Building Works
PPS launched Building Works in 2020 with a 6-week course on wooden window restoration. Since then, we have taught this course twice and created a second 8-week training sequence covering weatherization, carpentry, and other technical skills needed in the construction trades to adapt historic buildings to today’s requirements. In 2024 – 2025, workshops were offered in historic staircase repair, wooden window maintenance and the restoration of stone hearths. We will be adding historic building deconstruction workshops in 2025 – 2026.
To find out if PPS is offering upcoming workshops or training opportunities, check our event calendar or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, the Providence Post, where training opportunities are posted.
Upskilling or retraining in historic preservation leads to a wage premium of 9%, and this sector of the job market is expected to grow by 10-15% over the next decade, offering underemployed Rhode Islanders with these skills an opportunity for immediate and sustained career advancement. Building Works was created to fill a gap in the educational landscape, providing upskilling or retraining for early- mid- and late-career construction industry workers and craftspeople seeking to move into a higher wage bracket, or start or grow a small restoration business.
As policies and building codes respond to the climate crisis by incentivizing adaptive reuse, there will be an even greater need over the next decade for skilled tradespeople who know how to restore, adapt and retrofit historic buildings for improved energy performance. Some of these indicators are already in place: in 2023, architectural billings for adaptive reuse/renovation projects exceeded billings for new construction for the first time, while sustainability policies in many cities increasingly favor adaptive reuse for its lower-carbon footprint.
Since 2020, Building Works’ key instructor has been Noel Sanchez, a restoration carpenter and president/founder of Casa Buena Builders. Sanchez has over 30 years of experience in the construction business and he has twice been recognized in the Rhody Awards for Historical Preservation.
These programs have been funded by a long list of donors, including the 1772 Foundation, Bank Rhode Island, the Historic Preservation Education Foundation, the Ida Ballou Littlefield Memorial Trust, the Mabel T. Woolley Trust, the Mary Dexter Chafee Fund, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Nordson Corporation Foundation, the Rebecca and Barry Preston Opportunity Fund, the Robert E. Freeman Downcity Fund, the State of Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, the United States Department of Labor, the Wadleigh Family Fund, the Washington Trust Company, and hundreds of individual donors.
Preservation Trades Resources
Preserve RI Preservation Services Directory: A free directory featuring companies that offer an array of services in support of preservation projects.