Easements are flexible tools and can be custom-designed to meet the personal and financial needs of the property owner. In some cases, the owner may choose only to protect the exterior of the building, but a preservation easement may also protect a building’s interior and important landscape elements. 

TMH Executive Director George Smart led a panel discussion on making easements easier!  This included the nature of easements, what they protect, advantages and disadvantages, local historic districts, the National Register of Historic Places, length of easements, parties involved, and costs required.   

Elizabeth Sappenfield is Director of Urban Issues for Preservation North Carolina and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. A Raleigh native, Elizabeth is working on preservation issues in the City of Raleigh, including protecting historic neighborhoods, advocating for preservation in city planning, and working directly to preserve historic properties. She is particularly interested in the preservation of Raleigh's Modernist architecture, working with owners of Modern homes on their preservation options, including easements, and educating the public on Raleigh's Modernist architecture legacy.

Since 1978 Myrick Howard has been Executive Director of Preservation North Carolina, the state's only statewide private nonprofit preservation organization. Through its endangered properties program, PNC has protected more than 500 historic properties across the state, resulting in over $200 million in private investment. In 2007, he published Buying Time for Heritage, a book about saving endangered properties. He is the 2006 winner of the AIA Triangle Isosceles Award.

Special Guests:  Sally Greene, modernist homeowner whose house is under easement, appeared via video (below).  Ellen Weinstein of Dixon Weinstein Friedlein, the building’s architects, discussed the new chapel's design and construction.