The IHBC is delighted to welcome John Fidler – a founder member of the IHBC’s predecessor, the Association of Conservation Officers and first editor of Context, and now retired from his international consultancy – as the guest judge for the current IHBC Gus Astley Student Award, where his choice and others will receive certificates, cash prizes and a free place at the IHBC’s 2024 Reading School, #IHBCReading2024, on 12-15 June.
[John Fidler said]…’ a great vehicle for encouraging students…. to reveal their research into the historic environment and its sustainable management…’
John Fidler said:
‘I am excited to be invited to judge the prestigious Gus Astley Student Awards: a great vehicle for encouraging students past and present, and of all ages and backgrounds, to reveal their research into the historic environment and its sustainable management.’
‘I look forward to reading the submissions and learning what fledgling practitioners and career changers have discovered at the start of their chosen careers.’
‘My own trajectory started in similar fashion, with student applications for scholarships and awards that helped focus and define the pathways ahead. The GASA provides those opportunities, and links student interests to expert practitioners (perhaps future employer’s and collaborators) through the Institute of Historic Building Conservation.’
Chris Wood, Chair of the IHBC’s Education, Training and Standards (ETS) Committee said: ‘John is one of the IHBC’s most distinguished members, and among our most globally distinguished ones too! So I’m especially grateful that he has agreed to take the time to serve as the Institute’s Guest Judge for the current Award.’
‘His historic role with the IHBC as well as his strong and long-standing professional connections to our sector, both here and in the US especially, means that all entrants can be sure of a thorough and informed review of their work. So good luck to you John, and to all those submitting’.
Bob Kindred, IHBC’s lead adviser on the Gus Astley Awards, said: ‘I am really delighted that John will be our guest judge for the awards in the forthcoming year.’
‘This will be the 16th year we have run these prestigious conservation awards and we are very pleased yet again to have received submissions to an impressively high standard.’
‘The Gus Astley Student Award Winner – and all the other successful commended candidates – will have the chance to receive their prizes at the IHBC’s School in Reading on 15 June 2024, and I look forward to meeting them there.’
‘In conversation with past Award recipients, I know that offering the shortlisted student nominees a place at the Annual School is a great incentive to participate. It is also one of the best ways for us to help them in the formative stages of their careers and experience the wide range of work done by the Institute’s members.’
John A. Fidler, BA(Hons), DipArch, MAarch, MAconservation, AAGradDiplconservation, RIBA-SCA, MRIAI-IRL, IHBC-Rtrd, AIC-PA, FRICS-Rtrd, FSA, FIIC, FAPT
Upon retirement in 2022, John Fidler closed his Los Angeles based international consultancy practice, John Fidler Preservation Technology Inc., after forty-six years of award-winning, specialist technical experience and achievement in the conservation field protecting historic buildings, ancient monuments and archaeological sites.
A British architect with two postgraduate degrees in building conservation, Fidler remains licensed to practice in the U.K. and Ireland and is an internationally renowned expert in the study of historic building materials and construction, their forms of decay and deterioration, and in their benign, cost-effective and sustainable treatment. Current projects include rewriting the late Sir Bernard Feilden’s seminal textbook, The Conservation of Historic Buildings (Routledge, forthcoming), and supporting the Stockport Heritage Trust in defence of its architectural heritage.
His American work included conserving thirteenth-century CE Hopi masonry ruins at the World Heritage Site of Mesa Verde, Colorado; stabilizing the 1768 masonry ruins of Menokin plantation house in Warsaw, Virginia; consulting on the conservation of the 1868 fresco’d ceiling of the President’s Room in the US Capitol, Washington DC; and conserving the 1938 Streamline Modern facades of the former May Co., department store, part of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Overseas work included a condition assessment (pre-ISIS destruction) of the third-centry CE Classical remains at Palmyra WHS in Syria; consulting upon repair of eighth-century brick shrines at Phenom Bakheng temple, Angkor Wat WHS in Cambodia; and advising on the management of Paphos WHS, Cyprus and Ancient Corinth WHS, Greece.
Until 2006, he was Conservation Director at English Heritage, responsible for sixty staff, twenty-five consultants and a budget of £6 million concerned with technical policy development, scientific and technical research, standard-setting, advice, publications and outreach. Fidler oversaw the development of the English Heritage Conservation Principles; devised the organisation’s first Research Strategy; established the UK’s National Heritage Training Group and generated its first sector skills foresight plans; and with others, developed the UK’s professional accreditation system in building conservation. With his staff and consultants, a vast array for technical publications were generated, including Research Transactions, conference proceedings, textbooks and free online Technical Advice Notes. Previous roles at English Heritage over twenty-two years included responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the 420 historic properties in the national collection, including three World Heritage Sites; devising the organization’s response to third-party fire disasters at York Minster, Hampton Court, Uppark and Windsor castle; developing popular national outreach campaigns such as Framing Opinions; and operating as the body’s first Conservation Officer for Buildings at Risk.
John Fidler was the first Historic Buildings Architect for the City of London Corporation. He was a founder member of the Association of Conservation Officers (later IHBC) and first editor of Context. He served on boards of ASCHB, ICOMOS-UK, London Building Crafts College, and the RIBA Council, and sat on or chaired material standards committees for BSI and ASTM . He was a Vice President of Council for ICCROM, in Rome and sat on the grants committee of the Getty Foundation.
Over the span of his long career Fidler has conserved over 350 historic buildings and sites; delivered 11 lectures per year; published 126 papers, articles and books, including part-authorship of the New Orleans Charter, standards BS 6270, BS8221/2, BS459, and ASTM 141; and received 24 local, national and international awards.
See more on the Gus Astley Student Award
See Testimonials from successful applicants, and winners in previous Awards
See more on submitting online
See more on John Fidler in Context No. 100, on ‘A life in conservation’
