The University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design has joined the Suzanne Deal Booth Institute for Heritage Preservation at World Monuments Fund (WMF) as an academic partner. UH is now part of a global network announced in February that includes Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Tulane University, Carleton University, and the University of Duhok. The partnership connects scholarly expertise with real-world practice, positioning UH’s new historic preservation program within WMF’s global network, which has worked at more than 700 sites in 112 countries since 1965.
Through the collaboration, Hines College students and faculty will have opportunities for field-based research at WMF sites worldwide, internships, joint research projects, and hands-on professional workshops.
“It is an opportunity to connect our brand-new historic preservation and cultural sustainability program with internships, grants, and conservation experience,” said Patricia B. Oliver, FAIA, dean of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. “This partnership gives Hines College students the chance to learn from real conservation challenges happening around the world.”
The Institute was established in 2025 with a $10 million gift from philanthropist Suzanne Deal Booth, with additional funding from the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, Denise Littlefield Sobel, and Virginia James. It unites WMF's training programs, academic partnerships, research, and professional networks around four key pillars: academic partnerships linking graduate study to fieldwork, heritage trades training, global professional networks, and evidence-based research.
“UH sits in the middle of a thriving urban center rife with the preservation challenges and successes emblematic of the field,” said Jonathan S. Bell, PhD, senior vice president for global preservation strategy and director of the Suzanne Deal Booth Institute for Heritage Preservation at WMF. “This landscape is an inspiring backdrop for the historic preservation concentration within the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design and makes it a wonderful collaborator for World Monuments Fund's newly established Suzanne Deal Booth Institute for Heritage Preservation. The fact that the historic preservation concentration sits within a school dedicated to robust training for future leaders in fields related to architecture and design makes it a perfect collaborator.”
The partnership builds directly on Hines College's historic preservation program, led by William Dupont, FAIA, who brings four decades of experience to the role. Dupont previously served as an architect for the National Trust for Historic Preservation—overseeing work on Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, Philip Johnson's Glass House, and buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright—and conducted research at UNESCO World Heritage sites including Mesa Verde National Park and the San Antonio Missions. He also led the award-winning “Disaster-Proof Texas Heritage” initiative for historic Gulf Coast houses of worship. As Houston works to balance rapid growth with preserving its emerging heritage identity, while protecting cultural resources from natural hazards, the program equips students to integrate preservation into planning decisions to develop disaster-resilience strategies that apply locally and internationally.
“Houston is not known for its historic preservation, and our program at UH is young,” said Dupont, professor and coordinator of historic preservation at the Hines College. “The collaboration will strengthen our visibility, reputation, and professional relevance. Working with one of the most respected heritage organizations in the world will add high value for our graduates. It will help them understand that the issues we face in the Gulf Coast are often not so different from elsewhere, and to see how lessons from abroad can be brought home and applied in local contexts. I expect the partnership will lead to important innovations in the field as well as an expansion of global professional networks. The next generation of preservation leaders needs to know how to learn and share information across diverse cultures so that we may better address shared cultural heritage management issues in a rapidly changing world.”
The academic model has a proven track record: since 2015, WMF and Columbia University have run eight field schools, training more than 100 Columbia students and 160 local students and researchers at sites including the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. Hines College students now have access to similar high-impact fieldwork, internships, and research tied directly to active preservation projects worldwide.