Many people have heard me say: “Use is the best form of preservation.” I believe that we build ourselves into the world around us. Without our structures, sites, and buildings, we are physically and socially lost as a community. I started my career as an earthquake engineer, keeping historic buildings life-safe through seismic events. I learned that I love engineering, but it is only one small piece of the very big challenge of building reuse. From there, I started to add as many skills as I could – like policy, real estate finance, and advocacy – to create a more comprehensive toolbox for historic building redevelopment. In 2011, I started New History as an integrated consulting practice. Today, we are a national leader in historic building redevelopment.