In 2012 Simeon Won the Askins Achievement Award a joint award from the Preservation Trade Network and the National Park Service Historic Preservation Training Center The award is given in honor of James S. (Jim) Askins, founder of the HPTC and recognizes contributions over and above the noteworthy. The award criteria includes contributions to the preservation trades for:

• the continuance of traditional building skills.

• advocacy of training in preservation trades.

• practicing a building trade at master level of skill and knowledge.

• extraordinary effort given to advancing the awareness of traditional building trade skills and knowledge.

The image shows Moss Rudely, Superintendent of HPTC and Simeon standing in front of the plaque on the walls of HPTC historic office. Simeon now works alongside Moss for the National Park Service, at HPTC NPS sister org National Center for Preservation Technology and Training developing new ways to preserve America’s Cultural Heritage.

https://ptn.org/Simeon-Warren

AT A CROSS ROADS

In February 2020, as the world was about to change abruptly, Simeon Warren began a new journey serving the American public. A month before the pandemic, Simeon closed his business and, after 20 years, left the American College of Building Arts to join the National Park Service, National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. In his role as Chief of Buildings and Landscapes, he develops innovative approaches to conserve America's national cultural resources, balancing preservation with sustainable community practices. In the following pages, you will see some of the work Simeon has developed during his time at NCPTT.

Image by SAWARREN. A sign post on a dessert outside Joshua Tree National Park.

DESIGNING PROTECTIVE HEALTH SPACES DURING COVID

During the early outbreak in COVID in February 2020 Simeon Warren brought together a small group comprising the Medical University of South Carolina MUSC  and the design build program at the Clemson Design Center in Charleston SC to help emergency professionals design and building emergency GUIDELINES for the ESTABLISHMENT of Respiratory Specimen Collection Sites (RSCS). This project became an innovative collaboration bringing together design professionals, architecture students, and emergency response medical experts to design and build a site to contend locally with a global pandemic. The work became part of a model showing how design professionals and Emergency Response teams could support each other through challenging design issues.

The Team Simeon brought together included MUSC Health training specialist Mary P. Mauldin and Emergency response expert Erik Modrzynski. Clemson Architecture Center: Charleston Professor of Design Build David Pastre. Design Professional Will Bullock of Will Bullock Creative.

REIMAGINING DIGITAL MAPPING OF CEMETERIES

Since 2016, Simeon Warren has worked alongside the Circular Church of Charleston SC, conserving and visualizing the history of the graveyard. This project has developed into a comprehensive database which has cataloged the sites monuments and created a management tool for the church. This was done alongside a team of design and conservation experts with the final product a generation ahead of most gravesite surveys. The team Included Will Bullock of Will Bullock Creative and Dr. Brent Fortenberry Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at LSU. The final Project was presented at the Washington DC National Trust conference in 2023.

The model which has been developed is projected to continue to be expanded for other historic sites in the US.

Tiwanaku Bolivia

State Department international outreach.

In 2022 the Embassy in La Paz Bolivia asked Simeon to help develop a study on conserving the stonework at the World Heritage site Tiwanaku. This study led to the Embassy and archeological site winning an Ambassadors Award to create a plan to conserve the sites stone work. This ongoing project has a partnership with Emily Hendrix, Professor of Design and Aliki Milioti Professor of Architecture at Utah Valley University who alongside their students are visualizing new methods to document the sites sculptures and walls. US ICOMOS Intern Sam Crowley.

Simeons’ main focus at NCPTT since 2020 has been to develop opportunities for partners and staff to use digital scanning technology to visualize historic spaces and structures and using the resulting data to develop tools to monitor and maintain these cultural assets. Simeon has worked on visualization studies in St. Augustine, Cataño Puerto Rico, Tiwanaku Bolivia, Natchitoches LA, and has supported the development of a first floor flood elevation study in the National Capital Region.

Image By Megan Reed & Mary Bindas. A lidar scan of Fort Pulaski which is being used to model how digital twin models can be utilized for National Park Planning site purpose.

CRDTeam: Cultural Resource UAS program

The National Park Service has no dedicated team flying Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for cultural resource application. In 2022, Simeon began the challenging process of building a new NPS UAS team, finally gaining approval in 2024. In 2025, eight staff members from the Cultural Resource, Partnerships, and Science Directorate began their pilot training, a program designed to expand their skill sets and enhance their ability to document America's historic cultural sites. First Missions in 2026 - the countdown has officially begun!

Image by Emily Hendrix Flying UAS over Tiwanaku World Heritage Site in Bolivia