Overview

The School of Government and partners are excited to launch the Historic Resilience Project, a slate of four inter-related resources: the Historic Resilience Primer, a general introduction for North Carolina communities; the Community Planning Handbook, a guide for community conversations and prioritization; the Resilience Design Standards, model design standards for historic resilience; and Historic Resilience Modules, training for hazard mitigation and recovery in a historic setting. Be sure to visit the Historic Resilience Project website for additional information and resources. 

To launch these resources and equip communities to use them, we are hosting low-cost, one-day workshops—Historic Resilience Workshops—in regions across the state (listed below). These regional workshops will introduce communities to the resources and spark conversations and collaboration among key stakeholders. We encourage communities to register a team of diverse stakeholders, including decision-makers, community members and property owners, preservation advocates and design professionals, hazard mitigation and emergency management officials, and planning and preservation officials.

The dates and locations for workshops are as follows:

October 30, 2024 - Battleship North Carolina, Wilmington

November 7, 2024 - 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, Edenton

December 4, 2024 - Muddy River Distillery, Mount Holly

9:00am - 4:00pm

$25 Registration fee

Workshop Summary

The Historic Resilience Workshop seeks to find common ground between historic preservation, hazard mitigation, private ownership, and public regulation—worlds that are sometimes at odds despite common goals.  

This daylong workshop will provide contextual information to help build an understanding around natural hazards in North Carolina and how to mitigate their impacts in historically appropriate ways. The workshop will introduce participants to the suite of Historic Resilience resources. Additionally, the workshop will introduce participants to each other through structured discussions, case study problems, and open dialogue.

The Historic Resilience workshop is for anyone interested in resilience-focused adaptation strategies for historic properties, specifically to help mitigate the impacts of natural hazards like hurricanes, severe storms, and flooding. It provides context and answers for questions like these: 

• What are the risks for our historic properties and how do we find out?
• What steps should our community take to protect our treasured cultural sites from natural hazards?  
• What is wet floodproofing, and how does it work? 
• How do we align our historic preservation regulations and our hazard mitigation priorities?  

Who Should Attend

The workshops are intended for a diverse audience, including decision-makers, community members and property owners, preservation advocates and design professionals, hazard mitigation and emergency management officials, and planning and preservation officials.

Communities are encouraged to bring participants from multiple perspectives. This workshop is not solely for preservationists, emergency managers, or property owners. The workshop is for all of them. To that end, communities should aim to sign up a diverse group of participants, including decision-makers, community members and property owners, preservation advocates and design professionals, hazard mitigation and emergency management officials, and planning and preservation officials (see the audience list below).   

Sample Agenda (9:00-4:00)

• Welcome and Connections  
• Historic Resilience Primer 
• Community Planning Handbook Exercise
• Lunch Provided 
• Walking Tour of Historic Resilience Examples 
• Resilience Design Standards 
• Local Panel Discussion  

Audience

Decision-Makers  

• Elected Officials  
• Historic Preservation Commissioners  
• Local Government Managers 

Community Members and Property Owners  

• Historic Property Owners and Businesses   
• Historic Site Operators  
• Religious, Higher Education, and Other Institutional Leaders  

Preservation Advocates and Design Professionals  

• Preservation Nonprofits and Consultants  
• Community Cultural Advocates  
• Architects, Engineers, and Other Designers  

Hazard Mitigation and Emergency Management Officials   

• Emergency Management Officials  
• Floodplain Managers  
• Hazard Mitigation Planners  

Local Planning and Preservation Officials  

• Preservation Planners 
• Land Use Planners 
• Development Permitting Officials

Sponsorship

The Historic Resilience Project and Workshops were produced with assistance from the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service, Department of Interior. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior.  The Project was supported by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office and Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and coordinated among initiatives at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the partner institutions or individual team members.