Stefanie Hetzke

Kann & Associates

The architectural firm of Kann & Associates of Baltimore, MD, hired me as a summer intern to work directly with their preservation architect and interior designer. This arrangement allowed me to work on several types of preservation projects. With the preservation architect, I worked on the Baltimore City Courthouse East roof. This project entailed collecting data on the existing conditions and developing recommendations on the best way to repair the roof. I also worked on a pure preservation project involving a mid-19th-century country home at Conowingo, Maryland, known as Bell Manor. I was directly involved in planning the restoration and replacement of all the windows in the home. Another project, the Hays-Heighe house on the campus of Harford Community College, consisted of the restoration of an 1808 farm house to its condition when occupied by the first owners. This project was in the investigation stage during the summer and required historic research and data collection, as well as tests to examine the water infiltration problems in the basement and develop recommendations and construction documents for the mitigation of the water leakage before restoration work is undertaken. In addition, I worked on two adaptive use projects with the interior designer. Both consisted of historic office buildings in downtown Baltimore that were being turned into hotels. These projects let me experience the challenges of putting spaces designed for today’s uses into the infrastructure of a historic building. All the projects were challenging in their own way and all allowed me to learn a great deal about historic building material conservation, code requirements for historic structures, and the process of the bricks and mortar stage of historic preservation.