Caitlin Beesley interned with PMA between March and June of 2023, researching sustainable materials, carbon calculators and life cycle analysis tools to be used in the office. Her internship culminated in a case study report on the carbon footprint of the Fountain Place Apartments seismic retrofit, a PMA project finalized in 2022. Caitlin holds degrees in architecture and history from the University of Idaho and is currently working on her master’s in historic preservation at the University of Oregon’s Portland campus.

Describe the focus of your internship at PMA. What aspects of your internship opportunity have you enjoyed most?

I started out researching material sustainability and sort of moved on from there to other deliverable projects. My first project was identifying the carbon impact of various insulation options for a PMA project, which was a fun introduction to the application of sustainable materials. For the second project, I came up with a list of calculators currently on the market or in a development phase, based on an interest at PMA to incorporate carbon calculation into project modeling and design. I worked closely with PMA associates Hali Knight and Skyla Leavitt on both projects. Hali and Skyla proposed using one of the calculators to explore the environmental impact of one of PMA’s recently finalized projects, which led to the carbon footprint case study report produced at the end of my internship. I enjoyed each of the projects, but my favorite was definitely the case study—the calculator we used, the Carbon Avoided: Retrofit Estimator (CARE) Tool, was a lot of fun to play around with. Writing up the CARE Tool findings into a report required a lot of additional information and consideration of design restraints, and a lot of help from Hali and Skyla, but I feel good about the end result.

Has your internship changed your perspective on historic preservation, or working with existing resources?

All three of the projects I worked on as an intern at PMA gave me new insight into the design process. Despite having a bachelor’s degree in architecture, most of my previous work experience has been with federal agencies. I’ve never worked for an architecture firm, so client-driven projects were foreign to me when I first came on board at PMA. Interning here has definitely given me a new perspective on the role of a designer, one that will help me and my ongoing education in the historic preservation field.

I have a lot of admiration for architects and designers who work within an existing architectural fabric. It can be limiting and unintuitive, especially for those of us who spent four-plus years focusing solely on new design in architecture school. PMA’s efforts to strengthen existing properties by extending their lifespans not only benefits their clients and the building occupants but also a wider community and global ecosystem. It’s noble work, one that counters our current culture of overconsumption and planned obsolescence. I’ve been very happy to be a part of it, even in a transitory way.

How will your internship experience influence your studies when you return to school?

The internship with PMA has been great opportunity to study how historic preservation and building reuse can be a catalyst for solving the climate crisis. In architecture school, I was very aware of the potential negative impact of the design and construction industry on the environment—it’s one reason I chose to explore historic preservation rather than continuing in the architecture profession. We’ve all heard “the greenest building is the one already built,” but there isn’t a lot of easy and accessible information out there that explores why this is. The carbon footprint case study I worked on with Hali and Skyla has helped me immensely in understanding how maintaining historic buildings is a net-positive for the planet. It’s also given me the tools to help explain this to others.

Do you have a favorite aspect about architecture or historic preservation?

When I was an undergrad, I had several professors who helped steer me towards historic preservation. One of them was fond of saying “every building has a story,” which spoke to me personally. Every building does have a story to tell, I firmly believe that—but buildings can also tell different stories to different people. They have layers of nuance and feeling and emotions, conveyed in their permanent materiality and their more impermanent use. Historic preservationists work at peeling back these layers so that a building and its stories aren’t lost or forgotten.

Buildings are also very complicated machines that require technical understanding to design, construct, operate and use. Understanding their place in our larger environment, similarly, demands that we look beyond their physical form and incorporate other fields of study into their analysis. How do people respond to a building? How do other buildings respond to it? How does the building itself respond to its surroundings? A lot goes into the historical and material interpretation of a building. I appreciate both perspectives, and have worked hard to incorporate them into my work and personal interests.

What architectural time period or style is most interesting to you and why?

This is a really tough question to answer. I think when I was younger I had more definitive preferences on style or time period, but as I continue to work in and explore the built environment I’ve discovered an appreciation for trends that I had previously discounted. For example, I never much liked Modernism when I was in architecture school. Modernism seemed boring, to paraphrase Robert Venturi. I’ve since come around. The history of Modernism on its own is more fascinating than I allowed as a younger student. Its social influences—the industrial revolution and wide-spread enfranchisement of the middle and working classes—alone make it a style worth studying. At the same time, I gained an appreciation of Modernism’s minimalist aesthetic. My learning curve on Modernism sums up how I feel about all architecture—there’s a lot to appreciate that goes beyond a building’s style.

Blog post written by Caitlin Beesley, PMA intern 2023.

PMA would like to thank Caitlin for her work, we thoroughly enjoyed her presence here and cannot wait to see what she does next!