Lauren brings her experience and professional qualifications in the stewardship of built environments to support and lead practical and sustainable adaptive reuse and restoration solutions to urban and rural development.
Her doctorate was awarded by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, for ground-breaking research into historic masonry and mortars, combining her expertise in construction technology, historic structures and material science. The National Endowment for the Arts funded this research. Building on that this expertise, Lauren’s career has included working for the U.S. and Hungarian governments, academia (where she was a tenured professor of conservation technology), and local communities such as Mesa, AZ, and The Gila River Indian Community. In more recent years, she has been working in the private sector and as Faculty Associate at the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. She is the 2015 recipient of the Arizona Governor's Heritage Preservation Honor Award and a team awardee of the 2019 Mesa Historic Preservation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rehabilitation & Restoration.
Lauren has published over 100 articles, briefs, and reviews; and has given numerous presentations at national and international conferences. In particular, in 1999, she authored two books: The Use of and Need for Preservation Standards in Architectural Conservation (published by ASTM), and The Lost Art of Tabby Redefined: Preserving Oglethorpe's Architectural Legacy (published by Architectural Conservation Press). She also edited and produced the Masonry Conservation Handbook for the City of Cottage Grove, Oregon and the Warehouse District Reactivation Plan for the City of Phoenix, Arizona. Her latest publication is a chapter: “Urban Sustainable Design” in Sustainability for the 21st Century: Pathways, Programs, and Policies.
Lauren has been an active proponent for, and leader in, the integration of stewardship focused on connecting social, economic and environmental resilience with our built environments and the natural landscapes in which they are situated. For her, preserving history in its physical manifestations isn’t about creating museums. Preserving history through our built environments provides important cultural and social milestones in our nation’s development, creating a firm foundation for future economic growth and the ability of communities everywhere to better withstand the realities of technological and climatic changes taking place, and enable more people to experience fulfilled and engaged lives.