on the Board of Directors for the ICAA Washington-Mid Atlantic Chapter, the Board of Trustees for the Branch Museum of Design in Richmond and is on the Steering Committee for AIA Virginia’s Historic Resources Committee.

The Virtual Toolbox: Using Digital Technologies to Maintain Historic Buildings

Eric N. Kuchar
Senior Manager, MCWB Architects
Williamsburg, VA

Eric N. Kuchar is a Senior Manager with MCWB Architects, a full-service Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation firm with offices in Williamsburg, VA and Albany, NY. Eric manages the Williamsburg office and has 29 years of building conservation, historic preservation, higher education, and business development experience. He assists clients with historic tax credits, historic structure reports, building condition assessments, the integration of building systems into historic buildings, campus heritage master plans, and the restoration of historic features. Eric received a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from Norwich University and a Master of Science in Building Conservation from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He currently serves as the Chair of the Norwich University Board of Fellows for the School of Architecture + Art.

Reverse Engineering:  Colonial Williamsburg

James Brice
Architectural & Design Representative, DC, Virginia, and North Carolina
Benjamin Moore

James brings over 25 years of experience in the building industry, with a career rooted in high-touch sales and product specification across both residential and commercial markets. For the past six years, he has served as an Architectural & Design Representative for Benjamin Moore, working closely with architects, designers, and builders to support beautiful, high-performance projects through expert product knowledge and specification guidance. Known for a collaborative approach and deep industry insight, James is passionate about connecting professionals with the right solutions to elevate their work and exceed client expectations.

Before finding a home in the world of architecture and design, James spent a few years chasing rock stardom as the frontman of a mediocre at best alt-rock band in the late ‘90s. These days, he channels that same energy into supporting creative professionals—and searching for the perfect taco.

Hard Hat Tour:  Wren Building 

Constance Lai, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C
Manager of Historic Preservation Services
Grunley Construction Company, Inc. 
Rockville, MD

Constance Lai, FAIA, is the Historic Preservation Manager for Grunley Construction. She has over 23 years of experience in historic preservation and has worked on 37 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and 18 National Historic Landmarks, including the White House, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol, DC’s Carnegie Library, the Jefferson Memorial, and the US Chamber of Commerce Building. She is a board member of the National Building Museum and the National Preservation Institute.

Williamsburg Architectural Walking Tour

Jeffrey E. Klee, Architectural Historian
MCWB Architects
Williamsburg, VA 

Jeff came to MCWB in early 2022 after a 17-year career in the museum sector, chiefly at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Architectural Research Department. He is a specialist in early American architecture with particular expertise in the Chesapeake region and Boston. He is a prominent advocate for the value of the close field investigation of buildings as the best way to understand the history of architecture. Jeff has served on the boards of both the Society of Architectural Historians and the Vernacular Architecture Forum and is currently a member of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources’ State Review Board.

At MCWB he has been involved in both research projects and bricks-and-mortar restorations. He has done substantial work at the University of Virginia, including a Historic Structure Report on the Jefferson-era dormitory rooms and an update to the university’s preservation plan, which included an analysis of the essential characteristics of the university’s architecture. He has also undertaken major research reports on significant early buildings in Maryland, including the 1737 Old Treasury Building in Annapolis and the c. 1830 slave quarter at the Griffith-Burrall Farm in Frederick County.

We are accepting proposals for future Traditional Building Conferences. We invite you to submit your ideas for AIA CEU HSW seminars and/or suggestions for architectural tours.

We are particularly keen to present collaborations between architects, contractors, and craftspeople that are rich with practical how-to information. To submit a proposal for a presentation, fill out this online form.

Speakers receive free tuition for themselves and a guest at the nation’s premier business to business event for traditional building and historic preservation. Submit a proposal today to be part of this growing event for preservation and traditional building pros.

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