TRUSTEES

Anne van Ingen, Chair
Anne Van Ingen is a historic preservationist. She served as Chairman of the Board of the Preservation League of New York State from 2012 until 2019 and as an Advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation from 1999 until 2009. Ms. Van Ingen is currently Co-Chair of the Board of The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake and serves on the boards of Pratt Institute and the Deborah J. Norden Fund of the Architectural League of NY. In the private sector, she is a Director of Charles Pratt & Co., LLC, a financial services company in New York City. She has been an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University and RPI in Troy, teaching nonprofit management. In 2012 she was a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome. From 1983 until 2010 Ms. Van Ingen was the Director of the Architecture, Planning & Design Program and Capital Projects at the New York State Council on the Arts. Prior to that she ran a historic preservation consulting business and worked for several nonprofits and public agencies in New York and Massachusetts. Other board service has included being a founding director in 2001 of the Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund and a Director of Preservation Action in Washington, DC. She has spoken and written widely on historic preservation, fundraising and philanthropy. Ms. Van Ingen holds a BA in Art History from Middlebury College in Vermont and an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University. She is an Honorary Member of the New York State Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Ms. Van Ingen has been awarded a President’s Medal from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a 2010 New York State Historic Preservation Award for Individual Achievement, a 2011 Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award for Public Leadership from the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Howard Sherwood Award from the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities and was the 2019 Historic Districts Council Landmarks Lion.

Amy Freitag, Vice-Chair
Amy Freitag is the Executive Director of the New York Restoration Project. Prior to joining NYRP, Ms. Freitag served as U.S. Program Director for the World Monuments Fund, where she developed a demonstration conservation project for Taos Pueblo, a World Heritage Site; site protection and digital laser documentation of Tutuveni, a Hopi petroglyph site on Navajo Land near Tuba City, AZ; preservation and strategic planning for Shaker Villages in New York and Massachusetts; and program support for preservation education in high schools in Brooklyn and Newburgh, NY. Her professional background also includes serving as Deputy Commissioner for Capital Projects in the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and Fairmont Park in Philadelphia. Ms. Freitag serves on the board of the New York Preservation Archive Project. She lectures nationally on the history of women in conservation and is researching a book on the founding of the Garden Club of America. She holds an A.B. from Smith College and master’s degrees in Landscape Architecture and Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.

William W. Tippens, Secretary
Mr. Tippens is Vice President architecture and planning in the Chicago office of Related Companies, Related Midwest. With an expertise in historic preservation he managed the planning, preservation, and architectural design process for the redevelopment of the National Landmark District of Fort Sheridan, Illinois. Recently, in other developments these efforts have been directed toward utilizing Historic Tax Credits combined with Low Income Housing Tax Credits to produce and preserve affordable housing. Prior to joining Related, Mr. Tippens worked for the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development and for the Office of Research and Planning at the Chicago Park District. He helped to establish their preservation program, which oversees in excess of 500 historic structures and over 7,000 acres of historic designed landscapes. Mr. Tippens graduated from the University of Illinois in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Studies and from Columbia University in 1988 with a Master of Science degree in Historic Preservation. He is a registered architect in the State of Illinois, recent past Chair of Landmarks Illinois and Preservation Action. He lectures regularly for government and universities on the economic incentives available for historic buildings.

Edward Mohylowski, Treasurer
Edward T. Mohylowski, Deputy Executive Director of the English-Speaking Union of the United States, holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Alliance College, where as a Junior, he spent a year abroad studying at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Subsequently, as a Fulbright scholar based at the Warsaw Polytechnic University, Mr. Mohylowski conducted research in Poland on the reconstruction of Warsaw’s Old Town. After earning an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, he worked as a professional preservationist for more than a decade at both the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and the New York Landmarks Conservancy, where he directed the Sacred Sites Program. He has since been a fundraiser specializing primarily in institutional giving at The New York Botanical Garden, Environmental Defense Fund, World Monuments Fund, and John Jay College. In addition to serving as a trustee of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, he is a member of the Board of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America. He is a former trustee of the Fairfield (CT) Historical Society, the Historic Districts Council, and the Kosciuszko Foundation, as well as a former commissioner of the Fairfield (CT) Historic District Commission.

Angel Ayón
As both an Architect and Preservationist, Angel Ayón, AIA, NCARB, NOMA, LEED AP has more than twenty five years of experience working with historic buildings. Trained in his native Havana, Cuba, Washington, D.C., and New York City, his expertise ranges from building-envelope evaluation and repair to full-scale rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of commercial and residential properties, as well as cultural and educational institutions. Angel believes it is the responsibility of the current generation to save and secure our built heritage as a cultural asset. He currently serves as Vice-President of Save Harlem Now!, member of the Advisory Board of the Historic Districts Council, the Historic Preservation Committee of The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS), and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Preservation League of the NY State. He is also an active member of Columbia University’s Preservation Alumni, as well as the AIA, NCARB, nycoba/NOMA, USGBC, APTi, APT NE, US/ICOMOS, Docomomo_US and Docomomo New York Tri-State. Angel holds a professional degree in Architecture and a Master of Science in Conservation and Rehabilitation of the Built Heritage from Havana’s Higher Polytechnic Institute, as well as a Post-Graduate Certificate in Conservation of Historic Buildings and Archaeological Sites from Columbia University in New York.

Frederick Bland
Frederick Bland has provided design leadership over the past 35 years for educational, residential and cultural facilities in both the U.S. and in China. He has directed downtown redevelopment plans nationally, working with clients that require options for long-term growth. Mr. Bland began his career at Beyer Blinder Belle in 1972, became the first non-founding partner in 1978, and Managing Partner in 2004. An Adjunct Professor in the Fine Arts Department of New York University since 1990, he has also lectured on design at Yale University, Columbia University, Pratt and City College. He is a member of the Vestry of Trinity Church, Wall Street; Chairman of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; and serves on numerous other civic boards in New York City including the Evergreens Cemetery and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Mr. Bland received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Yale University.

Glenn Boornazian
Glenn Boornazian is founder, President and Principal Conservator of Integrated Conservation Resources, Inc. (ICR) and Integrated Conservation Contracting, Inc. (ICC), a firm which combines investigative architectural conservation services with high-quality conservation and restoration contracting. Glenn draws on his extensive knowledge of building materials conservation to provide technical services for historic buildings and monuments; his expertise includes specialized conditions investigation, materials testing, analysis and assessment, and the implementation of treatment recommendations. After studying at Columbia University’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, Glenn served as Staff Conservator for the Center for Preservation Research at Columbia University, and Director of Restoration for the Nantucket (Massachusetts) Historical Association. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation from 1996 to 2002, and speaks widely on historic preservation.

Mary Dierickx
Mary Dierickx is Principal at Mary B Dierickx Historic Preservation Consulting, an award-winning preservation consulting firm established in New York City in 1977. Prior to establishing her firm, Ms. Dierickx was a member of the architectural survey department of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. She holds an MS from Columbia University’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and was the United States representative at the Unesco-sponsored ICCROM (International Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Property) Course on Wood Conservation Technology in Norway. She is the author of the monographs The Architecture of Literacy: The Carnegie Libraries of New York City and The Architecture of Public Justice: Historic Courthouses of the City of New York. She has served as Chair of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, President of the Fine Arts Federation of New York City, Secretary of the New York Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, and Chair of the Preservation Committees of the Metropolitan Historic Structures Association and the New York Chapter of the Victorian Society. She served as Treasurer of the United States Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (US/ICOMOS) and is a member of its Scientific Committee on Historic Towns.

William J. Higgins, Vice-Chairman
William J. Higgins, Vice-Chairman William Higgins has over twenty years of historic preservation experience encompassing nearly all aspects of the profession including documentation, historic construction analysis and conservation; regulatory and design review at state, federal and local levels; museum restoration; historic rehabilitation; real estate development; and writing and lecturing. Previous to the past fifteen years as principal of his historic preservation consulting firm, Mr. Higgins was the statewide director of restoration for New York State-owned historic sites, and project development manager for a real estate firm specializing in rehabilitation and historic preservation. He has extensive experience in applying and interpreting the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, both as government reviewer for the New York State Historic Preservation Office and as a private consultant to a range of private, public, corporate and institutional clients including the American Museum of Natural History and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Mr. Higgins holds a BA from Boston College and an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University.

Nancy Hudson
Nancy Hudson has over two decades of structural engineering experience, most of which has focused on the preservation, restoration, and reuse of existing structures. She was named a Principal of the firm in 2017, and in her time at Silman, she has often led complex projects that require coordination with federal, state, and municipal agencies. Nancy’s preservation projects range from restoring iconic modern buildings, to weaving modern mechanical systems through 19th-century masonry structures, to stabilizing failing ruins. As a structural engineer, she approaches historic buildings holistically, since the architecture, structure, and building systems often have become integral, making it difficult to change one without impacting the others.

John J. Kerr, Esq.
Jack Kerr is a retired partner of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York City. Mr. Kerr has more than 35 years of experience in the field of historic preservation as counsel to the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Municipal Art Society, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and other organizations in some of the most important historic preservation cases of the day, including the Grand Central Terminal, St. Bartholomew’s Church, and St. Paul and St. Andrew’s Church cases, and New Jersey v. New York, a Supreme Court case deciding the jurisdiction of Ellis Island. Mr. Kerr attended Columbia Law School and received his J.D. in 1976. At Columbia, he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, an International Fellow, a National Scholar of the Seventh Circuit, and the editor in chief of the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. Mr. Kerr attended Boston College and the London School of Economics and Political Science as a history and economics major. He received his A.B. summa cum laude from Boston College in 1972 and was awarded the Durcan Medal for distinction in History. After college and before entering law school, Mr. Kerr worked as an archeologist in Greece. He excavated at Halieis in the Peloponnesus under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from law school, Mr. Kerr was a law clerk to Chief Judge Gus J. Solomon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon from 1976-78.

Holly M. Leicht
Holly M. Leicht is Executive Vice President of Real Estate Development & Planning at Empire State Development, overseeing the planning and disposition of New York State’s surplus properties and ESD’s subsidiary development corporations. Previously she served in the Obama Administration as the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Region 2, presiding over the agency’s activities in New York and New Jersey, including $6 billion in affordable housing and other urban development programs and over $15 billion in Superstorm Sandy recovery funds. Leicht led the implementation of the region’s winning Rebuild by Design and National Disaster Resilience Competition projects, and after the Obama Administration ended, she wrote a report entitled Rebuild the Plane Now: Recommendations for Improving Government’s Approach to Disaster Recovery and Preparedness. Prior to her appointment at HUD, Leicht was the Executive Director of New Yorkers for Parks, a research-based advocacy organization championing quality public spaces for all New Yorkers in all neighborhoods. She previously held positions at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, most recently as the Deputy Commissioner for Development; the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; and the Municipal Art Society. Leicht began her legal career in Real Estate Finance at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She grew up in St. Louis and graduated magna cum laude from Yale College and cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law.

Lizzie Olson

Theodore H.M. Prudon
Theodore Prudon, PhD, FAIA, a leading expert on the preservation of modern architecture, was educated at the University of Delft, Netherlands, and Columbia University where he received his doctorate. He is a partner of Prudon & Partners, based in New York City, and teaches preservation at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Prudon is the President of DOCOMOMO US and a board member of DOCOMOMO International. DOCOMOMO is dedicated to the study of significant works of Modern Movement architecture, landscape design, and urban planning around the world.

Martica Sawin
Art historian Martica Sawin is the former chair of the Department of History and Criticism of Art and Design, Parsons School of Design. She is now an independent scholar, curator, and critic. Ms. Sawin is the author of ten books on art and artists, including Surrealism in Exile and the Begining of the New York School, and of numerous essays in museum catalogues and art journals; literary executor for James Marston Fitch and editor of James Marston Fitch: Selected Writings on Architecture, Preservation, and the Built Environment (W.W. Norton 2006).


President, Preservation Alumni, ex officio

HONORARY TRUSTEES

Adele Chatfield-Taylor
Blaine Cliver
Page Ayres Cowley
Dr. Abbott Cummings
Joan K. Davidson
Dr. David G. DeLong
Eric DeLony
Dr. Henry Glassie
William Barnabas McHenry
Rev. James Parks Morton
Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
John Stubbs
Michael Tomlan

Richard Blinder (1935-2006)
James Marston Fitch (1909-2000)
Cleo Rickman Fitch (1910-1995)
Sir Bernard Feilden, OBE (1919-2008)
Bruce Kelly (1948-1993)
Dorothy Miner (1936-2008)
Mildred Schmertz (1925-2018)
Robert Silman (1935-2018)

STAFF

Cristiana Peña, Executive Director