School of Architecture: College of Design: University of Minnesota

Meghan Elliott, Adjunct Assistant Professor

Meghan Elliott

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Meghan Elliott, P.E., Associate AIA, established Preservation Design Works (PVN) to provide a new process for redeveloping historic buildings. In addition to leading Preservation Design Works, Meghan is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture, where she teaches Historic Building Conservation. Prior to founding PVN, Meghan established and led the preservation engineering group at Minneapolis-based Meyer Borgman Johnson Structural Design and Engineering (MBJ) from 2007 – 2012. She received her undergraduate degrees in Civil Engineering and Studio Art at Rice University in Houston, Texas before obtaining a Master of Architecture and Master of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley as a National Science Research Fellow. She recently served on the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission. She is also on the national Management Committee of the Construction History Society of America. She recently received the 2012 Preservation Alliance of Minnesota Emerging Leader Award. Meghan meets the Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualification Standards (36 CFR Part 61) in Historic Architecture.

Professional Credentials

Minnesota Professional Civil Engineer, License #45916

California Professional Civil Engineer, License #C 65749

Courses

ARCH 5672

Education

University of California, Berkeley, 1999 - 2002

Master of Science, Civil Engineering, 2002
Master of Architecture, 2002

Rice University, Houston, Texas, 1993 – 1998

Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering, Cum Laude, 1998
Bachelor of Arts, Studio Art and Art History, Cum Laude 1998
Bachelor of Arts, Environmental Science, Cum Laude 1998
Denmark’s International Study Program, Architecture and Design, 1998

City College of San Francisco, 2004 – 2006

Business and Real Estate Department

National Trust for Historic Preservation, June 2009

Preservation Leadership Training Program in Deadwood, SD

Selected Presentations

“’The World’s Largest All-Reinforced Concrete Office Building’: Development of the Reinforced Concrete Frame,” Construction History Society of America, November, 2012. University of Minnesota, October, 2012.

“Construction History: C.A.P. Turner and Early Innovations in Reinforced Concrete Flat Slabs,” Association for Preservation Technology, October 2012.

“Round Bars in Square Buildings: Reinforced Concrete Innovation in the Minneapolis Warehouse District,” Construction History Society of America Conference, Philadelphia, PA, May 2010. AIA-Iowa, 2011. AIA-North Carolina, 2011. AIA-Minnesota, 2010.

“The Preservation Work Process,” Presented to Fredrikson & Byron, Attorneys at Law, June 2011.

“In Defiance of Gravity: Early Grain Elevator Patents Authored Mostly in Minneapolis,” AIA-Minnesota, 2011.

“Testing the Limits: Long Term Deflection of the C.A.P. Turner Flat-Slab,” Presented at Construction History Society of America Inaugural Conference, Atlanta, GA, November 2008.

Professional Experience

Founder and Owner
Preservation Design Works, LLC (PVN), Minneapolis, MN

Oversee creation, development, launch, and operation of specialized consulting business dedicated to historic building reuse. PVN was established to provide a new process for redeveloping historic buildings through an integrated business model of preservation design, real estate development, and research. PVN was developed in response to the growing number of existing and aging historic buildings and the high cost of building reuse. The industry segmentation, lack of specialized knowledge, and misalignment of public and private goals results in a gross underuse of historic buildings due to a higher project cost and longer project duration. PVN integrates specialized knowledge in preservation design and code compliance, real estate development, and research to efficiently and effectively redevelop and increase the use of historic resources.

Associate, 2007 - 2012
Meyer Borgman Johnson Structural Design + Engineering
Lead preservation engineering and technician group within 60+-employee structural engineering firm. Act as structural-engineer-of record and project manager of historic and existing building projects; develop business strategy for preservation engineering; oversee technical aspects of preservation-related projects; mentor younger engineers; assign staff to preservation-related projects.
Selected current and recent projects include:

Mound Historic Pumphouse Relocation, Mound, Minnesota
Washburn Crosby Elevator No 1 Stabilization, Minneapolis, Minnesota
KK Berge Building Rehabilitation and Flood-proofing, Granite Falls, Minnesota
MCAD Historic Duplexes Condition Assessment and Reuse Study, Minneapolis, MN
Rufus Rand Mansion Condition Assessment, Wayzata, Minnesota
Great Northern Powerhouse Stabilization, St. Paul, Minnesota

Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission, 2008 - present
Department of Community Planning and Economic Development

Project Engineer and Manager, 2002 - 2006
Tipping Mar + associates, Berkeley, CA
Jon Brody Consulting Engineers, San Francisco, CA

Structural and Architectural Designer, 1998 – 2002
Arup, San Francisco, CA
Endres Ware Architects Engineers, Berkeley, CA
Matrix Structural Engineers, Houston, TX