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Houston is a city that embraces change, often at the expense of its past. Join Preservation Houston on Tuesday evening, November 17, for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about why historic places matter, what we lose when they disappear and how preservation can shape Houston’s future.
The Kirby Mansion, Garden Oaks Theater, Astrodome and Harper School have brought preservation into the headlines, but quieter decisions about family homes, churches and neighborhood gathering places carry their own consequences. These decisions ask us to consider what makes a place worth keeping, whose experience gives it meaning and what its survival or loss will mean for the city we are building.
Why should preservation matter in Houston? A city that takes pride in reinvention needs a compelling answer, one that considers how historic places affect our identity, our well-being and our connections to one another. What purpose should preservation serve in the city’s life, and how can it help Houston become the city we want it to be?
Moderator Bill Dupont will lead a panel bringing together perspectives from research, community advocacy, hands-on restoration and public history. The panelists’ work reflects the many ways people come to care for historic places and take responsibility for their future. Together, they will explore the reasons we preserve, challenge familiar assumptions and consider preservation’s place in a changing Houston.
Location and parking
This program will take place in Fondren Hall in the Jones Youth Building at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 5501 Main Street. Fondren Hall is on the second floor of the Jones building, which is immediately north of St. Paul’s historic sanctuary. Free parking is available in the St. Paul’s lot on the northeast corner of Fannin and Binz (enter from Binz). The venue is a short walk from the Museum District station on MetroRail's Red Line.
MODERATOR
Bill Dupont, FAIA, is a professor of architecture leading the new historic preservation program at the University of Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. His four decades of preservation experience span private practice, government, nonprofit organizations and higher education, including 11 years as architect for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
PANELISTS
Emily Ardoin is preservation services director at Preservation Houston, where she leads advocacy and preservation policy efforts and helps people find practical ways to protect and care for historic places.
Caroline Cheong is associate director of community engagement at the Kinder Institute’s Center for Housing and Neighborhoods at Rice University, where her work spans historic preservation, affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization.
Roni Cabrera is an artist and founder of Art in the Heart, a community arts nonprofit rooted in Houston’s Eastex Jensen neighborhood. She led the 2025 campaign to save the neighborhood’s Granada Theater.
Deavion Wallace is a graduate student at Stephen F. Austin State University and a team member on the University of Houston’s Mapping Houston’s Old Chinatown project. Her thesis explores the limits of preservation in Old Chinatown and how the community preserves its memory.