Interior Design Student Accepted into Select Architectural Preservation Program

Sarah Marion, a rising Converse junior from Chester, S.C., is one of only 15 college students from throughout the country chosen to take part in a select architecture preservation program in Nantucket Island, Mass. this summer.

Marion will join with students from Penn State University, Florida State University, the University of Colorado and the University of Florida in The Preservation Institute: Nantucket (PI:N). The nine-week graduate level program is a cooperative effort between the University of Florida School of Architecture and the community of Nantucket. The students will be in Nantucket from June 6 through August 5.

“PI:N is a complete immersion into the field of architectural preservation, meaning that the students will receive hands-on experience in virtually all aspects of historic preservation. Nantucket is the ideal setting for a program such as this because it has over 800 structures that pre-date the Civil War,” said Peter Prugh, associate professor of architecture at the University of Florida and director of the PI:N program. Student research will include historic preservation theory and practice; graphic and photographic archival documentation of Nantucket buildings and sites that are under regulations of the Historical American Buildings Survey; and research and analysis of historic cultural resources using National Park Service Historic Structure Report process and methodology.

“The Nantucket community also benefits from this program because each student will work with a local agency such as the Nantucket Historical Association,” said Prugh. Student field documentation and research will be augmented by an off-island trip to historic Newport, RI and New Bedford.

Because the program is graduate level, Marion’s acceptance was unusual. “Even though she is a rising junior, I feel that Sarah is uniquely qualified to contribute significantly to the program,” said Prugh. “She is solid academically and has a strong inquisitive mind.” Marion is an interior design major at Converse, and will receive nine hours of course credit for her participation in PI:N. “There are many components to interior design that can take you in different directions,” she explained. “I am most interested in the architectural component of it which means I pay close attention to matters such as space design and wall sections.”

Marion is a graduate of Chester High School, and the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. A. Douglas Marion.