Preservation Today

Experience the Event

Presented by School of Architecture

Thursday, April 3, 2025 5:15 pm

The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture and Michael Christopher Duda Center for Preservation, Resilience, and Sustainability presents a lecture by Ashley Robins Wilson, “Preservation Today.” Wilson will explore the role of preservation in addressing contemporary architectural challenges, from sustainable development to the conservation of recent heritage. Drawing on her extensive experience, she will discuss how preservation practices can foster community development and urban regeneration while maintaining the integrity of historic sites.

Ashley R. Wilson, FAIA, is an architect with over thirty years of experience in preservation architecture. She specializes in nationally significant historic sites, addressing preservation and operations to make them successful and effective nonprofits. Working as a consultant today, she previously served as the Chief Architect at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Before that she was a founder, tenured professor and Director of Clemson University’s Master of Science for Historic Preservation in Charleston, South Carolina, a project architect at Oehrlein and Associates Architects in Washington DC and the Assistant Architect for Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village at the University of Virginia.

She currently serves the Old Georgetown Board for the U.S Commission of Fine Arts, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the Historic American Building Survey Advisory Board for the National Park Service, President’s Cabinet at Clemson University, and the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association. She was the 2022 jury chair for the AIA’s Honor Awards and the Twenty-Five Year Award. Ashley received her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Virginia and her Master of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame. As a ‘slow hobby’ she is restoring a 19th century farm in St. Michael’s, Maryland. This event was recorded on October 16, 2024.

For more information visit the event website.

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Meet the Speaker: Ashley Wilson, FAIA, ASID

Ashley Wilson, FAIA, ASID, is an architect with thirty years of experience in historic preservation, specializing in the modernization and stewardship of significant historic buildings to make them relevant within the contemporary environment. For nine years, she served as the Graham Gund Architect of the National Trust for Historic Preservation where, as chief architect, she provided broad oversight for the conservation and preservation of the buildings and landscapes comprising the Trust’s historic sites. Prior to her work at the Trust, she was a founding professor of the College of Charleston/Clemson University Graduate Program in Historic Preservation in Charleston, South Carolina. She has previous work experience in architecture and preservation practice, including in the Office of the Architect for Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village at the University of Virginia, and at Oehrlein & Associates Architects in Washington, D.C., where she was the project architect for work at public and private institutions including Dumbarton Oaks, Tudor Place, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Lincoln Memorial kiosks on the National Mall.

Wilson earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree from the University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Notre Dame. She is a frequent speaker and contributor on preservation topics in forums such as Docomomo, the Southeast Society of Architectural Historians, the Texas Historic Commission, the Maryland Historic Trust, and the Smithsonian Press. She has served on the board of the Southeastern Society of Architectural Historians, as a member of the South Carolina State Review Board for the National Register, and as an advisor for the Rubenstein Initiative at James Madison’s Montpelier. She currently serves on the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Preservation Committee, the board of trustees of the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association, and the United States Senate Curatorial Advisory Committee. She has been chair of the Historic Resources Committee of the American Institute of Architects, and she was named a Fellow of the Institute in 2020.