Job Summary:

The National Fund for Sacred Places (“National Fund”) is a program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The National Fund provides financial and technical support for community-serving historic houses of worship across America. Congregations accepted into the National Fund program receive wraparound capacity-building support and technical assistance, along with matching capital grants of up to $500,000 primarily supporting urgent repair needs.

The Preservation Architect provides technical expertise in the preservation, rehabilitation, and adaptive use of historic buildings as part of the National Fund for Sacred Places team at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Preservation Architect helps to review applications, train and provide technical assistance to congregations in the program, review proposed work for compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation (SOI Standards), and review completed projects to ensure adherence to grant conditions.

The Preservation Architect is detail-oriented and an excellent communicator, with strong project management and organizational skills, who works effectively and independently as part of a geographically dispersed interdisciplinary team. The Preservation Architect has a detailed understanding of the SOI Standards and how they apply to real-world projects; the ability to review construction documents for compliance with the SOI Standards and, if a project is not in compliance, the ability to work toward solutions that will meet the SOI Standards; an awareness of and familiarity with preservation regulation at the local, state, and federal levels; and experience with the process of architectural design and construction.

This position requires the ability to communicate and educate about complex preservation and architecture-related concepts and expectations in an engaging way to “non-preservationists,” and strong interpersonal skills in order to build long-term working relationships with grantees. The Preservation Architect is teamwork oriented and actively collaborates with the National Fund team internally and externally (particularly staff at Partners for Sacred Places), and with grantees, colleagues, partners, and allies.

The Preservation Architect of the National Fund for Sacred Places will collaborate across the organization to achieve the National Trust’s mission as well as the Preservation Services & Outreach (PS&O) Department’s purpose of strengthening the national historic preservation movement to save historic places that tell the full American story.

This position is supported by dedicated grant funding and is therefore subject to the continued availability of funds now and in the future.

Duties:

Working with the National Fund team, and under supervision of the Senior Preservation Architect, the Preservation Architect is responsible for:

Program Management

• Support Senior Preservation Architect in maintenance and trouble-shooting of monday.com project management boards.
• Support Senior Preservation Architect in ongoing education of larger National Fund team about the SOI Standards, best practices in Preservation Design/Architecture, general information about regulatory preservation review processes, and the architectural design and construction process.
• Collaborate with National Fund team on annual review and revisions to documents associated with the program including application forms and reporting forms.
• Participate actively in regular National Trust staff team, department, and divisional meetings.
• Participate actively in regular team meetings with Partners for Sacred Places and National Trust staff working on the National Fund program.

Grant Administration

• Participate and support Senior Preservation Architect in presenting educational content on Capital Project Planning, conditions assessments, and SOI Standards at annual National Fund webinar for prospective grant applicants.
• With larger National Fund team, read and review an assigned selection of applications (typically 300 – 500 applications annually) and follow-up materials and prepare evaluations based on program criteria; review and evaluation will have a special focus on the analysis of the scope of work of the proposed project and its compliance with SOI Standards.
• Support Senior Preservation Architect in development, maintenance, and trouble-shooting of application review tracking board in monday.com.
• Assist with selection of annual cohort of grantees through participation in application review and selection meetings with National Trust and Partners for Sacred Places staff.
• Support Senior Preservation Architect in providing training on capital project planning and Capital Grant submission review process at annual program training; with Senior Preservation Architect, provide 1:1 technical assistance related to architectural planning to new grantees at annual program training.
• Co-manage, with Senior Preservation Architect, the architectural planning assistance for the entire portfolio of grantees, to understand their specific building(s), project (s), needs and programs and advocate for use of professional design services; serve in an advisory capacity on issues including, but not limited to, RFP development and dissemination, how to identify and vet architects and other building professionals, the importance of conditions assessments, how to review contracts and bids, help them craft a scope of work based on a conditions assessment, and continuously educate and inform about best practices and the SOI Standards.
• Participate in intake calls and quarterly check-in calls to provide pro-active assistance on architectural planning, including review of draft documents, as grantees move through the program; ensure accurate and up-to-date tracking and notes of project status in monday.com project tracking board.
• With Senior Preservation Architect, review Capital Grant submissions from portfolio of grantees with a specific focus on review of construction documents, specifications, scopes of work and cost estimates to ensure compliance with the SOI Standards; and develop written scopes of work and appendices for inclusion in grant agreements.
• With Senior Preservation Architect, review and approve draft grant agreements.
• Review Interim and Final reports submitted by grantees and identify changes in scope or timeline from the grant agreement.
• With Senior Preservation Architect, review and evaluate Intervention Grant requests, specifically the scope of work to ensure funding eligibility and compliance with the SOI Standards; and develop written scopes of work and appendices for inclusion in grant agreements.
• Participate in virtual and in-person Final Site Visits to grantees to ensure work was performed appropriately and collect lessons learned for future grantees.
• Maintain an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the National Fund program and of other preservation-related programs of the National Trust.
• Completing other duties and special projects as assigned.

Education/Content

• Collaborate with National Fund team and marketing division to pitch and write content for the National Trust’s website.
• Present educational content for prospective grant applicants, program participants, or general National Trust audiences, as opportunities are identified.
• Using learnings from the National Fund, develop and present educational content for a broader preservation audience, as opportunities arise (i.e., PastForward conference, Preservation Leadership Forum).

Additionally, the Preservation Architect will serve as a team member working across the Preservation Services & Outreach department and across the National Trust supporting other programs and grants, such as such as America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, Preservation Funds, Diversity Scholars Program, Backing Historic Small Restaurants, etc.

Qualifications

• Professional architectural license (in any state).
• Minimum of 5 years of combined experience with project management and architectural practice, preferably in a context of additional overall work experience. Relevance of experience and size and type of organization worked for may be taken into account when considering background/qualifications.
• Previous work in architecture and historic preservation required. Knowledge of key players in the preservation field a plus.
• Demonstrated experience working with local building codes, preservation zoning, design review, ADA.
• Demonstrated experience in the interpretation and application of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.
• Experience with project and plan review for compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation strongly preferred.
• Experience with design and construction on historic buildings.
• Effective presentation skills. Excellent writing, spelling, grammar, and proofreading skills, as well as strong verbal communication and customer service skills.
• Strong organizational skills and excellent attention to detail required.
• Demonstrated success in working on collaborative, interdisciplinary teams with internal and external stakeholders, including preservation and architecture professionals and laypersons/volunteers/the general public.
• Demonstrated project management skills and effective team leadership skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively within a geographically distributed organization and across internal departments and programs.
• Demonstrated ability to complete tasks and meet deadlines.
• Entrepreneurial spirit and skill set a plus.
• Must be a well-organized, detail-oriented, self-motivated team player.
• Demonstrated success in working collaboratively with colleagues, external stakeholders, and partner organizations.
• Ability to prioritize, balance multiple efforts, multi-task efficiently and respond to a high volume of ongoing requests in a timely fashion. Ability to adapt and be flexible in a dynamic work environment.
• Demonstrated cultural competency and success in engaging with underrepresented communities, constituents, partners, and colleagues. Ties to diverse affinity groups, professional organizations or related associations a plus.
• Bi-lingual language skills (especially English/Spanish) a plus.
• Proven ability to continually develop skills related to use of rapidly changing technology and communications best practices. Proficiency with Microsoft Word and Excel required, as well as with virtual meeting platforms Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Proficiency with project management tools/software is required (The organization uses monday.com to support project management).
• Experience or significant volunteer activity in the nonprofit and advocacy sectors and experience or interest in preservation, conservation and history.
• Demonstrated interest in, and commitment to, the values and goals of the National Trust.
• Regular and reliable attendance required.
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently on trips of one to three nights throughout the nation as required.