EUGENE, Ore. -- (July 16, 2010) - Historic preservation and architecture students at the University of Oregon have an opportunity for some hands-on work this summer at a big house. Make that the big house.

The 16th annual edition of the UO's Pacific Northwest Field School will offer an immersion course in early Alcatraz motif when its five-week program beginning Aug. 8 focuses on the Old Idaho Penitentiary in Boise. The sandstone-block structure was built in 1870 and was converted to a museum after closing in 1973.

"Having the field school here is invaluable to us," says Amber Beierle, interpretive specialist at the Idaho State Historical Society. "We know that Old Pen is popular and we don't want to love it death - we need to take care of it for the future."

The field school - funded by Oregon, Washington and Idaho state parks and historic preservation offices and the National Park Service - seeks to preserve significant Northwest buildings and use them as learning laboratories. Special funding for the Idaho field school has come from a Save America's Treasures grant and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The location of the field school rotates each year to a new site in one of the participating states.

The Old Idaho Penitentiary is one of several remaining territorial prisons in the American West. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 for its Romanesque stone architecture and a century of penal practices reflected in its design and construction.

Local sandstone was quarried nearby and used to construct the original building, which still exists. Many buildings on the site were quarried and built by inmate labor. The visitor site and museum now serves more than 30,000 adults and school-age groups each year.

This year's five repeatable field school sessions, each a week long, will focus primarily on masonry preservation. But the site also offers a wide variety of teaching opportunities in wood, metal and window restoration, as well as structural stabilization.

Each of this year's field school sessions will emphasize a preservation topic or skill. Cultural landscapes will be the emphasis of the first week, Aug. 8-13, and will provide instruction on archaeology practices, historic cemeteries and interpretation. Other weeklong sessions will examine sustainability practices, preservation technology, field recording and documentation.

"We will have a stonemason working with us each week," says field school co-director Shannon Bell. "The quality of the craftsmanship of this site is similar to Joliet Prison in Chicago. There is not as much masonry construction in the Northwest, and it's nice to work on something so different."

The field school usually has 40 participants, with an average of six to eight people each week. Participants pay $900 per week, with all food and lodging included. Academic credit is also available.

The field school is still accepting applications from interested students, architects, skilled trades workers and others interested in preservation. An application form and instructions are online at http://hp.uoregon.edu/index.cfm?mode=fieldschools&page=pnw.

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 63 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.

Contacts: Karen Johnson, A&AA external relations and communications, 541-346-3603, karenjj@uoregon.edu; Joe Mosley, UO media relations, 541-346-3606, jmosley@uoregon.edu

Source: Shannon Bell, co-director, 541-954-6123, shannonb@uoregon.edu
Amber Beierle, interpretive specialist, Old Pen, 208-334-2844 x102, amber.beierle@ishs.idaho.gov

Links: http://history.idaho.gov
http://history.idaho.gov/oldpen.html
http://hp.uoregon.edu/index.cfm?mode=fieldschools&page=pnw