Connection

The Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School

Paint fades. Wood rots. Iron rusts. Glass breaks. But since 1995, the Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School has repainted, replaced, rebuilt, and restored structures at historic sites across the Northwest.

From the Peter French Round Barn in Malheur, Oregon, to the Railroad Ranch in Idaho, participants engage in various hands-on preservation crafts in five one-week sessions. A combined staff of the UO’s preservation faculty members and nationally known preservation professionals provide students with workshops, field trips, and lectures on architecture, cultural landscapes, local history, and conservation principles and techniques.

“Students are able to enrich their educations by physically transforming these unique, often nationally recognized remnants of our built environment, an experience that forever informs their future lives’ work,” says Associate Professor Emeritus Donald Peting.

Scholarships assist participants, who come with a common passion for history—and the wood, paint, iron, and glass that give it shape.