Find the Right Preservation Consultant

November, 2001

Often, the State Historical Fund's staff receives worried calls from novice and experienced grant recipients who need help finding "the best" consultants (architects, engineers, project managers, and the like) to work on their historic preservation projects. The Fund's staff may not be able to predict which consultants may be "the best," but we may have a few tips to help you find the right one for your project. Because each preservation project is unique, the search for the right consultant can be intimidating, even for an experienced preservationist. With proper planning, your search for that perfect consultant can be as easy as P.I.E.!

P.I.E. is an easy way to remember to Prioritize your project's needs, Investigate your options, and Educate yourself about current historic preservation standards. Taking these three steps can help you minimize frustration and may help you to proceed with confidence into any preservation project-from a simple window restoration to a major multi-phase preservation endeavor.

Prioritize

Of course, the ideal consultant not only does professional work, but is someone who can complete the job quickly and within budget. But with so many qualified consultants available, how do you choose the right one for your project? It may help to determine the most urgent needs for the project and prioritize them. Ask yourself "what skills do I most value in a consultant for my particular project?" The skills that you seek may depend upon the schedule for your project.

Ask yourself if your project depends upon the construction season or the Fund's grant round deadlines. If so, you may want to seek a contractor who has demonstrated the ability to complete projects similar to yours within a short timeframe. However, if you require a fast turn-around, you may be expected to pay more for a consultant's undivided attention.

Perhaps you are not in a hurry to complete your project, but you are instead bound by financial constraints. For example, a small museum organization that needs some interior restoration for their building may not be in a hurry to complete the restoration of their floor, but instead they are bound by the need to raise, and obtain release of, funds to complete their project. In this case, a consultant who can complete the work for less cost would be more appropriate than one who can dedicate all of their time to complete the work quickly.

So, now you've identified the skills in a consultant that would best fit your project. How do you find out which consultant possesses the skills that you seek? The answer is:

Investigate

The Fund's staff cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of thorough investigation of your prospective consultants. Our technical advisors suggest that you take as much time as you need to digest this important piece of the P.I.E. Many calls to the Fund are from frustrated preservationists who are unsatisfied with their consultant's performance. Frequently, those preservationists report that they chose their consultants based upon reputation or other factors, but they did not check references. Checking a prospective consultant's past performance can save you time, money, and a whole lot of frustration.

Several resources will help you investigate candidates for your project. First, the Society maintains a list of consultants on our website. However, as a State agency, the Society cannot make recommendations about particular contractors, so you may need to seek other organizations or individuals that may be able to provide you with references.

Local historical societies, historic preservation organizations, municipal or county governments, and individuals who have successfully completed Fund-supported projects in the past may be valuable resources as you dig for reports of consultants' past performances.

Once you've gathered a few names, you're ready to ask specific questions about their work. Ideally, the consultants that you investigate should have experience with projects of a similar type and size to your project, and they should have completed those projects recently. Ask each potential consultant for a list of a few references. When researching those references, find out whether those consultants completed projects on time, within budget, and with high-quality work. Also, ask if those consultants were responsive to their clients' needs.

And don't forget to investigate one last resource: your own gut feeling. If the prospective consultant's qualifications look great on paper but they just seem too busy or otherwise unenthusiastic about your preservation project, you may want to consider another candidate for the job.

Finally, the last piece of the P.I.E. is:

Educate yourself about current preservation techniques and standards.
But you may ask "shouldn't my consultant be the expert with respect to preservation projects because, after all, isn't that what I'm paying them for?"

Well, yes, but you may have heard the phrase "an informed customer is the best customer." It helps, as you seek the right consultant, to educate yourself about current techniques, standards, and terms, so that you will know which questions to ask your consultant and so that you can understand their answers.

A great resource to consult is the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Archaeology and Historic Preservation. This document is available through the National Park Service's web site, or at the State Historical Fund offices located at 225 E. 16th Avenue in Denver. The Standards acts as a dictionary for historic preservation terms to which your consultant may refer. In addition to being a helpful educational tool for preservationists, they also serve as the basis for technical assistance and advice that the Fund's staff provides to its grant recipients.

Of course, you can always call the Fund's Public Outreach staff at 303/866-2825.

BY RACHAEL SIMPSON, State Historical Fund Technical Advisor