All-Access Symposium Pass / $20
(Full schedule + a la carte registration below)
Housing and historic preservation go hand in hand. Some of the preservation movement’s earliest efforts were protecting the homes of prominent figures, and today’s preservation nonprofits are still largely associated with historic home markers and house tours.
But as the United States faces down a housing crisis, preservationists are also being called upon to help inform broader housing solutions. Historic preservation touches the conversation in many ways — from helping homeowners maintain their aging properties, to advocating for zoning policies that shape property value and social equity, transforming underused older buildings into new units of affordable housing, and celebrating the many ways people make a home in the city. Providence’s housing stock is some of the oldest in the country, with almost 70% of available housing built before 1960. This means any plans for the equitable and sustainable future of the city must make good use of its past.
This year’s symposium explores housing in all its complexity. Housing (and access to it) is both intersectional and deeply personal — there’s nothing more personal than where we live and build our lives. And yet it’s also fundamentally political. Together, we’ll explore both dimensions and consider the ways in which preservation can address the housing crisis in Providence and beyond.
All-Access Symposium Pass / $20
(Full schedule + a la carte registration below)
Headline Talks
$10 each / Advance registration required
Evictions as a Cause of Perpetual Poverty in American Communities
Carl Gershenson, Project Director, The Eviction Lab
November 8, 5:30-7:00 pm
Why Missing Middle Housing is Key for Walkable Communities
Alexandra Vondeling, Associate at Opticos Design, Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today’s Housing Crisis
November 9, 5:30-7:00 pm
Race Brokers: Housing Markets and Segregation in 21st Century Urban America
Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico and author of Race Brokers: Housing Markets and Segregation in 21st Century Urban America
November 10, 5:30-7:00 pm
Reimagining the Historic House Museum as a Site of Conscience and a Site of Resistance: The National Public Housing Museum
Lisa Yun Lee, Director, Executive Director, National Public Housing Museum
November 15, 5:30-7:00 pm
All of the Above: Meeting Different Housing Needs with Different Approaches
Shane Philips, project manager of UCLA Lewis Center Housing Initiative and author of The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach (and Keeping it There)
November 17, 5:30-7:00 pm
Panel Conversations
Free and open to the public / Advance registration required
Housing in Rhode Island
November 9, 3:00-4:30 pm
- Peter Asen, Director of Strategy and Development, Providence Housing Authority
- Brenda Clement, Director, HousingWorks RI
- James Comer, Deputy Executive Director, RIHousing
- Amanda DeGrace, Director of Real Estate, City of Providence Department of Planning and Development and Secretary to the Providence Redevelopment Agency
- Melina Lodge, Executive Director, Housing Network RI
- Moderator: Carrie Zaslow, Executive Director, Providence Revolving Fund
This session is generously sponsored by Washington Trust
Un/Making the Devilish Details of Housing Policy
November 12, 3:00-4:30 pm
- Lisa Bender, President, Minneapolis City Council
- Danielle Del Sol, Executive Director, Preservation Resource Center New Orleans
- Laura Foote, Executive Director, YIMBY Action
- Brian McCabe, Associate Professor of Sociology, Georgetown University
- Moderator: Nancy Kwak, Associate Professor of History and Urban Studies, UC San Diego
This session is generously sponsored by Utile
Friend and Foe: Historic Preservation and Affordable Housing
November 16, 3:00-4:30 pm
- Carla DeStefano, Executive Director, Stop Wasting Abandoned Property (SWAP)
- Alyssa Frystak, Director of Research and Data Analytics, PlaceEconomics
- Ethiel Garlington, Executive Director, Historic Macon
- Jeremiah O’Grady, Senior Program Officer, Local Initiatives Support Council (LISC), Rhode Island
- Moderator: James Buckley, Associate Professor and Venerable Chair in Historic Preservation, University of Oregon
This session is generously sponsored by Barbara Sokoloff Associates
Preserving the Sites and Stories of Workforce Housing
November 18, 3:00-4:30 pm
- Ned Connors, Principal at Edward Connors and Associates
- Marc Levitt, Documentary Filmmaker
- Rachel Robinson, Director of Preservation, Providence Preservation Society
- Moderator: Leigh Schoberth, Senior Preservation Services Manager, Historic New England
This session is generously sponsored by Shawmut
The Providence Symposium is generously sponsored by:
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