Dear Residents:
You are invited to attend the upcoming Monday Night at the Master program
on Monday, June 17th at 7:30pm in the Riverside Lobby.
Meisha Hunter Burkett, a historic preservationist and former resident of
the Master Apartments, will discuss her work in preserving historic water
infrastructure.
Regards, Monday Night at the Master Committee
Preserving Historic Waterworks Infrastructure
Meisha Hunter Burkett, a historic preservationist and former resident of the Master Apartments, has studied and advocated for the preservation of historic water infrastructure throughout her career. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize in Historic Preservation from he American Academy in Rome, she is actively engaged in preservation efforts on an international basis and has written extensively on this topic.
The supply, storage, protection and use of water impact the social and economic well-being of every society. The built heritage associated with water is steeped in civil engineering achievement that met critical needs – from Persian qanats to ancient Roman aqueducts, Indian step wells and pre-Incan canals. Some of the built heritage that delivered water to homes and public baths, agricultural fields and distributing reservoirs continues to function. It is urgent that we increase our public consciousness of and respect for civil engineering achievements of the past realized in the face of needed social change. In order to preserve this water infrastructure, it will take political will, ongoing heritage education and designation to protect it, and creation of forums to foster integrated cross-disciplinary management.
Meisha Hunter Burkett is a Senior Historic Preservationist at Li/Saltzman Architects. She has contributed to Adaptive Strategies for Water Heritage (Carola Hein, editor, Springer 2019); Engineering History and Heritage’s Themed Journal on Water Heritage (Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 2019); TICCIH’s Water Industry as World Heritage (2018); L’aque, le Pietri e Bronzi le Fontane Monumentali (Commune di Roma, 2012); City Secrets: Rome (Fang, Duff Kahn, 2011); and Sustainability and Historic Preservation (University of Delaware Press, 2011). She is a member of US/ICOMOS, theInternational Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage, and the Society of Fellows of the American Academy in Rome. She wrote her postgraduate thesis on Stewardship and Sustainability of Historic Waterworks Infrastructure: Rome and New York at Columbia University.
