JOHN A. FIDLER, RIBA, IHBC, Intl Assoc AIA, FRICS, FSA, FIIC, FAPT
John Fidler is a British-licensed architect with two additional degrees in building conservation. Until 2006, as Conservation Director of English Heritage in London, he was responsible for technical research, policy development, advisory services, publications, training and outreach. In over 22 years with that organization he cared for 420 historic properties, including ruined abbeys and castles, palaces and country houses, and the World Heritage Sites at Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall. Fidler was responsible for generating English Heritage’s Conservation Principles (2008): a radical move away from Ruskin and his acolyte, William Morris. Now based in Los Angeles, Fidler runs a technical consultancy on historic preservation. He has completed repairs to a 1914 terra cotta church in Long Beach, California.
NORMAN R, WEISS, FAIC, FAPT, FSA
Norman R. Weiss is a technical specialist in the analysis and preservation of traditional building materials. He has taught at Columbia University since 1977 and is currently Chair of the Preservation Technology and Training Board of the National Park Service. Trained as an analytical chemist, he is recognized for his more than five decades in the field of architectural cleaning and repair. He has worked on hundreds of buildings, principally in North America. Among his best-known projects are the west front of the US Capitol, New York City’s Trinity Church, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpieces, Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum. Weiss is Director of Scientific Research of ICR, a New York City-based consulting firm, and Vice President of MCC Materials, where he has worked since 1995 to create innovative treatment-oriented materials for use by conservators of cultural heritage. His most current scientific research is on the consolidation of limestone and marble, and the development of novel lime-based mortars, grouts and paints.
Scientific and technological advances prior to Ruskin’s most active period of writing resulted in rapid, dramatic changes in the materials and methods of construction. Any reconsideration of his architectural theories and opinions requires an understanding of that as context. - Weiss
Ruskin’s famous Lamp of Memory in The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and the subsequent Stones of Venice (1851-3) greatly influenced subsequent campaigners William Morris and Philip Webb in their Manifesto of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, 1877, and in their quest for the preservation, rather than drastic restoration, of historic buildings and monuments. This legacy has held back critical developments in the field for more than 150 years. - Fidler
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