Partners in documentation Overview

HPEF’s Partners in Documentation program furthers the organization’s mission of expanding student training opportunities in recording historic structures and landscapes according to the National Park Service’s Heritage Documentation Programs’ standards. HPEF has long recognized the importance of documentation and recording historic sites––as a component of historic preservation activities, to increase awareness of historic building practices, and to provide information for ongoing interpretation and maintenance. Partners in Documentation has two primary objectives: 1) to extend HPEF’s success working with educational institutions and organizations based in the United States to increase student access to heritage documentation training, and 2) to increase the representation of modern and recent past structures, as well as other underrepresented examples within the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection.

Established in the 1930s as a New Deal program to provide employment for architects and historians, HABS standards and guidelines continue to define appropriate documentation practices for historic buildings. Materials produced through HABS and its partner programs in National Park Service's Heritage Documentation Programs (the Historic American Engineering Record, HAER, and the Historic Landscape Survey, HALS) are submitted to the Library of Congress where they makes up the nation's largest archive of historic architectural, engineering and landscape documentation. HABS documentation materials include measured drawings depicting the existing site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections and selected construction details; photographs with large-format negatives of exterior, interior, and detail views; and a written narrative history and description.

Three initial projects have established models for Partners in Documentation collaborations. All three have focused on documenting modern era structures that remain underrepresented in the HABS Collection. In 2013, HPEF supported documentation of the Charles and Ray Eames House in Pacific Palisades, California, in cooperation with the Eames Foundation, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the University of Southern California Heritage Conservation program. In 2017, HPEF partnered with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture and the Schweikher House Preservation Trust to document the Schweikher-Langsdorf House in Schaumburg, Illinois. Currently, HPEF is partnering with the University of Oregon Historic Preservation program and the John Yeon Center for Architecture and the Landscape Projects to document the Watzek House in Portland, Oregon. HPEF has supplied administrative and financial support, historic preservation graduate programs provide student (or student interns) that conduct fieldwork and research and prepare the drawings and other materials. For more details see, the Partners in Documentation Projects page.

HPEF invites documentation project proposals from US-based educational institutions with historic preservation graduate degree and certificate programs to support documentation training projects. Community college and trade schools are especially encouraged to submit proposals. Applicants are also encouraged to team with secondary organizations, including other public, private and non-profit organizations, if this supports the project’s goals.

Applications for the Spring Call for Proposals are currently closed. The next Call for Proposals will be Spring 2025. Please sign up for our mailing list below to receive updates on future calls.

See the Partners in Documentation Proposal Guidelines for application details.

For additional information about the program, contact Program Manager.