Palm Beach’s Landmarks Board to participate in preservation education

An educational program designed to support the work of Palm Beach’s landmarks board will be held Monday at Town Hall.

Hosted and sponsored by the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, the Commission Assistance and Mentoring Program (CAMP) will assist Commission members in their efforts to build strong local preservation programs.

Members of the city’s architectural board and city council have been invited to participate, as their work “also includes architectural styles, design review and landmarks,” said Aimee Sunny, the foundation’s director of preservation and planning.

The program will be administered by the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions based in San Francisco.

The training is being conducted across the country in an effort to build strong local conservation programs and leaders “through education, training and advocacy.” according to the alliance’s website.

The training offered to city board members will include presentations, hands-on exercises, group discussions, networking and mentoring, Sunny said. Five sessions have been selected for the one-day program.

“The Preservation Foundation is proud to host and underwrite the first CAMP training program in Palm Beach,” said Sunny. “In partnership with the Town of Palm Beach and the Landmarks Preservation Commission, we have curated a series of programming sessions focused on the island’s architectural styles, design review processes and landmarks. Our goal is to equip community leaders with the training and tools they need to effectively implement robust local preservation actions and promote opinion formation within our society.”

The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach has been working with the city for more than a year to select trainers, training topics and dates for the program, Sunny said.

Sunny and Friederike Mittner, the resort’s design and conservation manager, will act as facilitators during the training. Both serve as trainers for NAPC and have taught dozens of these programs around the country.

Mittner said this type of training gives volunteer commissioners like those in Palm Beach the opportunity to learn to be most effective in their roles.

“A lot of communities just like ours in the city, it’s very small,” she said. “You have to know a lot of people and how you can separate what you’re reviewing architecturally versus the emotional piece and the aesthetic piece. Preservation is great, but sometimes the aesthetics and the best practices of historic preservation don’t always line up. This just gives the best practices of high level from across the country for consistency to a local commission.”

The training sessions will be taught by three conservation experts from across the country. Adrian Scott Fine, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy, will serve as head coach. He will be joined by James Reap, an attorney and professor of historic preservation at the University of Georgia, and Angela Schedel, a coastal engineer and director of coastal programs for HDR, Inc., in Jacksonville.

The CAMP program will run from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, 311 Peruvian Ave. Members of the public are welcome to attend if space is available.

For information, contact the foundation at [email protected].

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at Palm Beach Daily Newspart of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You reach her at [email protected].