Historic Preservation Law Expert

Gary L. Cole AIA, Esq. is both a His­toric Preser­va­tion Archi­tect and a His­toric Preser­va­tion Attorney.

He is an expert in His­toric Preser­va­tion archi­tec­ture and law and pro­vides his­toric preser­va­tion expert wit­ness and con­sult­ing ser­vices through­out the Unit­ed States.  He exceeds the Nation­al Park Service’s Pro­fes­sion­al Qual­i­fi­ca­tions Stan­dards for both Archi­tec­ture and His­tor­i­cal Archi­tec­ture.  Mr. Cole is a for­mer His­tor­i­cal Archi­tect for Illi­nois’ state his­toric preser­va­tion office (SHPO) — the Illi­nois His­toric Preser­va­tion Agency - where he was involved in the tax-ben­e­fit, reha­bil­i­ta­tion, land­mark­ing, and state and fed­er­al reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance pro­gram admin­is­tra­tion for hun­dreds of his­toric properties.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Archi­tec­ture – His­toric Preser­va­tion Option – from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois’ Grad­u­ate School of Archi­tec­ture and was the recip­i­ent of sev­er­al archi­tec­tur­al awards includ­ing First Place in the nation­al Charles E. Peter­son Prize for mea­sured draw­ings his­toric build­ings.  Those draw­ings are per­ma­nent­ly archived in the U. S. Library of Congress’s His­toric Amer­i­can Build­ing Sur­vey Collection.

Mr. Cole is also the co-author of a legal trea­tise on his­toric preser­va­tion law pub­lished by the Illi­nois Insti­tute of Con­tin­u­ing Legal Edu­ca­tion.  He has spo­ken at local, state, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al his­toric preser­va­tion conferences.

He is also a for­mer Vis­it­ing Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Archi­tec­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois’ Grad­u­ate School of Archi­tec­ture, His­toric Preser­va­tion Option and was an Instruc­tor at the School of the Art Insti­tute of Chicago’s his­toric preser­va­tion pro­gram.  He was a found­ing board mem­ber of the Insti­tute of Clas­si­cal Archi­tec­ture & Art Chica­go-Mid­west Chap­ter, and The Jef­fer­son Soci­ety for Archi­tect-Attor­neys.

EXPERT WITNESS & CONSULTING SERVICES

In addi­tion to his oth­er con­struc­tion law, acces­si­bil­i­ty law, arbi­tra­tion and medi­a­tion legal ser­vices, Mr. Cole can pro­vide Expert Wit­ness Con­sult­ing ser­vices to attor­neys involved in local, state and nation­al his­toric preser­va­tion dis­putes involv­ing prop­er­ty land­mark­ing, his­toric prop­er­ty reha­bil­i­ta­tion, fed­er­al his­toric tax cred­it and oth­er tax-ben­e­fit pro­grams, Sec­tion 106 of the Nation­al His­toric Preser­va­tion Act reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance, and oth­er his­toric preser­va­tion relat­ed matters.

He has served as an expert wit­ness in his­toric preser­va­tion civ­il and local admin­is­tra­tive dis­putes, includ­ing land­mark­ing dis­putes involv­ing local gov­ern­ments and pri­vate par­ties, and in fed­er­al lit­i­ga­tion involv­ing his­toric prop­er­ties with Amer­i­cans with Dis­abil­i­ties Act (ADA) con­sid­er­a­tions.  He can assist attor­neys with a wide range of his­toric preser­va­tion dis­putes, includ­ing land­mark­ing issues, as a con­sult­ing expert witness.

SELECT HISTORIC PRESERVATION ATTORNEY & ARCHITECT EXPERIENCE

HISTORIC PRESERVATION ATTORNEY. As a His­toric Preser­va­tion Attor­ney he has assist­ed devel­op­ers and prop­er­ty own­ers in both object­ing to and obtain­ing Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places and local land­mark des­ig­na­tion sta­tus; with obtain­ing fed­er­al His­toric Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Tax Cred­it Pro­gram and state His­toric Prop­er­ty Tax Assess­ment Freeze Pro­gram tax ben­e­fits; with appeal­ing the denial of fed­er­al His­toric Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Tax Cred­its before the Nation­al Park Ser­vice in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.; and, with Sec­tion 106 of the Nation­al His­toric Preser­va­tion Act of 1966  reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance. He has been involved with his­toric com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial projects from Chica­go to Mia­mi Beach and Palm Beach, and in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION ARCHITECT. As a for­mer His­tor­i­cal Archi­tect with Illi­nois’ State His­toric Preser­va­tion Office (SHPO) – the Illi­nois His­toric Preser­va­tion Agency (IHPA) – Mr. Cole has an insider’s under­stand­ing of the laws and work­ings of local, state and fed­er­al his­toric preser­va­tion reg­u­la­to­ry enti­ties. While at the IHPA he con­duct­ed hun­dreds of his­toric prop­er­ty site inspec­tions for fed­er­al His­toric Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Tax Cred­it and state His­toric Prop­er­ty Tax Assess­ment Freeze projects for their com­pli­ance with The Sec­re­tary of the Interior’s Stan­dards for Reha­bil­i­ta­tion; in con­nec­tion with Sec­tion 106 of the Nation­al His­toric Preser­va­tion Act of 1966 reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance; and, assist­ing with Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places and local land­mark­ing efforts. He was also a mem­ber of the 1993 Nation­al Trust’s Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er Flood Relief Pro­gram work­ing with the FEMA assist­ing in the recov­ery of flood­ed his­toric towns along the Mis­sis­sip­pi River.

Mr. Cole is a for­mer Vis­it­ing Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Archi­tec­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois’ Grad­u­ate School of Architecture’s His­toric Preser­va­tion Pro­gram, where he taught cours­es on his­toric build­ing inves­ti­ga­tion and doc­u­men­ta­tion, his­toric mate­r­i­al pathol­o­gy and foren­sics, and hands-on tra­di­tion­al con­struc­tion methods.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION LEGAL SERVICES

Devel­op­ment Financial/Economic Incen­tives Legal Services

Many com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial his­toric reha­bil­i­ta­tion projects are eli­gi­ble for var­i­ous types of devel­op­ment finan­cial incen­tives. How­ev­er, most of these incen­tives have com­pli­cat­ed, and often vague require­ments – such as the fed­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Interior’s Stan­dards for Reha­bil­i­ta­tion – and require work­ing with local, state and fed­er­al preser­va­tion com­mis­sions and agen­cies. The key to max­i­miz­ing his­toric reha­bil­i­ta­tion-relat­ed finan­cial oppor­tu­ni­ties is in devel­op­ing cre­ative and com­pre­hen­sive strate­gies at the com­mence­ment of any project and imple­ment­ing a plan that ensures the great­est return pos­si­ble with­in the prop­er time frames.

• Obtain­ing and Max­i­miz­ing Fed­er­al Reha­bil­i­ta­tion His­toric Tax Credits

• His­toric Preser­va­tion Façade/Conservation Easements

• Obtain­ing Prop­er­ty Tax Assess­ment Freeze Ben­e­fits (Illi­nois-spe­cif­ic)

• Obtain­ing the Ad Val­orem Tax Exemp­tion for His­toric Properties

Land­mark­ing Legal Services

While some states have active land­mark­ing pro­grams, most land­mark­ing occurs at the local lev­el or by list­ing on the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places. The dif­fer­ences between the two types of legal his­toric des­ig­na­tions are pro­found and great­ly affect the abil­i­ty of prop­er­ty own­ers to both avail them­selves of financial/economic incen­tives and their abil­i­ty mod­i­fy their build­ings with­out spe­cial gov­ern­men­tal approval. For that rea­son, while some prop­er­ty own­ers seek land­mark sta­tus for their prop­er­ties, oth­ers object to it. Mr. Cole has rep­re­sent­ed prop­er­ty own­ers in obtain­ing and object­ing to land­mark des­ig­na­tions – in each case, by prop­er apply­ing and observ­ing local and fed­er­al land­mark­ing laws to obtain the best out­come for his clients.

• Obtain­ing and Object­ing to List­ing on the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places

• Obtain­ing and Object­ing to Local Land­mark Designations

• Work­ing with His­toric Preser­va­tion Not-For-Prof­it Advo­ca­cy Groups

Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Services

Much of the his­toric-preser­va­tion relat­ed dis­putes involve land­mark­ing issues, cit­i­zen advo­ca­cy or gov­ern­ment objec­tions to own­ers exer­cis­ing their prop­er­ty rights of mod­i­fy­ing their prop­er­ties, or the denial of var­i­ous preser­va­tion-relat­ed financial/economic incen­tives.  In some cas­es, these dis­putes can be resolved through admin­is­tra­tive actions or nego­ti­a­tions; how­ev­er, in oth­er cas­es, more aggres­sive rep­re­sen­ta­tion is required.

• Lit­i­ga­tion

• Arbi­tra­tion

• Medi­a­tion

• Admin­is­tra­tive Appeals

• His­toric Preser­va­tion Expert Witness

Cul­tur­al Resource Services

His­toric reha­bil­i­ta­tion projects may require ser­vices relat­ed to com­ply­ing with state and fed­er­al his­toric preser­va­tion reg­u­la­to­ry require­ments, as well as local ordi­nances. Pub­lic his­toric reha­bil­i­ta­tion projects are often required to be reviewed and approved by State His­toric Preser­va­tion Offices (SHPOs) for com­pli­ance with state and fed­er­al preser­va­tion guidelines.

• Admin­is­tra­tive Nego­ti­a­tion Regard­ing Com­pli­ance with State and Fed­er­al Reg­u­la­to­ry Laws, includ­ing Sec­tion 106 of the Nation­al His­toric Preser­va­tion Act

• Com­pli­ance with Local, State and Fed­er­al Acces­si­bil­i­ty Laws