At 08:57 AM 10/8/98 EDT, Ken wrote:

>Do you sense a relative lack of qualified preservation trades in Oregon,
>compared to other geographic regions, as a result of factors such as these?

There are very few tradesfolk who actually specialize in preservation in
Oregon, especially true in the rural south and eastern portions of the
state, 'tho I rather doubt the wise-use cowboy planning factor has as much
to do with that fact as simple demographics.  Most of the qualified
restoration contractors 'round here do, however, work mostly on their own
projects and not for others, which makes my job much more difficult.  I
usually end up in lengthy discussions with a bottomline, unsympathetic
general about WHY they have to mill the trim to match the existing instead
of just using some stock product that "looks really similar."   Dan
Becker's line about having the worry about matching slate colors (or
whatever) sounds pretty luxurious to me....I assume it means Dan gets to
work with roofing contractors who actually notice the difference in
materials on the jobs they are working upon...

In general answer to your question, building tradespeople that like to work
on historic structures (heck, on old structures) out my way say they
specialize in "Restoration" or "Rehabilitation) not preservation.
Preservation is what they do to museums and roughly equates in common
parlance with embalming.

George Kramer, M.S.
Historic Preservation Consultant
Ashland, Oregon