Life safety and making public places secure are now paramount issues facing the government and private sectors at all levels. On Jan. 22, 2002, the National Park Service, in cooperation with private and governmental partners, will present a conference focusing on how this environment will affect the historic character of America's cities and towns.
Titled "Balancing Public Safety and the Protection of Historic Places," the conference will include discussion on how to make public places as secure as possible while respecting the historic character of public buildings, structures, landscapes, transportation systems, neighborhoods, and parks. As the first in a series, this meeting will immediately precede the mid-winter U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting and will provide speakers, case studies, and breakout sessions to launch a national dialogue on meeting public safety needs while preserving irreplaceable historic resources.
Major issues expected to be discussed include risk assessment, lessons learned from experience, and commonsense approaches to sensitive protective measures. Speakers have been invited from New York, Washington D.C., the Pentagon, and experts in risk assessment, electronic surveillance, historic collections protection, and security and preparedness planning. Those who may benefit from this conference include mayors and other public officials; federal, state, and city security and historic preservation staffs; public entities, and the private sector.
Assisting the National Park Service in presenting this conference are the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Association of Partners for Public Lands. Persons interested in registering should send an e-mail with their name, telephone and email address to nps_fpi@nps.gov. There will be a registration fee ($185) that will include continental breakfast, lunch, and afternoon refreshments. A block of rooms has been reserved for conference participants at the Capitol Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., for the night of Jan. 21st. Questions or recommendations for topics and speakers may be sent to Constance Ramirez at nps_fpi@nps.gov or by telephone at 202-343-9569.