Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández (He/him) is an Architectural Conservator and the founding Director-General of the Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Puerto Rico (CENCOR). He is also an Adjunct Professor in Preservation Technology at the Graduate Program in Architectural Conservation and Rehabilitation at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR).
Héctor studied for an M.Sc. in Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialised in architectural materials conservation and restoration. He has a B.EnvD. in Environmental Design-Architecture with a double major in History of the Americas, and a Post-Bachelor Certificate in Urban Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. He also studied Conservation Science courses within Georgetown University and the Universitá degli Studi de Firenze.
His teaching and research focus on the on the conservation of historic buildings and sites, the history of traditional building technology and vernacular construction, traditional trades, the conservation of historic building materials, particularly masonry mortars, concrete, and cementitious materials, and issues related to preservation policy and sustainable development.
WORK
Héctor has worked in several architectural conservation and restoration projects at Quinn Evans, the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), and the Historic American Building Survey at the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Office of the Architect of the Capitol as a Córdova-Fernós Fellow in Washington D.C. He also served as Editorial Assistant for Change Over Time, the international journal on conservation and the built environment published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Héctor has served on the boards of several professional, academic and non-profit organisations, including the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN) Board and the Architecture Specialty Group (ASG), both of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). He is a member of the American Institute for Conservation, the International Institute for Conservation (IIC), the American Institute of Architects, the Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI), US/ICOMOS and the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation.
He has received several awards for his commitment as an emerging architectural conservator and educator from several renowned institutions, including The Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia; the first the oldest extant craft guild in the United States founded in 1724; the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, the Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI), the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Puerto Rico and Florida/Caribbean Chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
