IPTW 2004 - Mobile, Alabama -  "Education"

IPTW 2004, was held in Mobile, Alabama with the theme of “Education”. The state’s oldest city was founded by the French in 1702 and has buildings dating to the 1820s. The workshop took place in Spanish Plaza, which was built in the 1960s to recognize the Spanish contribution to Colonial Mobile and to honor Malaga, Spain, Mobile’s sister city. Co-sponsors included the Alabama Historical Commission, Alabama Preservation Alliance, Black Heritage Council, Historic Mobile Preservation Society, and Mobile Historic Development Commission. Three pre-conference workshops were held in conjunction with IPTW 2004. Participants in “Issues in Masonry Conservation”, a daylong workshop at Fort Morgan, Alabama’s 1834 brick fort at the mouth of Mobile Bay focused on developing appropriate methodologies for masonry repair in an interdisciplinary team setting. A half day Technology Trade Teacher’s Workshop covered preservation-sensitive techniques. Another workshop covered hands on repair techniques in the c. 1830 Bishop Portier House owned by the Catholic Archdiocese. The Friends of Magnolia Cemetery sponsored a Monument Restoration workshop by the Mississippi Stone Guild. In addition to the existing PTN Scholarship program, a number of scholarships allowing students, teachers, and trades apprentices to attend IPTW 2004 were awarded by the Mobile Historic Development Commission and the Historic Mobile Preservation Society through a grant from the Sybil H. Smith Charitable Trust. Workshops and discussion sessions focused on traditional trades education set the stage for the International Trades Education Symposium (ITES) to be held in conjunction with IPTW 2005. John William Laing of Edinburgh’s Telford College in Edinburgh, Scotland was presented the 7th annual Askins Achievement Award for his accomplishments as a master plasterer, and educator in the trowel trades. The Preservation Trades Network and the World Monuments Fund jointly presented, Preservation Trades Training: A New Perspective, a panel session and Trades Retreat at the 2004 Annual Conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Project Data

Date: 2004

City: Mobile, AL

Askins:  John Lang