Nicola Tenaglia | Director

Nicola Tenaglia

1st term: 2026-2028

Site Manager
Wagner Free Institute of Science

I've been an APT-DVC member since 2014. I am an architectural conservator, preservationist, and site manager at the Wagner Free Institute of Science, a National Historic Landmark. I have had experience working directly on numerous award-winning preservation projects on nationally- and locally-listed historic properties for over two decades—including the LaFarge Rose Window at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia in Center City and the Woodlands in West Philadelphia.

As a practicing preservationist and historian with a lifelong interest in buildings, both grand and vernacular, I’ve been driven to study not just the buildings themselves but the stories of their construction, maintenance, and preservation—particularly their restoration failures and the successes throughout time. I’m excited at the prospect of sharing my experience and perspective as a hands-on practitioner of conservation with the board and the wider APT-DVC community of members. I hope to work with the APT-DVC board to boost awareness and membership to practitioners like myself: people actively applying, or hoping to learn more about, conservation science in their fields. Boosting outreach to what appears to be an underrepresented segment of our community is a particular interest of mine, and I hope to assist in guiding programing for that same group within APT-DVC.

I look forward to the continued learning and socializing that the organization has afforded me and to continue representing hands-on practitioners as we strive to bring a wider understanding and use of contemporary preservation practice in an area full of too often neglected historic buildings.