The program provides a framework within which to synthesize the multifaceted concerns of preservation, and students are encouraged to pool the diverse resources they bring to the program in directed projects. The ability to solve problems in preservation is emphasized over any set of administrative or political procedures. The program in historic preservation affords numerous opportunities for fieldwork and advance research in the region, including historic resources surveys and other projects devoted to documentation and analysis of the built environment and to preservation planning. The University's Institute for Urban Development Research provides internships in numerous preservation-related projects. Recent work includes developing design guidelines for historic districts in Washington, D.C., working with neighborhood revitalization initiatives, and contributing to other citizen-based preservation activities.
Studies sponsors student fellowships and scholarly publications.
Monographs to which students have contributed have examined such topics as the evolution of two Washington neighborhoods, the city's municipal lighting system, the gentrification of an in-town district, and the literature of the Greenbelt communities. Some courses are offered at the Smithsonian Institution , which also provides intern sites. The library collections available to students in the program are among the most extensive in the United States. Augmenting the regular holdings of the University's Gelman Library are special collections in Washington-area material and historic preservation. The Library of Congress and other major collections of federal agencies, the National Trust for Historic Preservation , the American Institute of Architects , and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., are located a short distance from campus.