Historic Preservation & Heritage Consulting LLC (HP&HC) provides a wide range of services related to historic preservation, community heritage, and state and local history. Principal Dr. James Glass has 40 years of experience as a Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, historic preservation project manager, consultant, architectural historian, and historian. HP&HC can provide clients with authoritative advice on how to use successfully federal, state, and local government programs in historic preservation, plan preservation strategies to enhance attractiveness and marketability of historic neighborhoods, strategize approaches to the renovation of historic buildings or structures, develop heritage tourism strategies for communities, and access and successfully obtain financial incentives and assistance for the rehabilitation of historic buildings. In addition, we can assist clients in preparing applications for listing historic properties or historic districts in the National Register of Historic Places and qualify property owners for financial incentives to help in rehabilitation and restoration. Finally, we can prepare well-researched histories of historic buildings, neighborhoods, or communities and interpret the architectural style and special design features of historic structures.

Principal Dr. James Glass holds a Ph.D. in architectural history and historic preservation planning from Cornell University, an M.A. in the history of urban development from Cornell, an M.A. in Latin American history from Indiana University, and a B.A. in history and Spanish from the University of Indianapolis. He is considered an authority on the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and has written a book and several articles on the history of the National Historic Preservation Act and its programs. He also is an expert on the history of the Gas Boom of East Central Indiana and how it helped develop Indiana into an industrial state. He is co-author of the Arcadia Press book, The Gas Boom of East Central Indiana.

Dr. Glass has served as Director of the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) for Indiana twice. As such, he has administered and has a detailed understanding of all of the programs of the National Historic Preservation Act, including the National Register of Historic Places, Section 106 review, surveys of historic properties, federal historic rehabilitation tax credit program, and federal Historic Preservation Fund grant program. He also has administered state historic preservation and archaeology programs in Indiana, including the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures, the Indiana historic rehabilitation tax credit programs for commercial buildings and homeowners of historic homes, reviewing state projects affecting state-owned historic buildings, and the state archaeological laws.

He also has served as Project Manager for Historic Preservation at the firm of Greenhorne & O’Mara, Inc. of Greenbelt, Maryland and while there managed projects for federal, state, and private clients. These included developing for the U.S. Navy a prototype for historic and archaeological resources plans; preparing 5 such plans for Navy bases; conducting surveys of historic resources on private properties and making recommendations for which historic features should be retained; preparing design guidelines for the historic buildings and features of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis; and conducting a survey of historic church buildings in Montgomery County, Maryland.

As founding Director of the Center for Historic Preservation at Ball State, Dr. Glass oversaw the efforts of two project coordinators and as many as 10 graduate preservation students in carrying out client projects involving historic structures reports for Indiana state historic sites, heritage tourism walking tour brochures for six communities; preparation of National Register applications for historic districts in five Indiana communities; and studies of the impact of the Indiana Gas Boom on five Indiana communities.

Since 2003, Dr. Glass has written a popular column for the Indianapolis Star about Indiana and Indianapolis history and heritage. Among his topics has been adaptive uses for historic church buildings, spas and resorts in Indiana history, buildings associated with fraternal orders, the Underground Railroad in Indiana, historic preservation in Elkhart, Indiana, the history and architecture of Brookville, Indiana, the Frances Slocum Trail in north central Indiana, the Vonnegut family of Indianapolis, and the Indianapolis City Market.