KS2: APT College of Fellows Installation & Keynote

This session has qualified for 1 LU Credit

A special night to recognize this year’s inductees. This will have a reception and be followed by the keynote presentation.

Keynote: As fire ripped through Notre-Dame of Paris on April 15, 2019, it melted the cathedral’s lead roof tiles, destroyed the timber framework of both the 19th-century spire and the largely 13th-century nave and choir roofs, and weakened the stones the flames licked. The water firefighters required to extinguish the blaze left the structure even more fragile. And yet, for Notre-Dame specialists, the structural resilience of its “stone skeleton” likewise demonstrated the ingenuity of the Gothic cathedral’s designers and the skill of its builders. 

In the light of the fire, many people around the world turned their attention to Notre-Dame. With their attention came sizable donations that had not flowed nearly as freely prior to the conflagration, even though fundraising for a major restoration campaign had been underway since 2017. In the years since the 2019 fire, architects, engineers, conservators, materials scientists, architectural historians, and especially tradespeople have worked tirelessly to rebuild the cathedral identically (à l’identique). Notre-Dame is slated to reopen to the public by the end of this year, a feat made possible in large part by a 3D laser survey produced in 2010 and a hand-drawn survey of the roof structure realized in 2014-2015. 

In her College of Fellows Keynote at the APT and National Trust 2024 Joint Conference, noted Notre-Dame specialist, architectural historian, digital preservation advocate, and translator Dr. Lindsay Cook (Penn State University) will reflect on the many preservation technology lessons learned from the Notre-Dame fire and propose ways that the conservation and restoration of this prominent, well-resourced outlier ought to serve as a bridge between cultural heritage sites, especially to those historically overlooked or underfunded.