Some may remember architect and artist Jorge Otero-Pailos writing in these pages that “our profession’s current commitment to preservation will most likely not last long.” 

Six years later, his outlook seems less pessimistic: Otero-Pailos, who holds a B.Arch. from Cornell and a Ph.D. from MIT, was in January of this year named director of the first U.S.-based doctoral program exclusively focused on historic preservation. Offered at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where Otero-Pailos has taught and directed the master’s program in preservation, the Ph.D. program will begin in fall 2018. RECORD spoke with Otero-Pailos by phone about his new role and the future of the field.