History in the Making: What Do You Do With Historic Buildings?

Caryn Meyers Fliegler takes a careful look at how several institutions handle their historic properties: care, renovation, restoration&mdash:

including politics, partnering, and fundingHistoric projects like Old Main's renovation help to unify institutions' identities and provide compelling lessons for students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Building rehab and restoration produces rich rewards but takes detailed detective work and thoughtful decision making. "Any time you go into an existing building there will be some issue that comes up, whether it's a structural issue or trying to match a material or make it look exactly as you want to," says Laura Wernick, principal at Cambridge, Mass.-based HMFH Architects. "Ultimately, the benefit to the users and to society of passing on a treasure to future generations is worth a lot. Most universities these days understand that the histories and traditions of the campus are embodied, to a large degree, in their buildings. They are resources that need to be preserved."