Author Bios

We know that you are looking for employment and might be a little stressed out, that is why HISTPRES works just as hard finding jobs to post as interesting narratives about preservationists and their projects, and passions.

Since October 2011, we have had a blog and have been publishing original content from preservationists across the country, some international perspectives, and even news about preservation on the moon!

We are appreciative of all of our writers and think it is worth you getting to know them better. Scroll through the personal biographies of some authors, learn about their businesses and causes, and consider joining the folks on this page with a post of your own.

Scott Sidler, Austin Home Restorations, Orlando, FL

Scott Sidler is a master-craftsman and has been sharing his knowledge with HISTPRES through The Craftsperson Column. We enjoy his no-nonsense narratives on some of preservation’s trickiest task, like plaster repairing and making sure those details are right! Scott is also the best tour-guide of Orlando that I could imagine – the City has five historic districts packed with beautiful bungalows. Please check out Scott’s business, Austin Home Restorations online and give him a call if you are in need of high-quality home improvements in Florida.

More about Scott

My name is Scott Austin Sidler and I’m crazy about all things historical, especially when it comes to the incredible craftsmanship that went into building the homes of years gone by. So crazy in fact that I started my own company, Austin Home Restorations, to restore these old beauties to their former charm in the middle of the worst housing market since The Great Depression!

You see, I grew up in one boring American suburb after another until my parents bought a beautiful 1759 Colonial house in Highland Mills, NY when I was a teenager. The wavy glass, weathered clapboards, and wide plank wood floors drew me in and sparked my curiosity and creativity. Eventually, I was hooked! I wanted to know how these houses were built and eventually build them myself. Ever since then I’ve been studying the old ways of the master craftsman who built these amazing homes by hand, and I’ve been honing my own skills as we go from one historic project to another.

Scott’s Posts
We’ve called this series The Craftsperson Column

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Lizzie Boyle, New York, NY

Lizzie Boyle created the most amazing internship imaginable. She planned a cross-country road trip with a diversity of pit stops, grabbed a video camera and her brother, to interview folks about the meaning of the American Dream. We at HISTPRES have recapped only a fraction of her travels and observations in the A Preservationist in Pursuit of the American Dream series and are exciting to keep posting + reading more!

More about Lizzie

Lizzie Boyle is originally from Connecticut and after a twelve year stint in the South is back up north living in Brooklyn. She studied Historic Preservation at the College of Charleston and Urban Planning at Auburn University’s School of Architecture where she worked on architectural and urban history.

Lizzie has lived in Italy and plans to one day eat her weight in pasta. She enjoys writing about preservation, planning, urbanism, and history and how travel relates to all four. Lizzie’s favorite animal is the giraffe.

Lizzie’s Posts
Start the roadtrip from the beginning!

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Lucinda Philumalee, Washington DC

Lucinda, Lu, has been blogging with HISTPRES since the beginning, or October 2011. She updates our thinking about things by introducing new technology or a fresh perspective. Her upcoming opinion piece on the Rem Koolhaas gallery show at the New Museum, remember the international dialogue it sparked about galleries and gentrification, is sure to start a conversation on HISTPRES, too. Look for it August 19, 2012!

Learn about Lucinda

Lucinda works in communications for a national preservation nonprofit. She graduated with a Master’s of Historic Preservation in 2010 and a Master’s of Real Estate Development this past May, both from the University of Maryland.

Her interests include history of the southern United States from European colonization to the formation of the New South, preservation advocacy, historic rehabilitation projects, open land conservation, DC architecture, and perfecting her timing in catching 8-car Metro trains.

Lucinda’s Posts

Op-Ed: A Critique on Cronocaos | Koolhaas (Forthcoming)
Keepin’ it Real with Battlefield Preservation
Applying 21st Century Technologies to 19th Century History

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Caitlin Chamberlin Lirio, Savannah, GA

Caitlin has diverse preservation interests and shares them with HISTPRES regularly. She’s taken us unique sites in Maryland including Mallows Bay to check in on some abandoned shipwrecks and to the sun-streaked interiors of Glenn Dale Hospital to explore reuse opportunities. Now living in Savannah, we can’t wait to read what Cailtin shares from the deep South.

More about Caitlin

Caitlin Chamberlain has her MFA in historic preservation from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. She has been and has been an advocate for saving Glenn Dale Hospital, a vacant tuberculosis hospital, since 1996. It’s reuse was the topic of her thesis entitled ‘From Vacant to Vibrant: Adaptive Reuse of Asylums and Sanatoriums Through the Study of Glenn Dale Hospital in Glenn Dale, MD. She currently maintains the Facebook group Glenn Dale Hospital: This Place Matters as a means to raise awareness and advocate for a new law that allows a new reuse plan. Caitlin lives in Savannah and researches and advocates for rare and lesser-known historic sites.

Caitlin’s Posts

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Claire Lainer, Denver, CO

We like Claire. Her posts are all forthcoming, including a response to the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting as well as a full applying-for-preservation-grad-school narrative.

Claire in Her Own Words

Claire, a native east coaster, studied Historic Preservation at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. Last year she moved to Denver on a whim with some friends and can’t get over just how incredible the Rockies are. One day she hopes to restore and operate a historic movie theater where she can show Indiana Jones marathons and finally have her own Add-Your-Own-Butter machine.

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Emily Laborde

If you like Emily’s posts on HISTPRES, check out her blog: Ems on the Road.

Emily’s Blogger Autobiography

Forever wandering and always curious. I’m Emily Laborde and I got bitten by the bug at age 10 on a trip to Washington D.C. I haven’t slowed down since! I grew up in the South, part of a huge, LOUD, Southern family, so naturally, I love taking the back roads and good Southern food (all types of food really).

My background is art history and recently earned my master’s in historic preservation at the University of Georgia. I currently work for the Georgia Historic Resource Partnership at UGA, documenting historic resources around the state. My education and upbringing (daughter of a designer and restauranteur) has nurtured my creativity and inquisitive nature. I am documentarian, lover of fashion, art, music, architecture…all the good stuff.

Emily’s Post

Automatic for the People: Historic Music Venues in Athens, GA

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Drew Gruber, Williamsburg, VA

Drew Gruber and his fiance Kathleen Edger were two of the first folks to write for the HISTPRES blog! Drew wrote about his research about Preservation Review Boards in Virginia and Kathleen gave us a great recap of the Preservation Virginia Conference.

More about Drew

Resident of Williamsburg Virginia. Employed by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation as an Administrative Specialist and Civil War Public History Programs Leader. He also currently sits on the City of Williamsburg Board of Zoning Appeals. He holds a B.A. from the University of Mary Washington in Historic Preservation and a M.S. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Urban and Regional Planning where he focused in cultural resource planning. Gruber is member of several professional organizations and has received the Thomas Malone Scholarship from the Civil War Trust. He is pictured here with his fiancee, Katherine Egner.

Drew’s Post

Survey of Design Review Boards in Virginia

Katherine’s Post

Preservation Virginia Conference Focuses on Community Engagement

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Kaitlin O’Shea, VT

You already know Kaitlin, she’s the woman behind the flamingo at Preservation in Pink.

More about Kaitlin

Kaitlin O’Shea has a B.A. from the University of Mary Washington and a M.S. from University of Vermont in Historic Preservation and currently works for the Vermont Agency of Transportation as a Historic Preservation Specialist.

She is founder and writer of the blog, Preservation in Pink, which discusses preservation in applicable and approachable manner for preservationists and non-preservationists alike (with the help of pink flamingos).

Kaitlin loves original wood windows, plaster walls, walkable communities, transportation enhancement projects, roadside America and a strong cup of coffee.