Ian K.M. Stewart is the co-founding partner of Preservation Inc., as well as the owner and founder of New Netherland Timber Framing and Preservation, LLC, a firm which specializes in the preservation of built heritage through assessment, documentation, and physical conservation and restoration. New Netherland Timber Framing and Preservation puts great emphasis on the preservation of traditional woodworking and other historic craft skills, tools, and techniques. He has 18 years of preservation experience working on a wide variety of historic buildings and cultural heritage sites around the United States. He has also worked with and consulted for several notable museums.
Ian holds a Master of Arts in Preservation Studies, with a focus on Architectural History, from Boston University’s School of American and New England Studies. He is well-versed in preservation philosophy and various national and international professional conservation standards and charters, such as the US Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, etc. A major area of research has been the wood and masonry buildings constructed by Netherlandish immigrants to the United States, as well as the origins of those styles in Belgium and the Netherlands. His work in this field was recognized by the New Netherland Institute, who awarded him the Alice P. Kenney award in 2018.
In August of 2019, the government of the Netherlands sponsored Ian’s attendance to the certificate program at Erasmus University which was focused on Urban Heritage Management and brought together team members from four different countries to strategize on the future of the historic Katendrecht neighborhood in Rotterdam. Historic Environment Scotland, in conjunction with the Preservation Trades Network, asked him to demonstrate timber framing at the International Preservation Trades Workshop (IPTW), which was held in September of 2019 at the Engine Shed, which is the building preservation center for HES in Stirling, Scotland. He was involved with a multi-part workshop coordinated by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (Cultural Heritage Ministry), which brings together experts from the United States and the Netherlands to consult and collaborate to develop plans and programs for two similar historic sites.
Focused on preserving both the buildings and the crafts which created them, Ian is a passionate advocate for trades education. Through the office of the New York State Historic Preservation Officer, he developed a Preservation Carpentry/Building Conservation class which can be used at Community Colleges throughout New York. He was the president of the Preservation Trades Network for several years, and is an active member of the preservation wing of the Timber Framers Guild, the Traditional Timber Frame Research and Advisory Group (TTRAG). In November of 2019 he gave a Ted talk titled “Could preservation trades help save our cities?”.
The list of Ian’s past preservation and restoration work includes many early “Dutch” houses, meeting houses, barns and mills across the United States, including several that are on the National Register and several National Historic Landmarks. These include Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, New York, Historic Hudson Valley and Camp Uncas in Raquette Lake, New York. He has, along with his colleague William Remsen, designed and executed successful deinstallation of several ancient artifacts including an Imperial Roman door surround from the 2nd century CE and a 5th Dynasty Old Kingdom mastaba chapel wall at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He was recently a part of an international conservation team organized by the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago which was funded by The Ambassador’s Fund of the United States Department of State to assess the structure of the 15th century Sufi Mosque at Langar Ota in Uzbekistan. He has considerable experience with historic gravestone documentation and conservation. He has consulted with the Historic Burying Ground Initiative, a branch of the City of Boston Department of Parks since 2012 and has conducted conservation assessments of historic cemeteries, including the Henry Ford family cemetery in Dearborn, Michigan and various parts of the Historic Cemetery in the Town of Stockbridge in Massachusetts.