The School of Architecture offers a two-year Master of Science in Historic Preservation program, which complements the School's mission in a variety of important ways, and enriches its intellectual life. It has long been felt by faculty and students that an understanding of the techniques and materials employed by well-built historic buildings is natural to an institution dedicated to the design of buildings and places that are lasting and meaningful. This program broadens the School's academic focus and reinforces its curricular objectives by extending its focus to include the analysis and care of great existing buildings and places through thoughtful preservation practices. Historic Preservation is a field that embraces both art and science. Preparing students to enter this field requires a multi-disciplinary approach to a broad range of subjects, including art and architectural history, social sciences, building materials and systems, conservation methods, environmental science, transportation, urban and regional planning, and landscape design. The Master of Science in Historic Preservation program at Notre Dame includes all of these areas of study, integrating them within a distinctive perspective on the relationship between the built environment and contemporary art and culture. The curriculum emphasizes not only the tangible heritage of physical structures and landscapes, but also the intangible heritage of bodies of knowledge, craft traditions, and formal languages that produced our historic places and that, in many cases, survive or are recoverable today. Preservation, from this viewpoint, becomes a bridge uniting past, present, and future.