By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece. — G. K. Chesterton (1928, p. 2) Introduction: The Experience of Preservation While the preservation of historic buildings is a complicated subject usually dealt with in a limited number of dimensions, its impact is very broad. Preserved buildings have the potential to create new metaphors as symbols of history and design for students and faculty, and they have the potential to share a historical experience of space. Preservation can provide a new sense of architecture, and preserved buildings can become icons for the institution that chooses to preserve them. Yet the decisions and processes surrounding preservation are often no more modern than the structures themselves; we often use old metaphors to define the parameters of preservation rather than consider what is most relevant given our current time period, pragmatic considerations, and overall aesthetic objectives. Architecture tends to design rather than to define, and those structures that result from the desire to preserve do consider what response may be elicited from the end user. Copyright © Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). All rights reserved. | Planning for Higher Education 201 User Experience and Heritage Preservation A team driven by user benchmarks may provide a quite valid preservation effort at a much lower cost. by Steven J. Orfield, J. Wesley Chapman, and Nathan Davis Steven J. Orfield founded Orfield Labs in 1971 and has spent much of four decades in architectural and corporate research consulting. (Orfield Labs’ architectural consulting practice is focused on building performance and occupancy research.) He has been a leader in the design and measurement of user experience via quantitative subjective research accompanied by physical measurement. Much of his work is focused on helping clients use science to define problems before they investigate them. His undergraduate education was in philosophy, with an emphasis on the philosophy of language and science. J. Wesley Chapman has advanced degrees in both architecture and business. For 30 years, he has focused on understanding how to incorporate user needs into the design of the built environment. He was the head of strategic planning for the Minnesota State Architect’s Office prior to joining Orfield Labs. At Orfield Labs, he has taken a lead in educating clients on building performance and occupancy quality as the ultimate example of architectural programming at the user level. Dr. Nathan Davis trained as a professional cellist, and his career includes administrative assignments as a higher education consortium provost and as appointed leader of a government education agency focused on the arts (Perpich Center for Arts Education in Minnesota). He has been responsible for operations, maintenance, and planning for a multifaceted campus with residential living, on-site education, and outreach functions. He has worked with the Minnesota legislature and government to secure and implement capital bonding initiatives, and he is a consultant to Orfield Labs on higher education issues.