Black in Historic Preservation
A community, platform, and resource by and for Black Preservationists + Heritage Conservationists
Pictured here: Lu + Jorja Palmer Mansion in the Bronzeville Neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side. Owned by the Obsidian Collection, whose Executive Director, Angela Ford, is in the Black Preservationists Directory. Credit: Block Club Chicago
Historian Eric K. Washington at the Former Colored School No. 4 on West 17th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Credit: Elias Williams for NBC News
Membership gets you access to a network of professionals, tradespeople, citizen advocates, and students who practice and study historic preservation and heritage conservation.
Vincent deForest next to a building at the Mount Zion cemetery that may have been part of the Underground Railroad. Credit: Lexey Swall for The New York Times
We track events related to Historic Preservation and Heritage Conservation with a focus on Black experiences in the field.
Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., is the Matt and Erika Nord Director, Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS) and the Presidential Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. Credit: Tang Teaching Museum
Our grants support Black students studying historic preservation and allied fields with opportunities at Black-led organizations.
Join this robust community.
Pictured here: k. kennedy Whiters, AIA, inspecting a standing seam metal roof on the Legislative Building in Olympia, WA. Credit: k. kennedy Whiters, AIA.
Credit: k. kennedy Whiters, AIA
Black in Historic Preservation is a program of wrkSHäp | kiloWatt, a design studio that specializes in historic preservation + owner's representation, founded by architect k. kennedy Whiters, AIA.
Support Black in Historic Preservation
Black in Historic Preservation is the only preservation resource that is by, for, and about Black people.
It has the only publicly available directory of Black people who practice and study historic preservation/heritage conservation.
It pledges to tell the fuller story of Black History, which is US History, with (un)redacted grammar and language for racial equity and healing.
It takes a lot of work to make this resource available. Funding supports the management of Black in Historic Preservation by wrkSHap kiloWatt and the Black in Historic Preservation Grant Program. If you’d like to support these efforts, consider making a contribution via PayPal or our Fiscal Sponsor.
For those who itemize donations for tax deductions:
"Black in Historic Preservation (BiHP) is a program of wrkSHap kiloWatt, LLC. wrkSHap kiloWatt, LLC is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of wrkSHap kiloWatt, LLC must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.”
Transparency: Curious about wrkSHap kiloWatt’s Budget Goals, click here.
If you can support another way, get in touch.