Housing and Historic Preservation: A Joint Webinar with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions

Sara C. Bronin is a Mexican-American architect, attorney, professor, and policymaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She serves as the 12th Chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, after confirmation by unanimous consent of the United States Senate. She was also appointed by President Biden to serve as a Trustee of the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.

Bronin is currently on leave from her position as a Professor of the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, an Associated Faculty Member of the Cornell Law School, the Director of the Legal Constructs Lab, and a Faculty Fellow of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. She is also a Professor in the Rubacha Department of Real Estate (joint with the College of Business and AAP) and a member of the Graduate Faculty in Architecture. Among other scholarly service, Bronin is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a past chair of the State & Local Government Section of the American Association of Law Schools.

In addition to her books and treatises on land use and historic preservation law, she has written over two dozen articles on renewable energy, climate change, housing, urban planning, transportation, real estate development, and federalism. She also serves as the lead author of the land use volume of the forthcoming Restatement (Fourth) of Property. Among other current projects, Bronin founded and directs the National Zoning Atlas, which aims to digitize, demystify, and democratize information about how zoning regulates housing in around 30,000 jurisdictions nationally. Her book, Key to the City, under contract with W.W. Norton Press, will explore how zoning shapes our lives.

Active in public service, Professor Bronin has served on the board of Latinos in Heritage Conservation and as an advisor for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Sustainable Development Code. In 2020, she founded DesegregateCT, a pro-homes grassroots coalition that successfully advanced the first major statewide zoning reforms in several decades. Previously, she chaired Preservation Connecticut, served on the city of Hartford historic preservation commission, and led Hartford’s nationally-recognized efforts to overhaul its zoning code.

Her research and advocacy has seen signifiant support from public and private philanthropic sources. Among many other grants, she has raised $2.1 million for the National Zoning Atlas, over $640,000 for Desegregate Connecticut, and $350,000 for City of Hartford sustainability efforts. She is a co-principal investigator for a $2 million National Science Foundation grant to advance “living” building materials.

Bronin won several design awards for the rehabilitation of her family’s National-Register-listed 1865 brownstone. She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School (Harry S Truman Scholarship), M.Sc. from the University of Oxford (Rhodes Scholarship), and B.Architecture/B.A. from the University of Texas. While in law school, she clerked for then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. A seventh-generation Texan, Sara is a native Houstonian. She grew up working in her grandparents’ Mexican restaurant.
Email: sbronin@achp.gov

Abigail Christman is Principal City Planner in Landmark Preservation at the City and County of Denver. Abigail has a varied background having previously worked for consulting firms, Colorado Preservation, Inc., and the University of Colorado Denver. Her experience includes Section 106n consultation, reconnaissance and intensive-level surveys, National Register nominations, HABS/HAER/HALS documentation, neighborhood pattern books, preservation tax credit certification, interpretation, public outreach, and serving on the Denver Landmark Commission. Abigail also teaches a graduate course for CU Denver titled Historic Buildings in Context. Abigail holds a B.A. in History from the University of South, a M.A. in Public History/Historic Preservation from Middle Tennessee State University, and a M.A. in Histories and Theories of Architecture from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, England.
Email: Abigail.Christman@denvergov.org

Adrian Scott Fine serves as President and CEO for the Los Angeles Conservancy, Adrian Scott Fine oversees the organization’s outreach, advocacy and response on key preservation issues within the greater Los Angeles area. This includes setting priorities, protecting historic places, developing initiatives, working with local governments and community stakeholders, and preparing responses to Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs). The Los Angeles Conservancy is the largest local nonprofit historic preservation organization in the country. Previously he was with the National Trust for Historic Preservation as the Director of the Center for State and Local Policy, based in Washington, DC. From 2000 to 2009, Mr. Fine was the Director of the Northeast Field Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinating the programs and advocacy efforts in Philadelphia, serving the states of Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Adrian Scott Fine currently serves as the President of the board of trustees for the California Preservation Foundation, is a founding member of Docomomo US/Southern California, and teaches at the University of Southern California Heritage Conservation Summer Program, the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and as part of the Getty Conservation Institute’s (GCI) Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative.
Email: afine@laconservancy.org

Barbara A.M. Howard is the Managing Partner and Director of Heritage Preservation for Stonebridge Learning, a continuing education resource for the heritage industry. She develops mobile applications, digital publications, and online courses, empowering people to recognize the significance of historic resources, to preserve them for future generations, and to integrate them into everyday life through redevelopment, lifelong learning, and community conversations. Prior to starting Stonebridge Learning in 2016, Barbara worked for over twenty years in the heritage industry’s for-profit, nonprofit, and governmental sectors, including leading the State Historic Preservation Offices in Iowa and Minnesota and serving as a principal investigator for architectural history surveys. She also works as a historian for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, serves on the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission, is an Associate member of the American Institute of Architects, and meets the Secretary of the Interior’s professional qualification standards for architectural history, historic architecture, and history.
Email: bhoward@stonebridgelearning.com

Cindy Olnick is a communications consultant for historic preservation and heritage conservation. She works with organizations nationwide to develop messaging, content, and strategy, including the NAPC Messaging Guide for Local Preservation Programs. Cindy also serves as Associate Director of Heritage Conservation at the University of Southern California, where she created a course on communicating for the built environment, manages recruiting efforts, and co-hosts the award-winning podcast, Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation. Cindy previously led communications for the Los Angeles Conservancy. She serves on the board of the National Preservation Partners Network and the steering committee of the Preservation Priorities Task Force.
Email: cindy@cindyolnick.com