The program is located in the historic White Stag Block in central Portland, allowing students to work on the many interesting planning and preservation issues taking place in this vital city. Additional faculty in historic preservation at UO’s Eugene campus provide instruction and support an undergraduate minor in this subject. Students enter the master's program with a range of backgrounds, including architecture and interior design, art history, anthropology, history, and planning. Our program has two major emphases. The first is experiential learning – the hands–on experience of doing preservation in the field. Continuing partnerships with a variety of preservation organizations – such as state and national parks agencies, the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, the Oregon Historical Society, and the City of Portland – provide opportunities for students to apply their studies to real world situations. Secondly, our program emphasizes research in the field of preservation theory and practice, concentrating on the cultural, historical, technological, and environmental factors that have shaped our world. Students engage in key questions in the preservation field, including those involving the physical materials we work with and the cultural assumptions we make about what kinds of history we preserve. Graduates of the program work in a variety of preservation contexts, including local and state government, federal agencies like the National Park Service, nonprofit advocacy organizations, and private consulting firms. Please feel free to visit us, take part in the field schools, lectures, and events, and share in the excitement of historic preservation at the University of Oregon.
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