Your building functions as a single unit but comprises countless moving parts and pieces—sometimes even multiple buildings. Our design teams are built to mirror this structure. With expertise across all functions and facets of design, we inject the design process with knowledge, collaboration, and partnership.
Highlighting and reinvigorating historic character and significance is a craft that demands careful and thoughtful design solutions. Cushing Terrell’s team of historic preservationists is equipped with knowledge of the most granular aspects of the built environment — aspects that transcend a moment in time.
Historic Buildings Reimagined
Our teams can advise on the adaptive reuse of buildings, an approach that values a structure’s original look but revitalizes it with a new purpose. The benefits of adaptive reuse are:
- Maintaining cultural heritage by repurposing properties for current needs.
- Reducing a community’s carbon footprint by maintaining some existing materials. Adaptive reuse of a building may save 50 to 75% of embodied carbon.
- Minimizing urban sprawl by using existing structures that often make up a city’s core.
“Every new project presents an opportunity to grow as a professional and improve our firm’s processes. We are constantly working to bridge the past and the future, using new technologies to study, preserve, and improve old buildings.”
Ava Alltmont, Historic Preservation Architect | New Orleans
A Full-Service Team
Cushing Terrell’s Historic Preservation team offers a wide range of historic preservation design, reporting, and planning services throughout the United States.
Our in-depth expertise covers materials and systems, building behavior and pathologies, historic materials and their uses and resiliency, and how weather and other outside factors impact both structural integrity and character-defining features. This knowledge provides our team with a substantial background for constructing and implementing preservation plans.
We offer full architectural services for all phases of architectural and engineering projects including preservation, restoration, rehabilitation, adaptive reuse, reconstruction, and sensitive new contextual design.
- Historic resource review
- HABS/HAER documentation
- Section 106 and Section 110 compliance
- Historic Tax Credit Part 1, 2, and 3 applications
- National Register of Historic Places nominations
- Historic buildings surveys and assessments
- Architectural material analysis
- Master planning
- Building maintenance and long-range plans
In addition, all of our historic preservation team members meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Qualification Standards for Architecture and Historic Architecture.
Episodes of Cushing Terrell’s podcast, “Good, Thoughtful Hosts”:
From the Cushing Terrell blog:
- Historic Preservation: Improving Buildings and Beyond
- Montana State University’s Beloved, Historic Romney Hall Awarded LEED Gold | Cushing Terrell
- Historic Building in Downtown Billings Sees New Life as a Hub for Entrepreneurs | Cushing Terrell
- Land (Re) Use and Climate Change: Breathing New Life into Old Buildings | Cushing Terrell
Collaborative and Technology-Enabled
Much of our historic preservation work occurs in parallel with Cushing Terrell’s other disciplines. We collaborate with architects, building envelope specialists, structural and civil engineers, electrical and mechanical engineers, and interior designers to bring forward unique solutions specific to each project’s needs.
From ground-penetrating radar to 3D building scanning, advanced in-house technology solutions help us fully understand the project at hand. We constantly seek out opportunities to incorporate new technologies, testing, and computer modeling into the planning and documenting stages of our process.
Recognition
Stewardship Award | November 2023
LBJ Suite Furnishings Conservation; U.S. General Services Administration; Austin, TX
Preservation Austin Merit Awards
Honorable Mention, Preservation | September 2021
Alberta Bair Theatre; Billings, MT
Yellowstone Preservation Society
Grow Smart Award | December 2020
Tenth and Main Building; Boise, ID
Idaho Smart Growth
Top Projects People’s Choice Award (Renovation) | September 2020
Tenth and Main Building, Kount Tenant Improvement; Boise, ID
Idaho Business Review
Lewis & Clark County Historic Preservation Award | June 2019
Carroll College Chapel; Helena, MT
Lewis & Clark County Commission
Building Performance, Existing Building | 2019
Cushing Terrell [formerly CTA] Office; Billings, MT
USGBC Mountain West Leadership Awards
Building Excellence Awards, Mayor’s Choice | 2019
Tenth and Main Revitalization
City of Boise; Boise, ID
Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation | April 2018
Masonic Temple Lodge No. 18 Rehabilitation; Bozeman, MT
Bozeman Planning Department
Preservation Excellence Award | June 2018
Masonic Temple Lodge No. 18 Rehabilitation; Bozeman, MT
Montana Preservation Alliance
Beautification Award | November 2017
Masonic Temple Lodge No. 18 Rehabilitation; Bozeman, MT
Bozeman Beautification Advisory Board
Public-Private Organizations, Most Compatible Addition Award | May 2017
St. Patrick House, St. Patrick Hospital; Missoula, MT
Missoula Historic Preservation Commission
Montana Historic Preservation Award, Outstanding Heritage Stewardship| January 2017
[Building Owner: Billings School District 2]
McKinley & Broadwater Elementaries; Billings, MT
Montana Historical Society/State Historical Preservation Office
Orchid Award, Historic Contribution | April 2016
Kimberly School District, L.A. Thomas Gymnasium; Kimberly, ID
Preservation Idaho Orchids and Onions Awards
